It’s about that time when the holiday party frenzy begins. Office cocktail parties, parties with old friends, parties where everyone dresses their dog up like elves completely normal parties for sane people, you know the usual. I always find myself wanting to wear a red lip to these types of events, because hello, festive! But it’s super annoying to keep checking your lipstick every five minutes. So I figured I would do a few posts on how to get a festive red lip look that will last thought your whole event. This might not last through an entire actual holiday meal. But for drinks and hors d’oeuvres I got you covered.

This first look is a matte lip, but with a little dimension. I hesitate to call this an ombré lip because I think people picture something really drastic when you say that, but in reality that’s what it is. I like adding the subtle ombré effect because it adds some depth and dimension to the matte lip and makes it a little more special.

To create this look I used Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Fiery and Beso. These liquid lipsticks are not only the most long wearing lipsticks pretty much ever, but they give a beautiful velvet finish to the lips. I Put Fiery which is a deep red on the outer two thirds of the lip, using a lip brush to make sure that the edges were nice and crisp. Then I took Beso which is a bright true red and applied it to the center of the lip and blended the two together with the brush. These do dry down so you have to work fairly quickly. Then to finish the look off I waited for the liquid lipstick to dry and then I ran a little of Urban Decay Lip Liner in the color Gash on just the very outer corners and patted it with my finger to blend it. Gash is a little darker, so it adds a bit more depth. The reason I used it on top of the liquid lipstick was to ensure that the liquid adhered properly to the lip, and since it’s a pencil and is pretty dry so putting it on top won’t cause the long wearing formula underneath to break down.

Simple, pretty and will last a seriously long time. Boom!

The next look will be a glossy red that will also last all night . . .yup it’s possible, and I’m going to show you how to do it. Stay tuned!