Beauty Notes: How To Look Good Smiling

I cannot wear dark lip colors. I have tried and tried, and they invariably do not suit me. Anything more pigmented than a sheer lipstick is truly unflattering to my face, even jarring. The reason for this is that I have full lips, but not wide ones. They're the definition of pouty, with all the meat in the middle. As dark colors recede, the corners of my mouth look even smaller, resulting in a fish face. On top of this, when I gain weight, I tend to gain it in the lower part of my face. Having fish lips on a fuller lower face does not result in balance, and as any good makeup artist will tell you, good makeup equals balance.


To acheive balance, I go with the ubiquitous darker eye/lighter mouth. The colors I use tend to be sheer peach or sheer lilac-pink. Used with a pink lipstick as a base, peach colors brighten up my face, adding color without throwing the balance off, while lilac colors impart a slightly deeper hue of my natural lip color. I have to be careful with both colors, though. With my yellow undertones, most peaches turn orange on me, and lilacs often turn too deep and cool toned. I've found that MAC Tendertone Lip Balm works well for what I like. For the more lilac tone, I use the Tendertone in Softnote. Layered over lipstick, it makes the lipstick color pinker. Honey Bare looks peachy-orange in the pot (it's the orangest one in the picture) but layers beautifully with pink.


I used to use Clinique Colour Surge Bare Brilliance in Waterviolet for the base layer of my lips. It's a pinked-down violet that's almost the exact shade of my lips, just slightly deeper. It's now only available in the Butter Shine formula, which is denser and heavier on the lips. I'm not crazy about the change in formulation. It works well as a base but looks awful on its own. The varying pigments aren't blended well, so it looks like an inexpert application of multiple layers of lipstick, plus the gel texture dries out my lips. Thankfully, I found a couple of BB Waterviolets at a Cosmetics Company Outlet, but I'll need a replacement when these run out. Any dupe suggestions are welcome.
Credit: Face Candy