Like Sujita, girls—be they of any age—are of the opinion that red isn’t their color when it comes to lips. Beauty expert Shama Karki, however, opines that carrying red lips is easy once you find the right shade that syncs with your skin tone.
So, in a quest to find the perfect red, Republica sought beauty expert Shama Karki’s advice and went to her with three models—Maima Manandhar, Nina Jonchhe and Sujta Gurung.
While Maima is fair skinned, Nina has an olive tone. Gurung, on the other hand, is little darker compared to Nina. According to their complexion, different palettes of red were selected.
For Maima, make-up artist Shama, selected two different palettes of red—a deeper red and an orange red. Usually people with fair complexion can get away with any shade of red, shared Shama. Though both palettes complemented Maima’s look, darker red added to her persona. The color blended beautifully with her fair skin.
However, like American singer Gwen Stefani, Maima too could pull off crimson and scarlet shades.
For a strong base, Shama applied a lip liner and painted Pierre Cardin’s 14 gentians deep red on Maima. She finished her look with a lip plumper. Informing about the liner’s benefit, she said, “It doesn’t let the lipstick bleed and keeps it intact.”
Following her red lipstick formula, the expert opted The Matte Glam Marilyn 4350 brand for Nina. Apart from adding texture to the face, the best part of matte tone is it does not budge. During the 2010/11 international fall fashion shows, many designers complemented their collection with matte red, making the stark red lips a must have for this season.
For olive and a bit darker complexion like Nina’s and Sujita’s, dark and wine red is recommended. These colors usually have a tint of brown or burgundy in them. Moving further, Sujita was given a deeper shade of red that had a tint of burgundy, which perked up her face. A coat of lip gloss added luster to her thin lips.
Shama suggests going for a toned-down look while using red as the shade is too dramatic and one might run the risk of looking too caked up if the rest of the make-up isn’t kept minimal. The make-up artist concluded that the other trick of achieving right red is by blending different shades.
FYI
Red is divided into two categories—cool and warm. While cool is a blue-based red such as cranberry and wine, warm is orange based such as scarlet and crimson red. Apart from the skin tone, one also has to consider ones teeth, while moving into this color zone. Opt for blue-based red if your teeth are stained as it helps whiten them. Colors like scarlet and crimson will just accent the stains.
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