Makeup Masterclass - Rahzia Johnson

Red lips, they're classy, seductive, and a pain to be perfect. although red lips are a beautiful asset to a look, showing confidence and a touch of chic, they are also the easiest lips to mess up on and when a flaw is marked, the most noticeable. If you think about it, red lips are the accent jewelry that you wear to complete your look. Only in this case, the accent is on your lips. Red lips are also very tricky and precise as because they pull focus, your whole look in general from head to toe needs to be based around them. A quote by Heather Williams, a makeup artist and beauty blogger sums this up perfectly when she states "When choosing to wear red lipstick, you’ll have to base the entire rest of your outfit around it. Red is bold, striking, and can be brilliant if worn the right way. Yet, when it isn’t, it can be tacky, trashy and tragic!"

 I decided for my first post on this project I would focus on mastering my red lip technique using Jemma Kidd's signature Red lip step by step guide in her book "Jemma Kidd Make-up Masterclass." I chose to do this look first because although it may seem like an easy look, it in reality is very hard to perfect, and many people tend to have quite obvious flaws in their red lip looks when doing them.

For this look you will need
Lip Balm
Lip Scrub
Foundation
Red Lip Liner
Red Lipstick (in a tone of your choice)
An angled lip brush (or you could use an angled liner brush)

Before using Jemma's professional techniques, I attempted the look how I normally would wear it. Below are the before pictures on how I used to apply my red lips without professional tips

As you can tell, before without Jemma's professional techniques I would tend to over-line my lips and go outwards of the inner corners of my lips excessively causing my lips to look unnatural and quite messy. 

Jemmas Technique for her signature red lips:

First I prepped my lips:

Next, I lined my lips using the tips Jemma Provided:

Then I Filled in the pencil liner with an angled brush:

Last but not least I filled in my lips with my lip shade of choice and added lip gloss to the center, as suggested by Jemma to add fullness and the look was finished!

Overall I believe that Jemma's Technique has helped me drastically improve my red lip look. as you can tell from the before and after my lips look much more natural and full, rather than messily over lined and unnatural. I will definitely continue using Jemma's technique in the future because with her technique, I've officially mastered red lips! 

Question of the day: Have you ever done red lips? if so feel free to comment down below and share your experience doing them as well as how you think I did and possible tips for improvement! - Rahzia Johnson 11/30/16

Mattocks, Zia, Vikki Grant, and Jemma Kidd. Jemma Kidd Make-up Masterclass: Beauty Bible of Professional Techniques and Wearable Looks. London: Jacqui Small, 2009. Print.