You may be thinking lip liners, what a strange thing to write a blog post about but honestly, they can really make or break a makeup look in my opinion. Not only can they help make your lips look a little plumper but they also make your lipstick last longer and prevent it from bleeding. Super important as with work I need to put my makeup on in the morning and know it’s going to last all day.
I’ve tried lots of lip liners over the years but it wasn’t until I treated myself to some more expensive ones that I really started to appreciate just how amazing they are. My three favourite lip liner formulas are from Charlotte Tilbury (£16), Bite Beauty ($18 around £14) and Buxom (£15). Originally you could only get the Bite Beauty Lip Liners and Buxom Plumpline Lip Liners in the US and Canada (I picked them up at Sephora) but thankfully Buxom have now released their Plumpline Lip Liners world wide so they’re much more accessible! Sadly Bite Beauty is still only available on US/CAD Sephora but I’m holding onto hope they’ll launch world wide eventually!
*swatches unedited as always to try and show shades as best as possible*
As you can see from the swatches I tend to go for pinky nude colours. All the brands mentioned have a huge range of colours though so don’t be put off if the shades I have aren’t your usual colours.
The main difference I’ve noticed between ‘drug store’ and high end lip liners is the ease of application. Cheaper lip liners tend to be waxy and pull at the lips as you apply them, I’ve found them to be scratchy, uncomfortable and very drying to my lips. The CT, Bite and Buxom liners are all extremely creamy, pigmented, glide on beautifully with little effort and don’t sink into the lips and dry them out. Lip liners last for ages, much longer than my lipsticks so splurging £16 on one isn’t so bad if you’re going to get months of use out of a product. Another top tip is to not just use a lip liner to go around the outer line of your lips, this leaves a harsh line between your shade of liner and lipstick. Instead line the outer and then ‘colour in’ the rest of your lips before applying your lipstick on top. If you’d like a more ‘ombré’ effect then only colour in the outer of both your lips leaving a small part in the middle then as you apply your lipstick over the top your liner will blend leaving a slightly lighter area in the middle.