The Secret to Applying Lipstick Without Getting it All Over Your Mouth
There’s a reason lipstick has stood the test of time. It’s one of the quickest ways to brighten your complexion, there are tons of color options, and most importantly, it has the capacity to deliver a boost of confidence in just a swipe. The trouble is, between smearing into your creases, glomming onto your teeth (we've all been there) and bleeding below your mouth, lipstick (especially the long-lasting liquid variety) can be difficult to apply correctly. That’s why we polled a few top makeup artists to find out exactly how to apply lipstick, so it looks (and stays) totally perfect, whether or not you're using a liner . Here’s our step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Gather your supplies.
Before you sit down in front of a mirror to get your perfect pout, here's what you'll need:
Optional: Micellar Water
Optional: Makeup Wipes
Optional: Lip Scrub or Lip Mask
Lipstick
Translucent powder
Optional: Flat lip brush
Step 2: Apply Lip Balm
Celebrity makeup artist Millie Morales recommends using lip balms with ingredients like vitamin E, coconut oil, and shea butter to moisturize your lips before you apply lipstick. She cautions that balms with menthol are drying, however.
If you don't have a lip balm handy, celebrity makeup artist Amanda Wilson suggests—believe it or not—using eye cream.
Step 3: Apply a pencil lip liner
This, of course, will help you define your lip shape, says Wilson, but it will also act as a barrier, keeping your lipstick in place.
To start, choose a pencil that has the same or similar color to your lipstick, then "create a straight line on the bottom center lip and just follow your natural line," Morales says. "Once you get to the top center of the lip, draw an X with the liner in the middle and color all of it in."
Step 4: Apply lipstick with or without a brush
Wilson suggests starting from the center of your lips and working towards the outer edges.
"If you apply it directly, versus using a brush, you're going to get more product pay off faster," Wilson said. "If you use a brush, the shade will be more sheer."
Step 5: Clean up any mistakes
Morales is a big fan of Garnier's Water Rose Micellar Cleansing Water because it's "easy to use, great for sensitive skin, and wipes off excess lip product without over drying."
She suggests soaking a Q-tip or cotton pad with the micellar water to clean off any excess lipstick or lip liner you might have around the edges. After doing that, add a bit of foundation or concealer to add back to the base you you wiped off.
Bonus Step: Seal your lips with translucent powder
The oldest trick in the book to make sure lipstick doesn't transfer onto your teeth is to insert your finger in your mouth, pucker, and then pull your digit out to remove any lipstick lingering on the inner rim of your lip, Kelli J. Bartlett, Glamsquad Artistic Director, says.
Or, you can carefully use a Q-tip to wipe the inside of your mouth off instead.
Using lip liner as a base will ensure that the lipstick stays on, but if you want even more staying power, try using translucent powder. Both Morales and Wilson recommend taking a tissue paper, lightly placing it over your lips, dusting them with your favorite translucent powder, and then applying another layer of lipstick on top.
"That helps seal it in without changing the integrity of the lipstick color at all," Wilson says.
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