Your Stylist: The perfect red lips for the holidays
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Resident Image stylist and market editor Melissa Magsaysay soothes your sartorial woes in the weekly Your Stylist blog column
In this installment of Your Stylist, we talk about the red lipstick trend. A bright crimson pout is nothing new –- not this season or in general, but it just feels especially right around this time of year and works to perk up any look. Red lips punctuate a simple black dress, add polish to a casual look or even more sex appeal to a screen siren walking the red carpet.
There are so many shades out there that vary from orange to burgundy, but for winter it seems that it’s the true, classic reds that are taking over the mouths of Hollywood celebrities and high school student alike.
A few of my personal favorites have packaging that’s equally as alluring as its contents, which is always a draw when it comes to beauty products. YSL makes a color called Le Rouge from the Pur Couture line. Besides the shiny gold tube’s contrast to the poppy red shade, the product goes on like buttery satin. It’s an emollient, semi-matte finish that looks and feels totally glamorous.
Two colors from Nars that are equally as fun are Jungle Red and Dragon Girl. Both go on more matte than the YSL formula and tend to be a bit more impervious to sips of wine. Jungle Red is a slightly pink-ish red and takes a minute to get on and finagle into place so the lines are all perfect. Dragon Girl is a velvety matte pencil that goes on like a lipstick and like its name insinuates, the color is a super sexy, deep red that has a tinge of blue to it.
Another fun red is the color that just came out of the Lanvin for H&M collection. It’s another blue-tinged red like Dragon Girl and it really pops against a jewel toned cocktail dress. The lipstick (If you can find it. It seems to have disappeared as quickly as the clothing from the collection did) comes in a cute pink tube and goes on slick and satin-y.
And for anyone who’s most concerned with the staying power of a red lipstick (so it doesn’t fade and leave you looking like you drank a giant vat of fruit punch), there’s L’Oreal Infallible lip color in Beyonce Red. This product is two sided. One wand puts on the bright red color, which is thick and feels almost like an acrylic paint. The other side is a clear coat that locks in (feels like shellac) the red color. This stuff does not move and can tend to feel a little dry as the night goes on. But if you want something that won’t fade for hours, this formula works.
Red lips can amp up an already sex-pot look like Megan Fox or add some dimension to an angelic face like Taylor Swift’s. But ultimately, red lipstick is an easy, go-to beauty item that works year-round and especially at the holidays.
Send your style queries to melissa.magsaysay@latimes.com
Right: YSL pur couture lipstick in Le Rouge, $30 at Barneys New York, Beverly Hills/YSL; left: Nars Jungle Red lipstick, $24 and Dragon Girl, $24 both at www.narscosmetics.com/NARS; right: L’Oreal Infallible lip color in Beyonce Red, $11.99 at CVS/L’Oreal