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As election-year debates rage across the country, there’s a quieter back and forth taking place in front of the bathroom mirror each morning: matte or glossy lips? The Spring runways offered up startlingly beautiful lessons in each—velvety red at Céline, vinyl-like cherry at Nina Ricci—leaving more than a few of us in a swing state of mind.
All the more reason to call upon two trusted (and, it goes without saying, glamorous) talents in makeup—London-based Lisa Eldridge and Violette, of Paris—for their personal takes on the subject. Read on as they each cast a vote in favor of ultra-matte or sophisticated shine.
Violette
The Vote: “I’ve been obsessed with matte lips for as long as I can remember. I don’t really care about trends; makeup should be based more on your attitude, what kind of girl you want to be. With matte, there is something very mysterious, very intense, very chic, and very sensual. The inspiration came when I was quite young: I was in this rose garden in Paris called the Parc de Bagatelle, and I saw for the first time—and last, unfortunately—a black rose, which is actually a very deep red. I thought, ‘Wow, if a lipstick like this could exist, it would be amazing.’ I used to do my own with pure cosmetic pigments that I order from India. Now you see matte lipstick everywhere!”
The Look: “I love when you have no foundation, just a very dewy complexion, and by contrast this amazing strong statement.”
The How-To: Start with a gentle lip exfoliation. Violette recommends Kiko Milano’s Scrub & Peel Wipes. “I’m completely obsessed with the coconut lip balm from Glossier. Apply that as a mask [while] you’re doing your makeup or your hair,” she explains. Then, using a long-wear lip pencil—she likes Givenchy’s—create a precise outline of your mouth, pushing the shape a tiny bit “because there is no light reflection. You don’t want your lips to be too flat or too small.” For a multidimensional red, she’ll first pat on an intensely pigmented eyeshadow (Sugarpill’s in Love+) or blush (Dior’s in Star Fuchsia) before layering on a matte lipstick, such as Anastasia Beverly Hills’s liquid formula in American Doll. Or experiment with unconventional nudes and browns in matte textures, she encourages. “That’s my new thing. It’s superchic.” (Try Kylie Jenner’s Lip Kits in Dolce, Candy, or True Brown if you can get your hands on a sold-out set.) As a final touch, dab on RMS Beauty’s Living Luminizer on the cupid’s bow “so you have this little touch of light.”
Lisa Eldridge
The Vote: “I’m definitely feeling the new type of glossy textures. Gloss was out of fashion for just so long; we all sort of turned our backs on it. [Now] a lot of the treatment lip oils and the formulas that have come by way of Asia do have this sheen, but they’ve got a chicness to them—without that horrible stickiness! A really nicely glossed lip is a beautiful thing to behold because you’re seeing every curve, every angle. It brings out the three-dimensionality a bit. And it just feels nice: My lips are really dry today. The thought of putting on some gloss now is like heaven, absolute heaven.”
The Look: “I’ve always liked those ’70s, really healthy-looking girls who have this type of vibrant texture in their makeup. It still fits in with the geeky trend that’s happening now. Even if you haven’t got a lot of other makeup on, a slightly glossy lip just elevates your look.”
The How-To: “You can whack it on, obviously, which is super easy,” says Eldridge, but “to do it really well, you do need a bit of technique.” The key is to set a solid foundation with lip liner—enhancing the contours as needed—because, “sadly, the only thing that you never get well from gloss is shape enhancement.” She recommends buffing out the color over the entire lip so “you don’t end up with a line around the edge—that’s a bit ’90s!” she adds with a laugh. The next and last step? Swipe on the gloss. “There’s a red lip treatment oil by Hourglass, which is amazing. It looks like a glacé cherry on your lips,” she raves. “Then I like the slightly pink glosses as well. Even if you’ve got a tiny bit on, it just lifts your whole face.” She singles out Tom Ford’s new Patent Finish Lip Color shades for their night-out sophistication; for low-key daytime use, she wears Lancôme’s Juicy Shaker in vivid orange (the collection launches stateside next month) or the Petite Bunny Gloss Bars by the Korean brand TonyMoly, which impart a hint of color. “It’s very Korean-inspired to have that slightly cherubic glossy center to the lips,” she explains. “It looks really fresh and youthful.”
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