Pittsburgh Boudoir Photographer, The Girlfriends Beauty Blog Pittsburgh, PA

Who doesn't want fuller lips! 

Dessa and I are total makeup/beauty addicts. I have had nightmares where I have to move quickly in the middle of the night. I have to put everything into bags I can carry with me. I grab a garbage bag and have to try and sweep all of my beauty products off the top of a dresser into a trash bag and all the while there is something ominous, some dread or monster for all I know coming to drag me to certain death, but first, let me get my makeup!

The thing is, I don't normally look like I am wearing as much makeup as I am. I can't stand when I see girls who have sat in front of You Tube or Instagram for hours trying recreate the perfect ombre brow and end up with a thick black checkmark above each eye or are wearing so much foundation, you know they are one dirty joke away from peeling like old wall paper. I like to follow the philosophy of playing up one feature. I wore red lips with my braces but haven't really done a red lip since I had them taken off in December. Dessa was fed up with it. We were talking about our next tutorial and she said we had to do a red lip. Nothing else was happening before she got me into a red lip! She wanted red lips. I wanted huge red lips. So now you get all the steps to the perfect red lip all the way through to a huge red lip in simple, iphone picture by iphone picture steps! 

My basic face. Foundation, concealer, blush, 2 shades, single eyeshadow shade, lip balm. Only thing missing, is eyebrows, I just wasn't in the mood!

Zooooomed in to see what we are working with!

In the upper left corner you see my absolute bare lips. If I am planning on wearing a bold lip, exfoliation is a must, as you'll see in the upper right. I either sugar scrub or I'll use a wet washcloth while I am washing my face and prep with a fast absorbing lip balm. In the bottom left corner you'll see I am swiping on my lip stain. This isn't a perfect application and I make sure I don't go outside of my lip line with the the stain. Once the stain dries down, I grab my lip liner. I only just barely over line my lower lip line. My lower lip is pretty full. Too much lip liner and I'll have it on my chin, I choose to follow my lip line from the outside rim and no more. I use smaller feathery strokes to line my lip.

In the top left you see I look a little goofy! I've used my lip liner to fill in the peaks of my upper lip. You really can't use a lipstick that has a sheen, pearl, shimmer or opalescence to it as it will attract light to the natural contours of your lip and will be a dead give away that you've cheated your lip line and the highlight on your cupids bow will look comical. A matte finish lipstick and stain are your friends for over lining your lips. After I've filled in, only slightly, cupids bow, I will then use my pencil to connect my "new" plumped lip line to the corners of my mouth. Make sure you use your lip liner to fill in the corners of your lip. You'll have a lot of wear on your lip product and the lip liner builds up and prevents bald spots in your lipstick or stain. Most days, this is enough when I am over lining my lips and I will stop here.

This is the finished product without the darkened corners. Yes, ok, I officially regret that lip ring. You were right , Mom. 

But lets go bigger. I love big lips. I love them on women and men. I've totally joked that I had braces put on just so I could wear big red lips. Totally not just a joke ;) Moving on. In the lower left you'll see that I've dabbed onto the center of my lower lip, a dry finish concealer. The reason I chose a drier finish is because the rest of the lip is matte, a concealer with too much slip would disturb the bottom layers of product I've built up. I pat the concealer concentrating in the center of the lower lip and will gently press my lips together so I get just the slightest bit of highlight on the upper center lip as well. The visual we've created is that center of my lower lips is more plump than it really is. On special days, this is enough! But what the hell, we are going for broke here!

In the upper left you'll see what is most common for me. A over lined matte lip with a subtle highlight in the center. On days when I want to go full drag-queen. I grab a black eyeliner. Yes. Black eyeliner. Not a twist up, not liquid, not gel. Old school black pencil eyeliner. In the outter corners on the bottom lip, I lightly feather on gentle swipes of the black liner in the bottom corner, only. Go light here, you can build this up but it will be harder to undo if you get too crazy. Press your lips together to transfer just the slightest bit of the black eyeliner to the inside corner of your upper lip. I finish  by taking my pinkie finger and just pressing into my bottom lip to blend. So we've darkened the outer corners and highlighted the centers of the lip, effectively doubling the size of my mouth!

Zoomed into see the depth that the center highlightT and darkened corners create.