Correcting Lip Shapes - Perfect Red Lip

Correcting Lip Shapes:

Top Heavy/Bottom Heavy Lips:

Using a lip liner of your choice, line the inside of the top lip and outside of the bottom lip slightly. By choosing to use a brighter lip shade on the bottom and darker shade on the top will give the illusion of a smaller top lip. To also achieve a smaller top lip, the same lip colour can be used for both upper and lower lip. With a lighter shade in the centre of the lower lip to make the bottom look fuller. The same would be done if the bottom lip is larger than the top. Same method applies however used on the top lip instead of the lower lip.

Large Lips:

For larger lips it is better to use softer colours. A liner that has a matte ocnsistency is always good. It is best to stay just inside the natural outline of the mouth. Make the liner small enough to balance with the other features. Another way to make larger lips appear smaller is making the main focus other areas of the face such as eyes. This stops the attention being focused on the lips.

Thin Lips:

When tackling thinner lips it is best to use a light lip colour and liner. To make thin lips appear fuller overline the lips natural lip line slightly. Both upper and lower lips should be overlined to balance it out. Frosted colours also give a pluming effect because of the shimmer used in them.

Uneven/Asymetrical:

When correcting uneven or asymetrical lips a matte, pearlised or glossy lipstick can give the apperance of fuller lips. focus on the problem areas and make them symetrical either side with build up of darker colours to cover the skin/lip.

Downturned:

Work more towards the outer corners and create more of an upwards arch when coming towards the cupids bow. Make symetrical on either side. Focus on building the colours in the corner and fill with softer colours.

Lip Shapes:

Perfect Red Lip - Lecturer Demonstration:

In todays demo we had our lecturer Holly showing us her way of creating the perfect red lip. She started by doing a natural base with a slight contour. Holly started by cleansing the face followed by a toner then finally a moisturiser that suited the clients skin type. She then went in with a yellow undertoned MAC primer to prep the face ready for the make up. The products she used were MAC face and body just to get a nice plain base to then go in with concealer for the problematic areas. She then used a sculpting powder just to carve out the shape of the cheekbones. However, the task was primarily focused on the lips. She used a lip primer across the lips to moisturise them Using a red liner she started from the cupids bow and followed the lip shape, correcting any areas that were uneven or needed lifting. With the lip liner it is important to make sure the corners of the mouth are also lined. She asked the model to open her mouth up, just so she can fill in the inside corners of the mouth. Using the same liner she filled the entire lip to give a base colour. Then using the MAC 'editorial reds' lip palette, she used a small rounded lip brush and the colour 'Lady Danger' to then fill the lip with. To finish of the look she then used a small square concealer brush and a light concealer to correct any areas that have smudged. This finished the look off and it had a very sharp and crisp outcome.

Step By Step - Creating the perfect Red Lip:

1. I prepped the skin as usual, using a soothing cleanser, toner and moisturiser. i followed this with a natural skin radiance primer from mac, just to give a nice base to work with.

2. Using face and body in the shades C2 and C3 i mixed them together to match my models skin colour. Using a duo fibre buffing brush, i picked up some of the product ans started buffing into the face.

3. Then using the MAC medium concealer palette i mixed the two lightest shades together to create an appropriate colour. Using this concealer and a flat concealer brush i placed it onto the more problematic areas. Of which included under the eyes, round the nose, parts of the cheeks and some blemishes. I then buffed the concealer into the skin.

4. Using a translucent powder i dusted it over the entire face, to reduce shine.

5. Using the MAC scultping powder in the shade 'sculpt' i was able to lightly hollow out the cheekbones to give more defintion to the face. However was done lightly so that the focus was on the lips.

6. Using a MAC red lipliner in the shade 'Ruby Woo' i then started lining the lips, following the natural curve of the lip and defning the cupids bow slightly to add dimension. I then filled the whole lip in with this.

7. Then using the MAC 'editorial reds' palette i chose the shade 'Lady Danger' to fill the entiriry of the lips again.

8. Any mistakes i had made i would then go in with the concelaer again, tidying and correcting any areas that needed it.

Evaluation of the 'Perfect Red Lip':

In evaluation my recreation of the 'red lip' was a sucess. There are areas i can improve, but as with everything it comes with pratice. In future i want to be able to have more control over the lip. Holly gave us a brilliant tip in which she manipulates the lip gently in order to make it easier for her tp control. I did try this method but i think i need to be more confident and just do it rather than contemplating it. As long as the model is alright with you moving the lip about in order to get a perfect shape, then i will just go for it next time. When i was lining the lips i found that the position i was in restricted my hand from being able to move freely, therefore made my hand shake sloightly so i had less control. The thing i am most proud of is the bottom lip. I feel i was more confident doing this as the lip had a good natural shape and i was able to follow it with minimal over drawing. For future i am going to continue to practice using the lip liner and correcting the lip shape

Recreation of the look:

Products Used:

- MAC ruby woo lipliner

- MAC editorial reds palette shade 'Lady Danger'

- MAC medium concealer palette

- MAC scultpting powder in shade 'sculpt'

- MAC face and body C3

- Duo fibre buffing brush

- Flat concealer brush

- Small rounded lip brush

- Small angled contour brush