In observance of Reds Week at Defector, Lauren and Alex decided to try a red lip, as modeled in this brief tutorial. Here, in the style of The Not-So-Great Defector Bake-Off, are their results.
Lauren: Hi Alex! So as we start with moisturizer, I wanted to ask right up top, what’s your history with red lip, and, I suppose, lip products in general?
Alex: The first thing that feels important to note is that my lips have always been a source of insecurity for me because they are very small! The closest I’ve ever come to considering injectables was when lip flips came out and the possibility of full, lovely lips was dangled in front of me. I haven’t done it—I think any change would simply be too drastic for me to get away with because I’m starting with so little! But in my kinder moments, I also think to myself: I have my mom’s mouth, and I like her mouth, so I can live with this one.
On the topic of red lips specifically: I went through a huge liquid lipstick phase in 2016 where I was constantly trying different stark red lips, but I think the last time I actually wore a matte red liquid lip was Election Night 2016, when I bought a special tube of Too Faced’s “Lady Balls” to wear into the newsroom, and we all know how that night ended up. Now I generally go for a much less fussy version of lip color if I wear any at all, like Clinique’s Black Honey or Glossier’s Generation G lipsticks—otherwise, it’s usually Vaseline, which is what I’m using to moisturize!
Lauren: “Lady Balls” was probably a bad omen for the night. I feel like I had a similarish arc to you. I was mostly just a gloss girl for a while, but then a couple years ago my then-roommate clued me in on the products she was using, endorsed by a certain self-made billionaire. Her lips always look fantastic, so I got into them too. I continue to use those products, but after an early flirtation with the bright-red shades, I now opt for more neutral-looking colors. The thing about red lips is that they really bring out every single tiny detail on that area of your face, and as with any body part, if you look at it too carefully, you can only see what’s super weird and unsettling about it. (I remember before my first proper dinner date with my now-boyfriend, I went for a red lip and then spent about 15 minutes at home just freaking out that it looked all wrong, even though my roommate assured me it was fine.)
The way I do lipstick now, I feel like it holds up to conversation-length distance but looks pretty flawed when inspected up close, so I think there’s a lot of room for me to improve.
Alex: I have heard this thing that people say you can have a totally bare face, but if you have a red lip, you look a little more put together. I don’t wear a ton of makeup, and I HATE eye makeup of all kinds, so I lean on that tip pretty often, whether it’s accurate or not. The trickiest thing about red lips is getting the tone right for your skin. You’d think there’s just one red, but that is not the case at all! The wrong red can make you look like Ronald McDonald. I feel like as I’ve gotten older, I’ve strayed away from bluer reds and into more mauve-y, rusty reds because I think they work better on my skin tone.
Lauren: OK, I like that we’re coming at this from slightly different places, because I prefer a lot of eye makeup, and I’ve put some on already. I’m hoping that this whole look will hold up for an off-off-Broadway thing I’m going to at a warehouse in Bushwick tonight (a likely place for me to be). Is there a particular occasion for you?
Alex: I’m having some people over tonight for a little art night! A local artist is going to present on her work and we’re going to eat a bunch of snacks and chit chat and it will be very wholesome.
Lauren: Yay! So, I got the powder in the video specifically for this, and I’m going to apply that now. One thing I love about lip stuff that I get to keep my glasses on the whole time.
Alex: I’m going to take a slightly different approach and do my general adapted version of a red lip, which starts with ever-so-slightly over-lining my Charlotte Tilbury “Supersize Me,” which is a reddish pink and forms a good base.
Lauren: I am also going to try to over-line pretty heavily. How confident are you in drawing even lines around your lips? Because I am not at all confident at this.
Alex: You know, all of this is vibes for me. I think I’m a little traumatized from the liquid lipstick days because all of my lip products now are aggressively unfussy and meant to be chill. I think back when Glossier was marketing its Generation G lipstick for the first time, they pushed influencers hard to describe the color as if you had just eaten a red popsicle, and that has really stuck in my mind as an ideal for lip color. The lining part is the most precise step in the process, and I am only really precise in drawing a teeny X at my cupid’s bow because that’s what girls on YouTube did ten years ago when I learned how to do this.
Lauren: In the video, she uses so much liner that her lips almost look done when she’s finished with just that step. My understanding is to use less than that, but I can’t decide. Should I fill this in more?
Alex: OK yes this was confusing to me in the past. You would think lip LINER means that you’re just lining the outsides of your mouth, but a lot of people use it as an all-over base for your lips! I think there isn’t necessarily a wrong way to do it, because people like their lipstick in all kinds of ways, but I am persuaded by the idea that doing a full base of liner helps the lip color stay in place as you eat and drink. I think it’s also supposed to somehow help prevent the lipstick pigment from feathering out into the fine lines around your mouth as you go about your day/night.
Also, once again, I fear I do not have enough lip to just line the outsides of them without it looking crazy.
Lauren: I have hit that part of the process too! But I have filled in more liner and am ready to powder again.
By the way, I’m pretty sure this woman is speaking with a very Canadian accent, and the way she says “I’m telling you, red lips are something else” won’t escape my head.
Alex: And she’s RIGHT.
Lauren: Are you doing the concealer thing she’s doing?
Alex: NO, I’m going rogue here. I can deal with a lot of beauty bullshit, but concealer around lips and eyebrows has always been a step too far for me.
Lauren: I’m in too deep. I’ve applied concealer—this is where I perhaps foolishly admit that sometimes I get frustrated with the feel of brushes and just resort to using my finger—and now I’m ready for the last step. How I think this is going to go is, I’m going to hate it, then do a bunch of anxious tidying-up until it’s acceptable to me.
Alex: That sounds about right. I don’t know what form your lip color is taking (liquid? Stick? Something else?) but a trick I’ve learned over the years is to apply in light layers and blot with a tissue in between. Somehow this helps set the color a little bit, and it also feels less in your face, somehow. I don’t know what the science is, but I do feel that it works.
Speaking of using fingers, I’m using this Rouje lipstick palette that I bought in Paris. You’re meant to just stick your fingers in, mix and match, and let it be messy, and I love that. It doesn’t stay on super long, but that’s what the layers and the liner are for, I guess. You can see in my pictures that I favor the two colors on the left the most. So now I’m going to do a layer of the lower left-hand color, which is more berry-toned, blot, and then dab on the truer red, and blot. And ... that’s about it!!
Lauren: I applied the (liquid!) lipstick, but in the process I feel like I messed with the liner too much. I’m going to try to reapply that and see what happens.
Alex: Something that I think is worth noting: My palette has a very nice, large mirror in it that I use while I’m applying, and my lips always look ridiculous in that mirror. And then when I take a step back and look at a big mirror, it’s much better. Do not trust the up-close mirror too much.
Lauren: Update: I am starting to question if I ever had an upper lip to begin with.
Alex: Been there. I think I avoided red lipstick for so long because I worried that it accentuated how small my top lip was! That might still be the case, and if it is, no one tell me because I don’t want to know.
Lauren: I am hovering dangerously close to the McDonald Zone.
Alex: I believe in you!!! When in doubt…blot??
Lauren: I blotted like hell, trying to achieve that look where people can think “Ah, it’s not perfect, but I bet she’s had a really busy day.” Eventually, I reached my final form, which as predicted looks passable in a picture but doesn’t really hold up to close scrutiny. I actually prefer what it does for my smile more than my serious face. Hopefully the play tonight is very funny.
Alex: Congratulations!! I have a feeling my lips will be gone by the time my plans start this evening, so I will almost certainly have to go through all these steps again while putting out drinks and chips. Do you feel like you learned anything in this process that you’ll adopt into your everyday routine?
Lauren: I think this encouraged me to experiment a little more with the newer-to-me products, especially the liner, but I don’t see myself reaching for red again in the near future. A lesson I’ve tried to internalize is that you could apply what you think are the cutest possible beauty products, but if they make you feel self-conscious, then it’s not the right look for you.
I just sat my boyfriend down at our kitchen table and tried to make him judge me like we were on our first dinner date again. After some prodding, his response was: “You’re very pretty. The lips look a little worn, like they need to be re-applied. But your personality shines through.”
Alex: Aww, that is so cute. Sounds like an invitation to wear them in a little more l m a o! I used the routine that I usually do when I’m trying to look nice (or recording a video podcast), and I’m pretty pleased with it mostly because I know I won’t need to constantly check the mirror to make sure pieces haven’t flaked off or strayed to other parts of my face. For better and worse, I’m such a specific type of millennial woman (raised on Glossier) when it comes to makeup: I want to have it on, but I don’t want to feel like I have it on. Honestly, it’s miraculous I’ve figured out a red lip that somehow integrates into that.
Lauren: I kind of wish for Gen Alpha that they just get raised on chapstick.
