I am slowly trying to adjust and get use to wearing red lipstick. It is a big jump outside the box for me. I am one of those bronzer and gloss kind of girls and have been for my whole life. My entire make-up philosophy has been based on those overly tanned beach goddess girls of the seventies. But I love the look of a red lip and in the past few months have been diligently trying to learn how to wear it properly and adjusting to having this bright slash of color on my lips (and not all over my face which is what happened the first few times till I learned the concept of apply, then blot, apply, then blot).
It's an entirely different way of thinking and I find it trickles down to other elements. Suddenly bare nails feel odd, they need to be red too. The waist needs to be defined, the shoulders need a tad of structure. Tare lots and lots of tutorials and inspirations to be found out there — Keiko Lynn's step by step make-up tutorials are amongst my personal faves — but I can't help but come back to this photo of Ava Gardner. This to me is the perfect red lip regardless if it was a red lip from 70 odd years ago or not. The full brows, the fresh, bare face, the polished feel, the perfect skin. Ava is perfection here and this just might be my new make-up pursuit.
What about you? Do you do red? How long does it take till it feels effortless?
photo floating about the net and in my files forever — not sure of original origin