The perfect red lipstick

The perfect red lipstick

How to find the shade most suitable for you and manage to create the makeup look exactly you want

Style & trends

The first and most important thing to know is what type of a look we want to create. Some shades of red are associated with eras in fashion and styles or trends from the past so we should make sure to choose a color in accordance to this. For example if you’re trying to create a Marylin Monroe inspired look - you should surely opt for a brick red colour while if we’re trying to dress up as Cruella de Vil, who is an extremely popular character right now, for Halloween - you shall chose a bright bold classic shade of red.

Type and texture

It’s usually a matter of choice and preference only but it’s also pretty important. You can opt for a more liquid textured red lipstick or a more creamy/matte one.

A benefit of liquid lipsticks is that they are light and hydrating - so your look won’t be too formal. Unfortunately they will probably be less pigmented and might get runny if you don’t use a lip pencil. Yes, this could be used as creative approach but most of the time it’s just annoying. Especially fond are moments when we flaunt a colored in red smile on important photographs while actually believing we look classy.

A benefit of creamy and matte lip colours is that they are less likely to run or smudge, they are usually more pigmented and long-lasting and you can even mix two different shades - darker for the lip corners and lighter for the middle part of the lips. The only warning here is in regards to lipcare because you need to get your lips properly moisturized before applying the creamy/matte lip colour in order to get the lipstick to both look and feel good.

Lipsticks: DIOR, Maybelline, HM, NYX Cosmetics

Undertones

It may sound a little bit complex especially for someone who doesn’t know a lot about painting and colours because we talk about colour mixing. However, it is very logical and easy to understand - every colour can vary and have either a warm undertone or a cold undertone, as the warm undertone is yellowish and the cold undertone is blueish. For example a warm undertone red is the colour of bricks, the traffic light red, the strawberry red. A cold undertone red is the raspberry red, the dark red rose colour and the wine red.

The same thing about undertones is true for our skin colour - and each of us has a warmer or colder undertone to their skin.

The key advice is to choose a lipstick colour with undertones that match your skin undertones. So if you have a warmer skintone - you shall choose a more orangy, brick red or classic bright red and if you have a cold skin undertone - you should opt for a colder shade such as wine red or some raspberry shade. Simple as that.

Despite these little “rules” I just shared with you of course you may fall in love with any red lipstick shade regardless of anything just said simply because you like it or it matches an outfit you have - and of course it’s all fine!

I hope I managed to help you find “your” red lipstick shade. Anyway if you’re like me - you’ll always have many favourites.

- Nicole

My new favorite place to shop - NYX Cosmetics

The first ever NYX Cosmetics store in Bulgaria, Sofia opened doors last month and it quickly became one of my favorite places to shop. With great affordable prices and amazing products that I’ve been dreaming of for so long, it sure couldn’t be any better. <3

I couldn’t attend the grand opening of the store since I was at work all day but I made sure to visit it as soon as I could in the weekend. And let me say my visit went very well and took more than an hour haha because I just fell in love with everything and couldn’t stop looking around.

Let’s start with the cool videos playing on the screens inside and outside the store that feature some super talented and Insta famous makeup arists for example my favorite girl Leigh Dickson. Next thing to mention – all the products were so cool and I swear I’ve never seen more shades of makeup ever in my life. Although I still haven’t tried as many as I would like to, I surely will so stay tuned haha.

I bought some very useful and quality products that you’ll see in the photos below. And I also got a contour palette as a present because there was a promo campaign after the opening of the store. I’ve never contoured before because I’m not really into that trend but I occasionally use the highlighters and I like them a lot.

Thank you for reading guys. :) I’d love to hear your opinions on the store so make sure you share them in the comments.

Also do you like NYX in general? What is your favorite NYX product? What other makeup and comsetic brands do you use?

- Nicole

JULY FAVORITES

So now that July is over, it's time for taking a look at my fave things from last month. The weather was great and I got to spend lots of time strolling around town and shopping.

#1 Aaaand I finally found and bought a wrap choker and I have been in love with it eversince. I've seriously been looking for one in the past few months and I was very happy to find this cutie. It has two star pendants that are both classy and kinda playful so it actually fits my style very very well. So expect to see it a lot in my outfit Insta posts haha.

#2 The next fave of mine is my brand new set of makeup brushes! I just love them already and I've only had them for like two weeks. I found them absolutely accidentaly but they are really soft and high quality. My makeup surely looks like ten times better now. Happy! :D

#3 Another July favorite of mine surely is my new fragrance. It's a present from my mom and it's a Pur Blanca perfume by AVON. I have loved this scent for so long guys, I had one a couple of years ago, then got another one and soon it was my to-go perfume. It lasts really long and it's a floral fragrance great for summer.

#4 I also included here my new elastic telephone wire hand/hair band. I honestly don't know how exactly to call it so I used all the words I came up with. :D It's comfy, cute and easily goes as a bracelet. And if you suddenly decide that you want to put your hair up? Voila! you also have a hair tie.

#5 And last but not least, another one of my July favorites is a present form my bff. It's Treacle moon's Marshmallow Heaven hand cream. No need to say it smells like marshmallows :D. I haven't tried any other products from Treacle moon yet but I definitely will be in the future because they all just smell so so good. And I'll keep you updated of course.

Now it's your turn. Do you like these? And how about your July favorites? Can't wait to read about it in the comments below. :)

- Nicole