Ombre Lips....A new trend??

I've been seeing this new 'trend' around here and there for a while and after seeing the facecharts posted by Smashbox on their facebook & twitter page yesterday I had to give the look a go myself! (any excuse to play around with lipsticks and I'm there!)

The idea is to create a fade from a strong colour to a lighter one, you're most likely to have seen this as a hairstyle and as a nail look, and I suppose a typical smokey eye could also be deemed 'ombred' aswell. Though I have to admit, I really dislike that word! 

The look can be really dramatic and creative with use of different colours, or can be created for a more wearable look by using two different shades from the same colour group.

Prepare the lips with a pale base so that colour on the lips is pure and not affected by your natural lip pigmentation. This also allows you to be creative if you wanted and re-determine your lip shape (you could enhance your cupids bow, or make your upper or lower lip slightly larger than normal.)

Using a thin brush (I used a clean MAC 210) select your deepest colour and define your lips. Build colour on these lines on the edge to emphasise them and use the excess colour on the brush to fade it inwards towards your mouth.

Then apply your lighter shades on the centre of the lips and blend outwards using a lip brush.

And you're done! 

I think this is a way to wear a purple lip without it being too harsh. I used Rimmel lipstick from the Kate Moss collection in shade 04 and Illamasqua lipstick in 'Wanton' for the centre, accent colour.

Another great way to wear this ombre technique is if you're trying to create a vintage/pin up look as it adds depth and glamour to an otherwise very simple & straightforward makeup look. It creates a strong focus on the lip which is key for a retro feel, plump kissable lips are very important!

For this look I used MAC 'Russian Red' for the outline (deep) colour and blended it with Myface Cosmetics lipstick in '155 Strawberry Fields' . The natural sheen from the Myface lipstick is a nice contrast to the matte finish of 'Russian Red'.

MAC 'Russian Red', Myface Cosmetics '155 Strawberry Fields', Rimmel Kate lipstick in '004' and Illamasqua's 'Wanton'

What do you think of this? Will you be trying this out? Let me know if there are any other colour combinations or looks you'd like to see from me!

Thanks :-)