How to Get Different Lip Looks and Textures

Get a pretty pout!

A quick way to freshen up your look is varying your lip makeup on every occasion. Here are a few techniques that will help you go beyond a simple lipstick color change by experimenting with a variety of lip products and tricks.

Things You'll Need

• Water-activated or pancake-type foundation
• Clean makeup sponge
• Clear lip gloss
• Lip stain or highly pigmented lip color
• Natural rosy brown lip liner
• Lip plumpers
• Nude lip pencil
• Lip brush
• Creamy pink-nude lipstick
• Shimmery gloss
• Lip products in varying consistencies, brands and formulas

Instructions

1. Apply a water-activated foundation in your skin tone over lips using a clean makeup sponge. This covers up the natural color of your lips, allowing the true color of your lip products to appear when you layer them over the foundation after it dries. You can also pair this lip look with smoky eyes when you want to play your lips down considerably. Simply dab a small, even amount of clear lip gloss on to prevent dry lips.

2. Smooth a lip stain on to get the appearance of flushed lips. The product lasts much longer than a typical lip gloss or lipstick and adds color to your lips without the shine. Another way to get stained lips is by pressing a highly pigmented lip color into your lips with clean fingers.

3. Find a lip pencil in a rosy brown shade that looks like it could be your own lip color. Follow the outline of your lips and fill in with the pencil. You get natural-looking yet defined lips.

4. Get your lips lush either by using topical lip plumpers or by using some makeup tricks. Use the water-activated foundation as explained in Step 1. Select a lip liner slightly darker than your own lip color, perhaps in the rosy brown shade in Step 3. Line over your natural lip line or very slightly on the outside of it if your lips are considerably smaller than average and you are looking to obviously boost their fullness. Fill lips in with a nude lip pencil. With a lip brush, layer a creamy pink-nude lipstick on lips. Blend softly into the liner used to outline your lips so that you do not have an evident ring-around-the-mouth look. Apply a shimmery gloss in the center of both your top and bottom lips.

5. Change your lip shape. Whether for a costume party or to simply achieve more symmetry or your ideal lip shape, you can give yourself the lip look of another era. Take a look at the additional resources given here for this purpose.

6. Wear the same color in different formulations and brands. Your favorite mauve lipstick more than likely has both a drugstore and department store counterpart. The wear of each is different, and depends on ingredients and consistency. You can try it glossy, metallic, creamy, sheer or highly pigmented, to give a few examples.

Tips & Warnings

• Get better quality lip looks by exfoliating lips in the shower or before each makeup application.

• In cases where the waxy consistency will not affect the look you are going for, simply apply lip balm prior to color if you are concerned about chapped lips.

• Adjust color choices and intensity based on your personal coloring and preferences. Remember that generally, dark colors make lips appear smaller, while lighter ones give the illusion of fullness.

Resources

• Find some articles on changing lip shape according to different decades here.