Q: I love the red lip look you did for the model in this photo. I love to wear red lips myself, but I never seem to have any luck when trying to wear red lipstick (or darker lipstick colours for that matter!) How do I keep the lipstick from bleeding into the tiny lines around the mouth?

A: Great question. Red lips are a gorgeous look--but since they make such a bold statement and draw immediate attention--they have to be done right! The tricky thing with darker lipstick colours is that when they smudge or shift into the fine lines, they're waaay more obvious than neutral lipstick colours. Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind when rocking those red lips:

1. Use a matching-coloured lipliner.
Outline the lips with lipliner - you can either follow the shape of your natural lipline or ever-so-slightly draw just outside/inside the lipline to enhance/trim lip size, depending on what you prefer. Use a lip brush to blend the lipliner in towards the centre of the mouth - this will help the lipstick have a base to adhere to. It also ensures that if the lipstick fades, you'll still have some colour left on the lips and avoided the dreaded "ring-around-the-mouth" look.

2. Blot and re-apply.
After applying lipliner and a couple of coats of your red lipstick, use a one-ply tissue to blot your lips. Re-apply the lipstick to finish. Again, this will ensure a bit of colour remains on the lips and maximize the length of its wear as the day goes on.

3. Use a reverse lipliner.
A reverse lipliner is simply a neutral skin-toned colour pencil that can be used to refine the shape of the lips, once lipstick has been applied. Applying a reverse lipliner (like my beloved one by Cargo) will also help to create a border around the lips. This border will help prevent the darker colour from migrating to where it's not supposed to! Make sure you have a fine, sharpened point and trace just outside the lipline's natural border - and voila - red lips as neat as when you initially applied them! (Be sure to blend out the reverse lipliner well, or you'll end up with a lighter ring around the mouth!) The reverse lipliner also works great as a touch-up tool - just pop it into your purse for any touch-ups required later in the day.

4. Use lipgloss sparingly.
Try to avoid applying excessive gloss all over your red lips - remember that gloss is wet in texture, so it has a natural tendency to move. To alleviate this, dab just a bit of shiny gloss on the centre of the bottom lip to add dimension and create the illusion of fuller lips.

Hope this helps!

See related posts:
GET THE LOOK | Red Lips
ARTIST TIP | It's a Fine Line with Reverse Lipliner
Q & A | How do I make lipstick last longer?

The talented Ms. Hung was behind the lens for Bex's Big Day. Note: Not only is Claudia obviously talented, she's super efficient with the photo turn-around time! She had these pics of Bex up in the same day (so you've probably seen them already!) Be sure to check out Claudia's site and artistrhi.com for more of Bex's beautiful day and all the amazing people involved in it!

See related posts:
rebekah + claus, married
WEDDING | Bex

I'm finally getting the chance to post the pics of the stunning bride, Rebekah, who celebrated her Big Day last Friday! Aside from being such a cool and collected bride, I love how Bex wanted to do a glamourous bride look and play with more colour (you don't really get the opportunity to do that when doing bridal make-up!). Check out more pics of the beautiful bride on artistrhi.com!

Congratulations, Bex!!! xo

Katie rockin' the pencil thin brows plus jewels on the eyelids look. You know, just adorned in her usual Sunday's best ;)

Just capped off an amazingly busy week of make-up with a Team Cheema photoshoot (which always makes for a fantastic ending to the week)! Our two models are faces you may find familiar from having worked with them in the past: the gorgeous Katie and the lovely Ada!

The hair and make-up prep was done at Fiorio (Yonge/St. Clair) for a good 4 hours, and then we headed off to the studio to meet up with Nads. The theme of the shoot was a 1920s/1930s theme, so a key element to the make-up look I attempted was pencil thin brows. Now, instead of having to make our lovely models sacrifice their naturally gorgeous arches, I used a combo of glue, concealer, foundation AND powder to cover the brows, so that I could re-draw them on pencil thin. Fabs aka Fabio Persico did a wicked job on hair once again; I wish I could learn from him by osmosis! I loved the overall look we achieved here, so I made sure to get a couple of snaps with my camera phone (in other words, resolution quality isn't at its finest but you get the point!):

Closer-up view of the thinned out brows + individual jewels placed on the lashline (yes, I'm slightly biased, but I love this look!)

Ada workin' the thin brows plus feathers

@studio: Team Cheema and Ada (elongating those legs)!

Awesome shoot today! Now, to catch up on emails and blogging :) Stay tuned for more pics!!

My make-up table always starts off neat...

The gorgeous bride, Cathy

The warm days are finally upon us, and it's that time of the year: wedding season! I've had an amazing week of three weddings (with three gorgeous and sweet-hearted brides) and an editorial shoot with Claudia Hung. Needless to say, I have lots of catching up to do in terms of blogging and picture posting. In the meantime, enjoy the photos from Cathy's wedding last Sunday. Cathy's place was abuzz with the excitement of family and friends, as we dolled her up for the Big Day. Cathy and her family were so sweet - in true Filipino fashion, her Mom sent me home with some good Filipino home cooking once the make-up was all done!

Thank you Cathy for letting me take part in your special day :) Check out more from Cathy's Wedding Day here.