Sunday 16 September 2012

Hallowed Hints: The Many Uses Of Lip Products


Hallowed Hints is my new umbrella for all my posts regarding Halloween and the makeup, costumes and paraphernalia that comes with my favourite time of the year! Face your face paints, dust off your decorations, plump up your pumpkins - it's Halloween time!

This first instalment is dedicated to the use of lip products anywhere BUT your lips to create the vampy, devilish or undead face you want this Halloween.

For previous Halloween faces, I've used a Barry M Lip Paint in shade 37 as my black face paint, as I always found it to be easy to apply, it never drags my skin and it certainly stays put for an entire night of Halloween celebrations. For example, you see my calaveras design in the Hallowed Hints banner? All the black lines? My nose and chin? That's lipstick. I find the lip paints quite cakey for use on the lips so it gets much more use on the rest of my face.


Featured:
MUA Glamour Nights Palette, £4
MUA Intense Colour Lip Liner in Red Drama, £1
Barry M Kohl Pencil in shade 25, £2.99
MUA Lipstick in shade 13, £1
Astor Automatic Lip Liner in Framboise, £1 Poundland

If you follow this blog, you might be aware of my seemingly endless search for a high street / drugstore red eyeshadow, but to no avail for the past months. It seems red isn't a very widely welcomed colour for 'normal' people, yet luminous orange and vibrant purple are. Vexing, right? Well the only thing close to a red on the high street is this gorgeous pinkish shade from the MUA Glamour Nights palette, they also offer a similar single eyeshadow too but that seems a little paler to me.

I remember this time last year I wandered around drugstores with a friend as she rang her friends and family questioning whether it would be safe to use a lip liner on her eyes for a bloodshot zombie Halloween outfit, and thinking back on it now I can't believe I too was convinced it would be a problem! It's a common fear that if something doesn't state that it can do this job and that job, we instantly presume it can't, without applying rational thought. If its a product you can safely put on your lips so close to your mouth, why should it be a problem on your lids so close to your eyes?
The lip liners from MUA and a brand I discovered in Poundland, Astor, are perfect for spooky eyeliner alternatives, and they apply so much smoother than pencil eyeliner, they don't drag my lids and they're so much easier to smudge for a smokey red. Lip liners also last a lot longer than eye pencils in the waterline, so in a few ways they're better than the real deal!

If you're still skeptical about the powers of lip products, Barry M is the best high street brand for vibrant colours, and their kohl pencil in shade 25 has been a staple in my Halloween makeup for a long time, it's the same consistency as a lip liner and smudges perfectly.


I also discovered I have a few red lipsticks kicking around my collection and they're rarely ever used outside of fancy dress, so to use them as an eyeshadow base never crossed my mind until now.


Of course, you could forgive anyone around you for looking at you rather weirdly as you direct a lipstick toward your eyelids, but you'll be grateful once you see the results. Sweep any old red lipstick, I've used MUA in shade 13, across your lid and pack a similar shadow on top, like that pink from the MUA Glamour Nights palette, and there you have it - primed and ready.

You're probably thinking to yourself the exact same thing I did - this lipstick doesn't last an hour on my lips, so how am I expected to trust it on my eyes? Well the idea is to put more faith in your product, it deserves a little more credit. Having worn this for 6 hours, there was no sign of creasing, smudging, fading, absolutely no signs I'd not just applied it that second. Because the lipstick base was opaque, it's brought out the best in the eyeshadow on top too, and the eyeshadow's brought out the best in the lipstick, so it truly is the best of both worlds.


I took these photos after 6 hours wear on each eye, and the fading and creasing of the blue eye is testament enough to the survival skills of this lipstick technique. I used MUA's eye primer under each, and the lipstick has certainly proved itself a winner.
And let's just ignore the glitter fallout shall we?

Of course, this doesn't just apply to red lipstick. Any colour lipstick will work underneath a good matching eyeshadow and it'll be sure to stick there. You could even spice it up with a different shade lipstick to your eyeshadow and vice versa to create a deep duochrome, it really is open to interpretation. The same rule applies to eyeliner on your lips, but I'll be doing another Hallowed Hints post on this soon, so keep 'em peeled!

If you're skeptical about eye primers, haven't found the right one yet, or you simply have a lipstick lying around that you never use and it's about time you found a purpose for it, give it one last chance to redeem itself - it might surprise you too!

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7 comments:

  1. This was so interesting! I'd never think to use lipstick anywhere else (which is weird because I use eyeshadow on my lips quite often, you'd think I'd think about trying it the other way round) it's definitely creative!

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    1. Yeah it's strange how we've never thought of it before, I'm just glad I can now use lipsticks I've never used enough! xx

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  2. I'd never think to use lip products elsewhere, even though I've used eyeshadow on my lips for dressing up before. Really cool post and I love the day Day of the Dead face paint too! xo

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    1. Hehe well now we know! I'm amazed how well it secured all my eyeshadow too! xx

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    2. Just letting you know that I've nominated you for the Laine award! :) You can check out my post here: http://spiderleglashes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/award-laine-blog-award.html xo

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  3. This is so helpful. Oh wow thank you, it's amazing!!
    Mia x

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    1. Haha no problem lovely, it's come in so useful for me already! xx

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