Tutorial: Gradient Lips

So, the red lip trend looks like it’s going to be hanging around at least until Spring 2013. 

I love a red lip, but I think adding a gradient effect with your lipstick is a fun way to add a bit of edge to a classic look.

I put together and easy step-by-step tutorial for you guys that will walk you through how to create gradient lips and have you wanting to pucker up!

So let’s get started…

First things first, since we’re creating a gradient, we want our lip color to go from dark on the edges of our lips to light towards the middle. This dark to light effect if also going to give the allusion that your lips are fuller and more pouty. Can’t complain about that, right? 

Before you get started:

Make sure your lips are conditioned! When wearing lipstick it’s important to make sure your lips aren’t chapped or cracking. 

I always do my lips last, so what I like to do is apply a lip balm to my lips while I’m apply my foundation and eye makeup. That will give the lip balm a little time to soak in and condition my lips. 

Before you actually apply any products to your lips, make sure you remove any excess balm. You don’t want your lips to be slippery when you’re applying your lip products. If they are, the product is just going to slide around, and we want it to stay put. 

The balm is to make sure your lips are nice and soft.

Step 1: Line Your Lips

To line my lips I chose Covergirl’s LipPerfection™ Lipliner in “Sophisticated”.

It’s a dark plum lipliner which will work for ladies with tan to deep skin tones, like myself. If you have a fairer complexion, you can try something like “Sublime” which is still in the plum family, but not as dark.

When you’re applying your liner, you want to line the very edge of your lip then bring it in slightly. Make sure not to bring it in too far, because the light colors will be applied towards the middle part of your lips.

Step 2: Feather Your Liner

You may be wondering how your feather your liner, but it’s really simple, you’ll just slide your lips together slightly and that will deposit some of the liner inward.

Step 3: Apply Your First Lip Color

I went for a nice true red. The product I used was Rimmel London’s Last Finish Lipstick by Kate Moss in “01”.

When applying the first lipstick I went over a bit of the plum liner, but did not take the color all the way out to the edges.

I rubbed my lips together so that the colors would blend. 

As you can see, the color is not fully deposited in the middle, but that’s okay, we’ve still got another color to apply!

Step 4: Apply Second Lip Color

I then took a pink, I used Wet n’ Wild’s Mega Last® Lip Color in “905D Smokin’ Hot Pink”.

I made sure to focus this color in the middle of my lips.

I then rubbed my lips together so that all the colors blend.

Step 5: Clean Up (Optional)

I like to have a nice crisp edge to my lips when I wear lipstick. Lip liner is always going to help with this, put tracing your lips with concealer, will give you a really sharp edge and fix any mistakes if you identically went outside your lip line.

Just make sure to feather and blend the concealer into your other makeup so there is a seamless transition.

You can use whatever concealer you’d like, just make sure it’s a good match for your skin tone, don’t use something that you’d use under your eyes which will often be lighter than your natural skin tone. 

Also, make sure it’s a thicker consistency so it will be easier to control. 

Step 6: Apply Gloss (Optional)

I thought it’d be a nice touch to add a gloss for some shine and help blend the colors further. 

The gloss I used was Stila’s Lip Glaze in “Black Cherry”.

I mainly concentrated the gloss in the center of my lips. Make sure not to use too much so that you don’t cover up the effect. 

Well that’s the end of the tutorial. It’s pretty easy to get this look. Just four easy steps, and you can add gloss or clean up with concealer if you’d like, but it’s not necessary. 

Don’t be afraid to play around with color, you can use whatever colors you’d like, just make sure your darkest color your liner and the lightest color is in the very middle of your lips. 

I hope you have fun creating your own gradient lips!

Send me pics of the looks you guys come up with.

Kisses!