The Budget Fashionista

Vivid Lips and How to Pull Them Off

What: A pop of brilliant color on lips serves to brighten summer beauty.

What the experts say: Wow-factor magenta, coral and fuchsia lip hues lit up puckers on the runways, but such flash calls for a careful study in preparation. First, rid lips of any flaking skin, makeup artist Meli Pennington tells Glamour. Her advice: 

“Gently brush your mouth with a wet toothbrush.��? Then, contain the color with clear lip liner. Lastly, Pennington suggests taking the edge off of the trend by dialing down the opaqueness. “Brights seem fresher when they’re sheer instead of opaque,��? she says.

What we say: Just like with the dreaded “flock of seagulls��? hairdo of our past, we can’t help but have a knee-jerk gag-reflex when we think about blinding our lips with ultra-bright lip color. But, we’re up for a beauty challenge, and, admittedly, when electric-shades are applied correctly, they seem so refreshingly cool, so uninhibited, so “look-at-me��?—and, are therefore really intimidating. Tackling this trend comes down to confidence, and we’re hyping ourselves up to bowl this one over—big time.

Both MAC and L’Oreal offer up shockingly bright lip color perfect for copying the looks from the runway. MAC’s Mattene Lipstick line is all about delivering hyper-intensity with a matte finish. We’re digging the aptly named Immodest, a fierce magenta that requires you leave all modesty behind. If the $14.50 price tag is too much of a shock to your finances, L’Oreal’s HiP Shine Struck Liquid Lipcolor promises to save you a few bucks plus dole out plenty of long-lasting pigment without a too-matte finish. Despite the lip gloss packaging, this feels and wears more like a lipstick. And if the full-on pigment look is a little too much for you, Ulta’s line of Silky Wear Sheer Lipcolor comes in a range of fun shades that leave only a whisper of sheer color behind.

Bright colors in general are big this summer--check out what we have to say about neon nails.

Photo: Style.com