Winnipeg's Downtown Aveda Spa Salon
Frequently Asked Questions - Makeup
What lipstick should I use for large lips? What about thin lips?
Large Lips
When it comes to the application of colouring for the lips, I think women who have full lips become aware at a very early age the difference between daytime and nighttime lip colours. Daylight is the strongest light of all and can make lipstick colour look too bright and, therefore, make the lips look even fuller. During the daylight hours, I would recommend using a moist, light, neutral lipstick and if the lipstick is not moist enough, then follow with a lip shine. I think daylight reflecting off the moist lips makes the lips look more attractive.
Artificial lighting in the evening is much weaker than daylight and so your choices of colour for full lips can be bolder. To add a more professional evening wear look to your makeup, try applying a lip liner that is a shade darker than your lipstick around the inside edge of your lips then fill in the rest of your lips with your lip colour. Try blotting your lips with a tissue, then reapplying your lip colour. Blotting after the first application will remove a lot of the oils but leave some of the colour pigment still on the lips so not only will your colour be deeper but it will also have staying power.
Thin Lips
For thin lips I strongly recommend a lip pencil in a shade as close as possible to your lipstick. With a mirror in front of you, push down on the skin between your nose and top lip. The edge of the lip will protrude out. With a sharpened lip pencil apply the lip liner right up to the very outer edge of the lip. You could even extend it just a hair's width above the lip line. Do this for both the top and bottom lips. I like to then fill in the entire top and bottom lips with lip liner because on thin lips, if your lipstick comes off, your outer edge liner will show up right away versus fuller lips where your chances of the lip colour coming off on the entire lip is less.
When working with thin lips, I recommend using the lip liner as your primary colour over all of the top and bottom lip and then using a lip gloss or shine to enhance the colour. The idea is that if the lip gloss or shine accidentally extends over the lip line, it's not as noticeable.
