Lip Art is All the Rage. Your Upper Lip Hair Isn’t.
This summer, a new, artistic trend has taken the beauty world by storm: lip art. A few years back, the nail bed was your canvas, but now, it’s your lips. If you’ve ever been on Pinterest, Tumblr, or YouTube, you’ve probably seen the countless tutorials and pictures of girls rocking seriously amazing ombre lips. While it may look complicated, there isn’t that much to it. You can use whatever colors you like, and once you have the basic structure of it down, you can do an ombre lip with any color. Want to learn? Let’s get down to it:
The classic ombre lip is simple to achieve. Start by outlining the edge of your lips with a dark color. Fill them in completely with a mid-tone shade while blending it in with the darker color. Finally, add a light shade in the same color family to the center of the upper and lower lip and blend it into the mid-tone. That’s it! That’s the most popular (and easiest) version of the ombre lip. You can use reds, pinks, oranges–any shade that suits your skin tone and creates the look you desire. Added bonus? It enhances even the of thinnest lips. Win-win!
A reverse ombre lip is also a great look for those of us who are comfortable rocking a less subtle, more editorial look. It’s basically the same steps as the regular ombre lip, but in reverse: the light color will frame the lips, while the mid-tone and the darkest shades will be placed in the middle of the mouth. While this is harder to pull off, it will make the lip look top-heavy, so if your upper lip is much thinner than your lower, this one’s for you. If you use dark, vampy shades, it can make you look like a sexy vampire–so perhaps this technique should be saved for Halloween.
If you want to take the reverse-ombre lip a step further, opt for this daring style: rock a darker shade on the bottom lip and a lighter one on the upper lip. This looks extremely avant-garde and is best paired with a bear face and nude eyes. It’s not a look for everyone, but if you’re going to an art gallery showing or an indie rock concert you will look daring and chic. Beware: this will make your lips appear less full, so if that’s not what you’d prefer, skip this look.
A style to avoid: the unblended ombre lip. This usually means that the mid-tone color has been omitted, and just the dark and light shades remain. That’s a huge error that harkens back to the late ‘90’s Pamela Anderson-inspired unblended dark lipliner and pale lip gloss–not a good look, ever. Some tutorials show you how to create these kinds of lips, but unless you’re doing a Halloween look or something intentionally scary, avoid this at all costs. It doesn’t really do much to enhance the lips and instead looks trashy and dated.
Another thing to avoid? Upper lip hair. Nothing ruins a perfectly crafted, artistically inspired ombre lip than a little mustache going on above it. It takes away from the beauty of your work and is just gross. Plus, when you do this dramatic of a look, it will undeniably draw attention to this area of the face. So while people may not have noticed it before, they will once you do an ombre lip. Our suggestion? Satori Laser Center. We have cheap packages on upper lip hair removal that will make your lips stand out even more than an ombre lip.