Fall: It’s that sweet spot between end of the summer and the start of the holiday season. It’s time for you to break out those gorgeous fall lip colors and see how fun they are to wear. Choose from a barely there sheer wash of color, super pigmented mattes, and glossy payoffs.

A good number of you have asked me for a lip color round-up to introduce you to some of the shades we see this time of year on the runways and red carpets:  deep, rich plums lipsticks, purple-y red glosses, satin-finished blackberries, and sheer merlot stains. It’s not always easy, though, to gauge just how this type of color is going to look on the lips.

The finished product not only depends on the way in which you apply:

1. directly from the tube, with a heavy hand, in a smeared, back-and-forth motion;

2. from the tube, but only lightly dabbing the stick onto your lips;

3. with a lip brush to make a precise edge;

4. by tapping your finger from the tube to your lip, adding layers of pigment until you reach the desired intensity level,

but it also depends heavily on what your natural lip color is before you start applying.  Those with a lot of pink or red in your lips are going to find that the deep purple wine stains can take on a completely different hue, and those of you with a really deep brown color to your lips may find that some of these shades disappear completely on you, or never show up with enough intensity, no matter what you do.

All of that said, it’s really difficult for someone like me (or a makeup company, for that matter) to definitively advise you on what to buy based on how you look sans lip color.  I can however, suggest shades to play with, and tell you my favorite ways to apply them. What should ultimately influence your decision when you’re standing at a makeup counter, or staring at lipstick swatches on the screen of your computer, wondering: when was the last time my  laptop’s color temperature was calibrated? [NEVER?!] are variables like: your eye color, your hair color,  your skin tone, your clothing color palette, your mood…

In no particular order (really, just the order in which I pulled them out of my big ol’ bag of lipsticks), here are some of my favorites. Those of you who follow this blog based on our shared love for ‘green’ beauty options, please take note that there are a handful of lip colors that don’t fall into that category, however, they’re such rich and dense shades – shades which are not readily available (or at least not that I know of!) in the all-natural world of lip color – that I often use them on photo shoots when I need that intensity. I did just check Jane Iredale’s webiste and found that she has a few deep purple shades that I have not yet tried.

HOW TO GET: NOT TOO HEAVY, NOT TOO LIGHT: THE PERFECT APPLICATION OF COLOR

When you’re new to wearing these shades, it can be overwhelming to see yourself with a thick application of. let’s say, Ilia’s ‘Ink Pot‘, or Mac’s ‘Rebel’ (which are very similar in color).  Instead, try tapping the lipstick onto your lightly lip-balmed lips, or use your ring finger to tap a good amount of product from the tube, and then press the pigment into your lips. This is how I generally apply all lipstick, even on myself. It helps to ensure less caking along the corners of your mouth as the hours pass, and through the act of pressing the product into your lips, you’ll find it sticks around longer than if you simply swipe the tube across your pout once or twice.

HOW TO GET: SHEER COLOR WITH A DEWEY FINISH

There are a multitude of great sheer options on the market that are easy to apply, and the more swipes across your lip, the deeper the shade becomes. My top favorites include: Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer in’Prune’ and Kjaer Weiss’ ‘Sensuous Plum’.

HOW TO GET: SHEER GLOSSY LIPS

Trying out a lipstain, like ‘Quickstep or ‘Foxtrot’ [Foxtrot not pictured below]’ from Josie Maran is another great way to become acquainted with these shades. To start, color the marker onto UNMOISTURIZED lips (this is important to ensure the color will adhere), and then try following up with a gloss, like the gorgeous blackberry one from Vapour Organic Beauty in ‘Bitten‘, or their more chocolate shade ‘Risque‘. This makes for a luscious and easy to wear fall shade.

HOW TO GET: INTENSELY COLORED, MATTE OR SATIN FINISH LIPS

If you’re going for a much more dramatic look, make sure that your lips have been moisturized, but then blot them with a tissue, to ensure that your deep lipstick of choice adheres evenly, and depending on the look you’re going for, you might want to lightly outline your lips in a similar shade lipliner to ensure the color doesn’t bleed.  I wouldn’t advise that a dramatically deep, highly pigmented purple or merlot shade (like the one pictured on the model in the photo on the right) EVER be  highly glossy (i.e. adding gloss on top of the lipstick) in real life (a photo shoot is a different story). It’s guaranteed to slide off your lips, appear blotchy, and get on your teeth. This means that a super deep shade should be in a matte, satin, or have a super light dewey finish. It’s a great idea to lightly touch a tissue onto a closed mouth to ever so slightly remove excess product. My picks to accomplish this kind of look: NARS, ‘Train Bleu’ matte lip pencil, Chanel ‘Rouge Noir’ Lipstick, MAC Smoked ‘Purple Matte’ Lipstick, and Vapour Organic Beauty ‘Siren Bold’ Lipstick.

HOW TO AVOID:  THE DREADED LIPSTICK ON YOUR TEETH LOOK!

My grandmother showed me the best way to ensure that this embarrassing faux pas doesn’t happen:

1. after applying your lip color, open your lips into an ‘O’ shape.

2. grasp a cotton swab by the middle between your pointer finger and thumb, placing one end of the swab into your mouth, keeping your fingers on the handle, just outside of your mouth with the other cotton bud end pointing straight out, parallel to    the floor.

3. Pucker your lips like you’re  blowing a kiss around the handle of the swab, and gently pull the swab out of your mouth, making sure the inside of your lips comes in contact with the cotton as it leaves your mouth.

4. Repeat with the other side of the swab.

Voila – all of the excess color that would’ve ended up on your teeth has been swept away! Packing a few q-tips in your purse is always a good idea, to use for this trick, or to clean up fallen mascara.

The final two shades on the bottom right of the photo below are soon to be released, are part of the ‘green’ family of beauty products, are super affordable, and super beautiful. Once they hit the market I promise to tell you who makes them!

Happy leaves-changing, sweater-wearing, chilly hands, feet, and noses, FALL WEATHER everyone!

 

 

I couldn’t be more excited to share this article from Vogue.com:  Makeup Artist Katey Denno’s Guide to Going Green for Spring

I really believe in the brands I recommend in the article, and have actually had the pleasure of getting to know some of the people behind the different product lines, as I always want to know the story-behind-the-story of how they got their start, and what keeps them going.

A HUGE thank you goes to the beautiful and brilliant Catherine Piercy, Beauty Editor at Vogue.

Thanks to photographer Jason Brownrigg for snapping these shots while I was working last week, and to the lovely model McKenzie Raley for sharing the photo with me.

 

 

Earlier this week I went over to Christy’s place to do her makeup for the premier of the all-star cast film called ‘Friends With Kids’, featuring her husband, Ed Burns. The last few times I’ve done her makeup we’ve gone with bronze skin and nude lips. Not this time.

Christy’s involvement with all things supporting the advancement of the status of women around the world – particularly through her organization Every Mother Counts (EMC) – is really inspiring to me. We discussed her upcoming trip to India with EMC, the seriously amazing list of singers who’ll be lending their voices to EMC’s newest benefit CD, and when we were deciding which outfit she would be wearing to the premier (I love this navy dress by Stella McCartney that she chose), we started discussing my blog, and tweeting, and Christy (a twitter expert) asked if I’d heard of ‘Rock the Lips‘, a group of women who came together to help empower women all over the world to help each other through the offering of micro loans. I was excited to hear about their mission as well as their suggestion that on International Women’s Day (which is March 8th), all women ‘rock a red lip’ in solidarity. We decided to honor IWD – and this exciting program – a few days early.

I didn’t have my entire lipstick kit with me (you wouldn’t believe how heavy a bag of 50 or 60 lipsticks can be!), but I knew I had a number of my favorite reds. After Christy settled on the dress, I knew the lip that would look the best would have a crisp edge, be as intensely pigmented as possible, and have a slight emollience to it. A well-hydrated, lightly exfoliated lip is of utmost importance when it’s going to be painted a pretty red. I was not the least bit surprised to find Christy’s in perfect condition.  Applying the color in layers and with different textured products, really keeps the lip looking good longer (my grandmother taught me this). The order of the products I used is just as important as the products themselves.

Here we go:

• I hydrated with a very small amount of Dr Haushka’s lip balm from the pot. I pressed the balm into her lips with my fingers and then had her lightly kiss a tissue to remove any excess.
• I filled in her entire lip with Josie Maran’s Magic Marker Lip and Cheek Stain in Flamenco – an intense cherry red
• I outlined her lips with MAC lipliner in Brick and lightly filled in the rest of her lips with the liner and then had her press her lips together a few times to really mash in the color
• I finished the look with Dolce and Gabbana’s moisturizing lipstick in Incognito, which has a hint of orange. I often apply lipsticks with my finger for a softer look, but instead I used a lip brush for a more precise and dense application, full of luster.

 

Here’s a pic that Vogue.com ran from the after-party. (Ed is much cuter in person than in this picture. Christy, however, looks incredible.)

There’s been a lot of buzz about lip stains over the past few years. I love them for times when I’m not going to be with my client, after our initial hour together, to check that her lipstick hasn’t smudged or faded. You can use them with a lip balm, allowing just their color to show, or layer a lipstick over top for increased intensity of color.

On two separate occasions last week I used a lip stain from Josie Maran called Jitterbug. Both days Julianne was wearing a black top so I thought it would be fun to brighten up the look with a great, vibrant lip color. We loved how it looked so much that we decided to use it again the next day. I love putting hot pink on a pale, pinky-skin-tone’d redhead. Jitterbug is a really intensely bright hot pink, and the beauty blog world was all a-buzz with commentary on how great she looked wearing it.

Using a lip stain requires some prep that you’re likely not used to if you normally wear a lipstick or gloss. These steps are very important, or you’ll lose both the beauty, as well as the effectiveness of the product.

1. Gently exfoliate your lips prior to application. This should be done EVERY day (another post will follow on this because it’s so often overlooked, and really so necessary). The quick and easy way to do this is towards the end of your shower, use a washcloth, a soft toothbrush, or even the pads of your fingers to gently remove the dead, scaly skin that collects on the lips. EVERYONE should do this – men, too.  When I go to get someone ready to walk the red carpet I start our session with a lip exfoliation by handing them an organic baby wipe and having them rub it gently in small circular motions over their lips.
2. Generously apply a NON-PETROLEUM lip balm. This is where I stand on the whole lip balm thing: petroleum and petrolatum do a great job sealing in moisture if it’s there already. However, most of us have dry lips and need to add moisture, rather than just sealing the skin. (Plus, do you know where petroleum comes from? Yuck. That’ll be for another post, as well). Choose a lip balm that’s formulated with shea butter, beeswax, honey, or any other natural oil – anything natural that will absorb and hydrate is what makes sense to me.  Don’t you notice that when you use a lip balm with a petroleum base, you have to reapply just as soon as that slick feeling goes away? Your lips deserve better!
3.  Very important: Once the non-petroleum lip balm has had a few minutes to absorb, kiss the back of your hand, or a tissue (or give it to another set of dry lips via a kiss), and remove any trace of it.
4.  There are two styles (in my opinion) to lip stain application.
   a. For a more natural look: Start staining the center of the lips and then fade towards the edges.
   b. For a more deliberate, constructed look, outline the lips (you can even give yourself a little extra help along the edges if you want a more full look, particularly on the cupids bow and along the top edge) and then fill in the center.
   Be careful to stay within the lines since these pigments really do stain.
5. Finish with a lip balm that you’ll put in your pocket and reapply as needed. You can also choose to use a gloss if you want more shine.
6. Enjoy touch-up free, kissable lips, with color that lasts for hours and hours!

Side note: I like Josie Maran’s lip stain line because the colors are intense, they’re not tested on animals, they’re paraben-free, they’re fragrance-free, and the packaging is mostly recyclable.

Side note #2: If you accidentally get the lip stain coated with lip balm it will clog up the felt tip. If this happens, gently press the tip into a slightly damp, warm wash cloth. It should do the trick.

Side note #3: The only drawback is that the few formulations I’ve tried have dried out within the tube/pen container thing pretty quickly, making them one of those items you use a few times and then return to find it too dried up to use again. Maybe there’s a trick I’m missing to bring them back to life that’s not listed on any website?