6.5 Lips

With the eyes and brows on fleek, the next step is to get your client’s lips looking luscious. As you learned earlier, there are nine common lip shapes that your clients will have. To apply the perfect lip, you want to use the client’s natural shape as your guide, and you may need to fix up any symmetry issues or use product placement to make them appear larger or smaller. Large and plump lips are on trend currently, and you can achieve this with correct application techniques.

It is important to note that lip correction techniques will only take you so far. If you have a client with very thin lips, there is a limit to how far you can overdraw the vermillion border. If you overline the lips, you run the risk of your client looking strange, especially in daylight! Your colour choice will also make a huge difference to your overall makeup look. To create balance on the face, if you have a dark smoky eye, then it might be best to choose a more subtle lip colour. Similarly, if the eyes are more natural toned, you might want to use a vibrant lip to add a pop of colour. See the looks below as an example:

A basic lip application will require you to line the lips with a lip liner, fill in the lips with a lipstick or lip stain and then you might want to apply a gloss. More advanced techniques use contouring, highlighting and ombre effects to create various illusions. When applying lip colours, you want to try and achieve balance; however, you can pair bright lips with dramatic eye makeup if you so choose. See the examples below:

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Watch the following video to see our expert achieve lip perfection: