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!

 

 

 

My first introduction to ILIA lipsticks happened last year while poking around ABC’s apothecary section (I think that ABC, in NYC, is one of the most well edited, well curated stores, both in content and aesthetic.) In addition to a ton of beautiful things for the home, they carry the best of the best when it comes to non-toxic hair/face/body products. When you’re in NYC you have to check it out. It’s beautiful, you’ll want to own everything, and you’ll be bummed that so much is so expensive. That said, these well designed, sleek little silvery tubed lipsticks caught my eye, and were reasonably priced compared to other high-end lipstick lines. When I gave one a try on the back of my hand, I was surprised to find how well pigmented the color was, and how smoothly it went on. The only down side was that there were only 6 or 7 different shades available.

I came home and wrote to the ‘info’ email address from the ILIA website and asked some questions. Almost immediately I got really thorough answers back from owner and creator, Sasha Plavsic (who hails from Canada, but now calls LA home). She explained to me that she’s learned  a cosmetic can still be completely non-toxic, even though it contains a very small percentage of synthetic color.  Synthetic doesn’t mean bad for us, just as all-natural isn’t always good for us.  Without allowing for that teeny percentage of synthetic pigment, she explained, there’s no way to achieve the rich intensity of the colors we love in favorite lipsticks from MAC, NARS, and Tom Ford, to name a few. So the base into which she mixes the color is all-natural, organic, super nourishing, healthy for the lips and perfectly healthy for the rest of you – which is important since we all eat and absorb our lipsticks into our bodies every day.

Sasha worked diligently to create a product that would meet the Environmental Working Group’s strict guidelines (if you aren’t familiar with the EWG, please check them out.) They are highly informative and influential as an online encyclopedia for ingredients found in cosmetics and rates their levels of toxicity. I will absolutely write about them in their own post this month, and found a way to offer all the intensity of bold colors like orange, pink, and red, that have been missing thus far from all-natural lines. Then Sasha put them in great-looking containers. I’m a sucker for packaging, and this woman knows what she’s doing, with her strong background in design and marketing within the branding world.

The best news ever is that ILIA just launched a new collection, complete with 14 lip colors – 6 are highly pigmented, and the other 8 are still well pigmented tinted lip conditioners.  I’ve been wearing ‘Nobody’s Baby’  and ‘In My Room’ the past few days, which look like my lips, but better. I also love the hot pink lipstick shade ‘Neon Angel’. In addition Sasha’s also come out with some cheek tints and highlighter creams in a tube that look wonderful. (highlighter creams are for cheekbones, eyelids, bridge of the nose, cupids bow, etc.)  I’ll give them a try over the next few weeks and report back.

Finally, I really love her no-color lip balm. It’s one of my new favorites for sure.

My only request: ILIA, can you work on coming out with a a bright orange-red for your next edition?  I’d proudly wear it every day.

*note about the photo above: this is how much of a beauty product nerd I am – I got the products from ILIA on Friday around 6 and I decided to call off my plans that night so I could stay home and play with them, and play with taking pictures of them for the blog. Don’t they photograph beautifully?  Thanks, ILIA!!!

ILIA is sold at a good number of locations across the country and around the world (GO ILIA, GO!), see here for specifics as well as online at www.spiritbeautylounge.com