(1923|Guest|Post) Afraid of the Bold and the Bright?

Lipstick (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I thought really hard about this guest post, some would say too long and too hard.  I kept having conversations in my head, that this topic was much discussed, old and played out.  Then lo and behold there in a Makeup Artist Forum someone expressed their fear of wearing bright lipsticks!  I had an Eureka moment right then and there. Needless to say, it is not so irrelevant afterall.


Spring/Summer 2012 came and brought with it a trend of super bright colour from our eyes, to lips, to nails and whilst summer has gone for most we here in Nigeria live in the sun.

I know that many of you are thinking, "Bright lipstick isn’t for me!" "It won’t suit me" "I’ll look like a clown" "I’m dark" "I have full lips" and all those excuses that come to mind when we want to stop ourselves from doing something.

And I frankly don’t blame you. For years I was stuck in the brown lip and plum corner.  I remember being so envious of my sister who wore coloured lips but at the same time also being too scared to even try it in the confines of my own bedroom. Talk about a complex, what was I so afraid of?  If I was going to look like a fool only I’d know right?  But I still couldn’t do it, back and forth I’d go, no it’s got to be brown, no it’s got to be wine/plum.

To this very day I remember the exact lip combination my sister had on that made me change my ways (thank you NYX).  Believe me when I threw on those lips I felt so liberated, it’s seems so silly now but it’s how I felt.  Now all I had to do was wear it out in public!

When I did, boy did the comments fly, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, others were loving it. I went shopping for bright lippies again and again but this time I ignored the counter Makeup artist trying to sell me that plum shade and did what I had to do. I couldn’t believe it, sooooooo much colour and it was gorgeous on me too.

That’s how I found out I’d been lied to, Bright lips, light lips they look just as good on us as they do on lighter skins. I won’t lie there was a lot of trial and error learning what I liked and didn’t and figuring out how the shades worked on my skin colour and which ones i liked too.

Here’s what I found:
Transition to colour: 

• A lipstick can be worn many ways, if you can’t do it full on wear it as a stain (dab it on with your fingers or apply as normal removing most of it with a tissue) or mix it with a gloss to sheer it out.
• Lighten don’t brighten, instead of going from a plum to a bright pink overnight go for a colour in the same family a shade or two lighter and progress from there.

Alter:

• Grade the colour by using a darker lip pencil to line and fill the edges wearing the the lip colour in the center of the lip blending out or i'll just say 'ombre your lip'.
• Adjust the colour by using a dark lip liner to outline and fill your lips in before applying lipstick.

Those are my top tips, if you don’t believe me just try it, there’s no one else in your bedroom. If you still aren’t convinced, what’s great about the age we live in, is that the proof is just a google search away.

Go ahead step into the bright, plus it’s only makeup. It washes off you know.

Here’s a little secret if you are lazy when it comes to makeup (me, me,me) slick on some bold lippy, mascara and powder and you are done for any occasion.

Oriton works in manufacturing and is a freelance makeup artist.   A makeup lover on a learning journey hoping to share what she learns along the way.

Till next time.