How to Apply Your Matte Lipstick Perfectly!

A question I am often asked by my clients is how to apply your matte lipstick perfectly without it clumping.

Firstly, preparation is key! Lips should be exfoliated and moisturised before the lipstick even touches the lips, as the matte formulation can be pretty unforgiving and tends to highlight any flaws, such as dried or chapped skin. 

Exfoliate the lips:
Where possible, exfoliate your lips the day before you use the matte lipstick, particularly if you have quite dry, chapped lips.

Firstly, apply some moisturiser to the lips to soften the skin. A fab lip conditioner is the Mac Lip Conditioner (£12), which offers very quick and deep conditioning to the lips. Other lip balms such as Vaseline or Chapstick can be used also.  

Mac 'Lip Conditioner'

Then after an hour or two, very gently, exfoliate the lips.

Lips can be exfoliated using a homemade lip scrub (a mixture of sugar, olive or coconut oil & honey) and the lips gently massaged with it for a couple of minutes and then rinsed. 

No time to make up the lip exfoliator? I sometimes use a soft toothbrush if I am in a hurry. 
 
Moisturise the lips:
I would recommend exfoliating the lips before going to bed and then slather on lots of moisturiser to get the maximum amount of conditioning. 

Line the lips first:
Although a lip liner isn’t necessary with a matte lipstick formulation, due to its long lasting staying power, I still like to use the liner to help it last even longer (call me greedy, but I’d rather spend less time touching up!). It also helps give a beautiful, sharp finish.

Apply the matte lipstick using a lip brush:
After lining the lips in a similar colour to the lipstick, the matte lipstick is then applied with a lip brush. Real Techniques do a great retractable brush for £7.99, which has a wee cap, so is very handy for the handbag. Love its pink colour as well!

Real Techniques Retractable Lip Brush

Apply a second coat:
For even more staying power, blot the lips afterwards with a tissue and reapply the matte lipstick again. There are a number of reasons for this – it not only extends the staying power even more, but also adds intensity to the lip colour and helps avoid dry or cakey looking lips.

For a super sharp, precise line:
A wee trick  of the trade that make-up artists adopt to get that super precise line is to use some concealer to clean up the edges of the lips, using a small concealer brush or a cosmetic cotton bud.

A couple of my favourite matte lipsticks at the moment are Illamasqua’s 'Eurydice' and 'Liable' (£19.50 each). 'Eurydice' is  a lovely bright fuchsia pink lipstick that pops on the lips, and 'Liable' is a really classy, sophisticated red lipstick with a yellow undertone. Amazing colours with even more amazing staying power! 

Illamasqua 'Eurydice' Lipstick

Illamasqua 'Liable' Lipstick

 
And that should then be you ready to rock a fabulous & perfect matte lip! It may seem like a fair bit of effort but it is definitely worth it to achieve that beautiful, long lasting, flawless pout :)

Have fun putting these makeup tips into practice! 

Please feel free to share your own makeup tips on how you like to apply a matte lipstick in the Comments field at the bottom of this post - I'd love to hear from you!

Colette x

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