The Makeup Box

A “Jelly Lip” Summer: Layering Lipstick over a Gloss Base

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I seldom apply gloss over lipstick because I find it makes everything thick and heavy feeling, and causes lipstick to smudge, fade, and wear away unevenly. On its own, Gloss usually has so little color that one shade looks like any other.

So I do the jelly lip.

This isn’t some amazing trick obviously. I just apply lipstick on top of a gloss base to just add some pigmentation without taking away the sheen and “jello-like” translucence. You also get the lightweight feel of a gloss with slightly better lasting power.

This is another quick way to stretch those bright lipsticks that you don’t quite dare to wear out!

Some favorite combinations are above. Try a:

• neon pink over a transparent pink gloss
• a soft blush-pink over a nude gloss
• a coral over an orange gloss
• a deep wine over a beige gloss (below)

And it’s not hard to maintain. A couple of hours in, if you need to touch up some shine, just apply more gloss. You don’t need to touch up with a slick of lipstick until after you eat or drink something.

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P.S. Lip Care

Someone sent me a message asking about lip care and how I keep my lips smooth and line-free. Well I don’t naturally have many visible grooves or deep lines in my lip so I can’t give any advise about it. But grooved lips are beautiful; look at Angelina Jolie. Don’t worry about what’s naturally yours (grooved, lined or not) and just keep them in the best state they can be. This means not flaky, cracked or chapped.

Mine do get flaky and chapped actually. Usually after I try on a new product and develop a sensitivity to it. You don’t see them cos I obviously don’t do any lip-related posts on those days when my lips are extremely sore!

MAC Viva Glam Nicki 2 Amplified Lipstick: Swatches and Mini-Review

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Color:

This is a chalky, dusty lavender-toned creme lipstick that’s little more cool and grey than Saint Germain.

As you can see in the comparative swatches above, it’s not as much of a true-purple as the 2 Lime Crime purples, but it’s also not a true pink either.
On the lip, it has a tendency to look much chalkier and more lavender than it does in the tube, so this is not a color for the faint-hearted. There is nothing natural looking about it. It’s much lighter than my lips, even on my light NC25 skin.

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Requested: Updated Favorite Hot Pink Matte Lipsticks!

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Who says you need to wait for Summer to pull out the bright pinks? Brands like Chanel have already pulled out the show-stoppers with bright matte pinks.

Here are 4 options I love, from a warm primrose to an electric neon pink:

• Primrose (pink with a coral hue): Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited in Evil Pink (love that name!)
• Fuchsia (pink with a bright red tint): Wet n Wild Megalast Lipstick in 996 Don’t Blink Pink
• Magenta (pink with a purple undertone): NYX Matte Lipstick in Sweet Pink
• Neon pink (pink that’s, well - neon): Barry M Lip Paint in 52 Shocking Pink

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Lip Of the Moment: Berry Stains (click photos for right-sized shots)

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Like dark lips but not ready to wear it for daily life? Try a stain! I wrote on Instagram that I’ve been a bit crazy over deep berry/cherry stained lips these past few weeks.

I wore nothing but berry stained lips while traveling in NYC and it not only kept my lips moisturized but added some nice, easy-to-apply color without looking like too much. (You don’t want to be worrying about a precise, full-on lip when you’re walking everywhere in the day-time and eating or drinking often.)

Traditional stains like Benefit Benetint give a longer-lasting effect but I prefer balms and sheer lipsticks because they wear away more evenly. The ink-type stains tend to wear away from the center outwards and look quite patchy and uneven over the day.

Also, they can tend to go on a bit too intense and be very hard to control for people who have very pale skin or very dark or red lips naturally.

The ones I’m recommending are cheapies, with the exception of Clinique’s Black Honey, which is the arguable queen of sheer balm-stains. I was running all over NYC looking for Givenchy’s Rouge Interdit in Liv’s Lips, a self-adjusting shade, but that was not available the past couple of weeks so I didn’t get it, but that is a very cool one to take a look at if you can.

The alternatives to Black Honey are Revlon’sJust Bitten Kissable Balm Stain (the name is a mouthful) in Crush, which is a good one if you have medium to deeper skin tones since it’s a bit more intense), and if you’re paler, Cover Girl’s Lipslicks in Hipster is perfect because it doesn’t add too much color. i really glommed on LOTS of Black Honey above for the camera but it’s not that red in real life so don’t worry.

There are SO many other alternatives in the drugstore (just check out all the colored lip balms) and you only need to watch out for these things:

• Sheer balm-like texture that deposits a lot of moisture with not a lot of pigment
• Low or no shimmer and frost
• A dark cherry or berry shade with plummy undertones instead of a brick-brown, fire-engine red, or a brown

Doesn’t work for you?

If these are even too deep for you because you have porcelain skin or pigmented lips, follow that lip-shot above and apply the berry stain right in the center portion of your lip, over a muted pinky-beige lipstick. This softens the color and still gives a stained effect. (Pinky-beige lipstick worn - Rimmel Airy Fairy.)

Summer Trend: Bright Glossy Stained Lips

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“Juicy” lips have become all the rage it seems. It’s characterized by semi-translucent, non-shimmery color with a moist but not glossy-wet finish.

You can run out to look for products that can give this effect (MAC Sheen Supremes, Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters and Balm Stains, Urban Decay Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Colors), OR you can just pull out any bright, non-shimmery lipstick you have and just recreate the look in 2 steps.

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Step 1: Apply a clear gloss or balm over your lips. It’s best to use something that isn’t too sticky (MAC Lipglass is too sticky) as you need it to be able to dissolve lip color easily.

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Step 2: Using your lipstick of choice, lightly run it back and forth over your lips a few times until you get an even, semi-translucent coat of color. The look you are going for is not ombre lips, so try to distribute the color as evenly as possible. 

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Tips for choosing shades:

Go for very saturated, bright shades like MAC Morange, NYX Louisiana, MAC Up the Amp, etc. You can go lighter if your lips are quite pale, but be careful as lighter and more pastel colors (like Wet n Wild Dollhouse Pink) will tend to seep into the lines in your lips and look streakier.

Pale shades are not recommended at all.