Ombre lips – How to achieve this effect?

Ombre is one of those techniques that more and more step outside the hair salon and into the make-up studio. We are more than keen on trying ombre lips which can emphasize lips and make them optically bigger. How to achieve ombre lips?

Make-up is often compared to art. This comparison is indeed correct as it also offers unlimited possibilities and allows you to be creative with it. Even though playing with color may end up badly, it sometimes can also result in effects such as ombre lips – beautiful, full and perfectly outlined lips.

Ombre lips

The ombre lips trend is the last few months’ hot topic. It quickly took over runways, social media, and event walls. What makes ombre lips such popular choice among women?

The combination of at least two colors that blend together in a natural and subtle way is the best method to bring the lips out. Depending on the colors, how many shades of difference is between them, the level of pigment saturation and the extent of blending effect, you can achieve many different results – to narrow big lips, to make narrow lips bigger or to have the seducing look just for the date night.

It is yet another technique that proves make-up holds unlimited possibilities and that optically shaping the face becomes a real possibility and actually works!

Ombre lips. What cosmetics will you need?

For lip make-up in ombre style necessary is the lipstick or lipgloss. It does not need to be a matte one because lipgloss works equally well. The most important is for the cosmetic to be long-lasting and easy to blend with the second color but cannot smudge later on. If you use a lipstick that is easy to wear down then the ombre effect will not be as expressive or effective.

Ombre lips. Which colors should you use?

Lips’ tinting will be different depending on the colors of choice. Ombre lips have many faces. The most important is one rule that the 2-3 lip glosses or lipsticks you choose need to be close in shade. If colors will be too contrasting, the ombre lips won’t look good.

Ombre lips in a neutral version can work on a daily basis when no expressive colors are necessary. The colors appropriate for work, school or shopping are nude, light pink, peach, pastel raspberry or caramel.

On the other hand, the evening version of ombre lips is just for special occasions and is made with more bold colors. It is an option for a date, wedding reception, party or a company banquet and the colors that will go right with it are red, claret, plum, intense brown or fuchsia. If you are wilder than that, you can also try black, bottle green or azure.

Types of ombre lips: horizontal, vertical, Korean

It is worth mentioning that ombre can have various versions and not only due to the colors chosen, but also the make-up technique.

  1. Horizontal ombre lips – the most popular type where lips are darker on the outside part and become gradually lighter the closer to the middle you get.
  2. Vertical ombre lips – is an alternative version where dark lipstick is applied in the lips’ corners and becomes lighter as it gets closer to the middle (it makes lips optically lighter).
  3. Korean ombre lips – it the more subtle version where mostly shades of pink are used to achieve the most neutral and feminine blending effect.

Blending step by step

How to create ombre lips? Easy, if you have at least two lipsticks at hand that match each other with color, like raspberry and light pink, claret and red, caramel and nude.

Start by preparing the lips, do the exfoliation (e.g. honey and sugar) and moisturize. After few minutes move to color application. It is best to apply lipstick with a small brush. The less product you use the easier it’ll be to blend it and achieve the best result.

Start your make-up with the use of lipliner so that lips are perfectly outlined. At this stage, you can make lips appear bigger by going outside their natural line. The second step is to apply both colors – darker on the edge, lighter in the middle of the lips. The last step is to blend it, i.e. gently combine the two colors. It can be done with the use of a brush or a finger.