Saturday 13 December 2008

Tis the season for...red lips: part 1

The december month is most certainly the month that you will have to show your face to some kind of festive party, whether this is the office party, pre-christmas drink with your friends, the good-ol' Christmas dinner or the New Years Eve glamourama...

It is also the time of the year that most girls and women are about to reach for their red lipstick...there is something ultimately glamourous about wearing a red lip and the boldness of the red lip is so ultimately christmas-like.




The red lip is both glamourous as high-maintainance: even if it takes less time to master a proper red lip than doing dramatic smokey eye, it is more prone to smudging, smearing, kissing, moving, talking, wrinkling....And a smudged out smokey eye might look sultry and Kate Moss-esque-come-to-bed aura, the smudged out red lips looks just plain messy and utterly unsophisticated...period. So bring your hand mirror with you and check your mouth every hour in order to maintain your glamourness...

Anyway, there are a million and one tutorials on how to do a good red lips.
* Youtube has some good tutorials over here
* Temptalia also has a nice tutorial over here
* and I am pretty sure most of you already know how to do a nice red lip, or know another favourite blogger who does the best red lip evah...

Ok, After some informational talk about the red lip I am going to post some swatches of my high end collection of reds...

I am sure that most of the beauty bloggers already knows how the Mac reds look like...so I will post some non-mac items. Not that I dislike Mac (Mac is pretty ok imo) but there is a world of other makeup out there...

Some brands even went as far as to specialise on red lips. I would like to mention two of them: Julie Hewett and Lipstickqueen.

I have three Julie Hewett's that I am wildly enthousiastic about. The tubes of the lipsticks look so glamourous in gold, and the colours are really versatile. She also has a whole section on red lipstick and how to find the-perfect-red-for-your-complexion on her site(here). It is pretty good information because I am quite happy about the colour selections I have picked.
She also has sheer formulas (Gem Noir and Film Noir) and pigmented-on-steriods formulas (Rouge Noir).

I really like Lipstick Queen by Poppy as well, however, it is a bit difficult to get over here. I purchased the St. Rouge when I was on holiday in the UK (at space nk). The tube is gorgeous in matt gold and there are two textures, which are divided in a Saint-category (sheer) and the Sinner category (pigmented). Lipstick Queen sells glosses as well, but I will only show the Saint Red colour...




From left to right: Julie Hewett Gem Noir, Julie Hewett Rouge Noir, Julie Hewett Film Noir, Lipstickqueen Red Saint and Lancome PS Kiss.



Rouge Noir is probably the most pigmented lipstick I have found in my life. It is just as vibrant or even more in real life, and it gives your lips those fourties-screen-era type of lips that are absolutely not for the faint of heart.


picture in natural light (cloudy day)


Picture with flash
The next picture is gives a good impession of the colours and their pigmentation as well.


1. Julie Hewett Gem Noir 2. Julie Hewett Coco Noir 3. Julie Hewett Film Noir 4. Lipstick Queen in Saint Red 5. Lancome PS Kiss 6. Clinique color Surge Butter shine in Cranberry Cream



And I wanted to include some close ups of the Julie Hewetts as well.

The Gem Noir can be described as a corally red; The Coco Noir is a true Blood red; Film Noir is a berry red which can be intensified by layering it...(or leave it as a subtle stain).

As for the Lancome PS Kiss, sorry to tease you guys who hadn't purchased this one in 2007 but it is an excellent dark burgundy red lippy and it looks so gorgeous I did not want to leave that one out ;D

So, part 2 of the 'Tis the season for...red lips' edition will look at mid end lipsticks and lower end lipsticks.

But, I am really curious about YOUR favourite colour for a red lipstick: Do you wear red lipstick? What kind of texture do you prefer (sheer/matte/pigmented/shimmery/gloss/glittery)? When do you wear a red lip? And, if you have a partner/boyfriend, how does he responds on a red lip?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those swatches look beautiful, especially the Poppy King lippie. I cannot imagine owning so many different red lippies since I am very color shy when it comes to lips. Do you wear these casually or on special occasions?

Yumeko said...

i have to agree with the other poster
i couldnt see myself owning so many reds either

i have 1 red lipgloss, others are mostly pink and nudes

btw i always wanted to ask, do you collect blythes?

birkinbagbeauty said...

Hi Audrie, I find myself to me more of a collector than a wearer. I buy the lipstick in order to wear them, but unfortunately, I do not reach for them oftenly. For the same reasons as you do, because they are high maintainance and they require a bit of attitude, which I lack often :$

Hi Yumeko, I really want to collect some Blythe dolls because they are so cool, but they are so hard to obtain. I always get outbidded on ebay...

Unknown said...

Did you say RED dear Birkin??

Oh yes!! I love RED!!!!

Lipstick queen - I keep seeing these in Spacenk. I do want to give them a twirl.

birkinbagbeauty said...

Hi Glowchaser,
Ahh spacenk, everything is expensive but so good in that shop. Love it.