Q: hi Rhia,
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A: Good question. You’re right – gloss gives an instant glam and youthful look to the lips, but only of course, when it stays in place! Give these make-up artist tricks a shot to get your gloss on:
1. Apply concealer on the lips.
How to: Use a tiny bit of your matching skin tone concealer all over your lips and blend it slightly outwards just beyond the border of the lips. Smile as you apply it so the product is evenly blended into any fine lines.
What it does: Applying the concealer will give your gloss a base to hold onto and increase its longevity. Blending the concealer slightly outside the edge of the lipline will help act as a barrier to prevent the gloss from setting into those tiny lines around the mouth.
Bonus: Using a concealer will neutralize your own natural lip colour, and the colour of the product you’re applying will appear more true to form.
2. Use a coloured lipliner.
How to: Use a lipliner that matches your shade of lip gloss or choose a neutral colour that blends well with your skin. Trace the lips with the liner and fill in towards the centre of the mouth. Use a q-tip or a lip brush to blend the lipliner well into the lips. Smile so you can distribute the product evenly across the lines of the lios.
What it does: Same principle applies here. A lipliner acts as a great base for a lip gloss (or even lipstick) to cling to. The gloss and colour on the lips will stay in place longer when re-inforced with lipliner as a base.
Bonus: The great thing about using a coloured lipliner is that when you eat, take a sip of coffee, the gloss may fade, but your lips will be left with some colour courtesy of the lipliner (versus gloss on its own).
3. Use a reverse lipliner.
How to: Use like an eraser. Trace around the areas of the mouth where you don’t want to see colour. Smile to stretch out the fine lines and blend well using a clean brush or a q-tip. You can also achieve this with a tiny lip brush and your matching skin tone concealer.
What it does: It acts as a barrier and blocks colour from seeping into the fine lines around the mouth.
Bonus: Great for precision work and clean-up after applying your gloss. Can also be used to fill in the whole lip and double as a base for lipcolour. (Be sure to choose a creamy-textured lipliner – last thing you want to do is drag your lips and encourage those fine lines!)
Other things to consider:
- Sticky might be a better choice.
Nobody likes when their hair gets caught in their sticky, glossed up lips. But if you’re lip gloss just isn’t staying put, you might have to opt for more of a sticky based (rather than a gel) formula to keep it in place. - Super long-lasting 12+ hour formulas need touch-ups too!
Unfortunately, I haven’t had much success with these long-lasting lip formulas. I find that the formula has a tendency to dry up the lips, and that after about 4 hours, the product still looks like it needs a touch-up anyway! It’s much more difficult to start over once this lip colour is applied, as the super long-lasting colour really does stain your lips. I prefer lush, glossy lips rather than flaking, glossy lips so I’m a definite pass on these so-called “long-lasting” products! - Don’t overdo the product.
It’s easy to overdo it on the gloss – who doesn’t love more shine?! Yet, when it comes to darker coloured glosses (i.e. reds, maroons) either layer a base (such as lipliner, lipstick, concealer) underneath the gloss first or use 2 coats of gloss max. Darker colours, because they are darker, will stand out more if they seep into the fine lines or feather around the mouth. Using a base or limiting how many layers you apply will help counteract this.
Hope that helps! Gloss it up!
If you have a make-up related question you’d like to ask, shoot an email to me at rhia[at]artistrhi[dot]com. I look forward to hearing from you!
