Classic Black Winged Liner & Red Lip Look

I recently went to a wedding and decided to do a kind of Hollywood glamour look with winged liner teamed with my favourite red lippy at the moment which is  No7’s “Love Red”,  but more on that later 🙂

For the eyeshadow, I went for a shimmery beige on the lid with a contour of mid to dark brown on my socket line and then a classic black winged gel liner topped with my favourite Ardell Demi Wispie lashes.

Perfect Winged Liner in 6 easy steps:

Winged liner can be a tricky one but here are a few tips to master it:

1. Use a smooth gel liner such as Maybelline black gel liner and a good liner brush or angle brush.  The Inglot liner brush is my favourite.
2. Trace the line on three quarters of your lashline, don’t worry if it’s not even, you can tidy it up later.
3. With your eyes open, draw your line on the inner part of the eye.
4. Outline your flick at the end, extending up from your lower lashline and pointing towards the end of your eyebrow. Open your eyes to see where you placed the flick on one side then looking straight into a mirror follow on the other side.  If you make a mistake, use a pointed cotton bud dipped in non-oily eye makeup remover to clean up the lines on each side.
5. Bring the line from the edge of the flick back in to meet the thickest part of your liner and smooth out the line with black eyeshadow on an angle brush if you want it looking nice and even.
6. Apply Mascara and false lashes to really elongate the eyes and add the “cat eye” effect.

Top Tip:  If you find it really hard to get the placement of the liner matching on each side, use a flesh coloured eye pencil (Rimmel now do a great one) to trace the lines until you’re confident that they’re lined up perfectly on each side then trace over with black liner for even flicks on both sides!

No7 Stay Perfect Lipstick in “Love Red”

This is the colour I am wearing above. It’s a gorgeous true red colour that looks really well on either pale or darker complexions.  It’s also a blue based red so it really makes your teeth look whiter too!  I found this extremely long lasting as well, I only had to top up a couple of times during the night despite eating, drinking and chatting 🙂  It is definitely one of my favourites at the moment.  The cost is €12 and it’s available from all Boots stores.

Do you like this look?  Let me know in the comments below 🙂  Also let me know if there is any particular makeup you would like to perfect and I’ll do a post on it to help you out!

How to Wear: Red Lipstick

Red lips will never go out of fashion and that is a fact.  Celebrities like Dita Von Teese, Gwen Stefani,  Imelda May and of course, the iconic Marilyn Monroe, have all made red lips their signature look and all have a sophisticated, timeless style because nothing says glamour and sophistication like true red lips!   You don’t have to be a celebrity to rock a red lip though, anyone can wear this and look amazing.  It’s all about finding the right shade for your skin tone.

Pale Skintones: Pale and Irish skin tones look better with blue-reds such as MAC’s Russian Red or Ruby Woo, both of which are staples in my makeup kit.  I used Russian Red on the model below for  photo shoot that I did for boudoir photographer Secret boudoir in Dublin a while ago.  It is a deep matte colour (although I did use some gloss also in the picture below) and really is my favourite shade of red lippy!

Sallow/Darker skintones:  My favourite colour for darker skintones is another MAC lipstick, Lady Danger.  It’s more of a coral/red colour which is also matte. I used Lady Danger on the model below and it gave a lovely dramatic look that you couldn’t ignore!

Tips for wearing red lipstick:

Red lips are HIGH maintenance, be prepared for constant top ups, teeth checking and lipstick marks on anyone you smooch up to, but for the impact it gives, I reckon it’s worth it 🙂

• Before you apply it, make sure your lips are in top condition, scrub them with a wet toothbrush to get rid of dry skin, then a few minutes before you plan on applying your lippy, slather on lip balm or I always use Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream which is perfect for conditioning lips.
• Line and fill in your lips with a matching shade of lipliner, this will act as a base colour and give you the perfect outline that you need with red lips.
• Apply your lipstick, either straight from the tube or with a lipbrush for more control, then blot with tissue, lightly dust over some translucent powder and reapply lipstick, then blot again.  This will give your lipstick staying power and is a good tip for any colour lippy.
• Clean up any uneven areas with concealer applied with a brush around the outline of the lipstick for a perfect line.
• Make sure any spots or redness on your skin is concealed as the redness can be highlighted by red lipstick, your foundation base needs to be flawless for maximum impact.
• Don’t use too much eyeshadow when wearing red lips, wearing just eyeliner looks fantastic either winged as in the first picture above or smudged and slightly smoked out as in the second picture.
• Generally, blue toned lipsticks make teeth look whiter but orange toned lipsticks can highlight yellow teeth so be careful!

These lipsticks cost €17.50 from MAC stores but if you’re on a budget, you can use cheaper, pharmacy brands.  Catrice do some great ones as well as the Kate Moss range from Rimmel.

Will you trying Red lipstick any time soon?