Matte Lips for New Year’s Eve

Runway-inspired and non-toxic, individually blended and long-lasting: could a gal ask for more?

Even though I like to stay au courant trend-wise, I’m not much of a follower of fashion. Still, as a rather grungy lady, two Fall 2013 runway looks have swept me off my feet.

Both LANVIN‘s and BALMAIN‘s makeup artists have created a look that could have been right out of my book:
matte skin,
undone hair (to the extent of extreme streakiness that looks very bad off-runway – don’t do that),
berry lips, smudged smoky eyes and often matte & nude lips or transparent lipsticks matching cheek colours.

My personal look is almost always without mascara. I like the undone feeling of a perfect smoky eye without un-lashed extra power. More elegantly grunge than greasy hair, amirite?

CREATING A FABULOUS, INDIVIDUAL + NON-TOX BERRY LIP

The best way to a long-stay matte lip is a lip contouring pencil.

The trouble with lip contouring pencils is… well, manyfold: too dry, too greasy, often just the wrong colour and too dry (or greasy) to be mixed. In addition, most formulas I looked at, attracted by the colour, include unsustainable palm oil or derived ingredients. Beauty might know no pain, but species extinction and burned down rainforest? Hell, no.

So I have made my own perfect berry lip to wear on NYE, and here’s the how-to.

Step 1. Know your skin colour. My skin is really fair and olive-toned, so very cool, elegant, blue-ish berry shades pop like neon. Play around to find your favourite.

Step 2. You probably have your own fave red lipstick, am I right? (If not, check out this post on palm-oil free, mostly vegan, and non-tox reds, cool, warm, and neutral) This will be our base for the berry colour.

Step 3. You also probably have a violet mineral eye shadow. Loose, pure mineral: Alima Pure, Lily Lolo, etc. Shades of violet, purple, amethyst are imposed upon us every winter season, so my bet is, every gal has a jar of mineral goodness that looks good on her. If you have none, it’s time to go shopping 😉 I’ll wait.

Step 4. Put some of your red lipstick into the palm of your hand. Add a tiny amount of the mineral pigment. Armed with a not too fragile lipstick brush, mix them into a paste and apply.

I used Paul Penders “Raspberry” (reviewed and swatched here) and Bellapierre “Varooka”, a rich purple pigment with lots of glimmer. You can make it as transparent and as opaque as you wish. I mixed in equal parts and obtained a very long-lasting, incredibly intense, matte colour.

What are your plans for NYE?