How to be beautiful: Lip service

 

Rhiannon Harries
Saturday 10 December 2011 20:00 EST
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Beauty trends are often perverse in their inspiration, based on a high-falutin idea of how we look in a certain situation, not the less appealing reality. Bedhead hair is one. The so-called "red- wine lips" on the autumn catwalks are a more extreme example.

If you've ever seen – or, shudder, been – someone with genuinely wine-stained lips, you'll know that what may be liquid garnet in the glass turns to purplish tar on skin. So the smudgily-pigmented, burgundy lips at Carolina Herrera suggested serious wishful thinking.

Still, if it's about channelling a mood, then the effect was spot-on. There is a moment – usually at some point during your second glass – when reality seems to relax a little and its hard edges soften. A lip stain – as opposed to full-on lipstick or gloss – is a similarly mellow take on lip colour; sultry without being too "done".

Although you can buy dedicated products, it's as easy to create the effect by blotting regular lipstick well. Layer with a waxy, not-too-shiny balm. You may accessorise with a Merlot – just don't let it pass your lips.

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