Red is the colour of February’s holiday of love and has long been associated with the sexy, the powerful and the feminine. A red lip is never out of style. It is always a confidence booster. It can also be a Pavlovian signal: it certainly is for my husband, who never notices my haircut or the expensive new nude lipstick I carefully selected, but always compliments and appreciates a red lip. It subtly demonstrates I’m making an effort.
The allure of red lips goes back a long way – to Mesopotamia in 3500 BC, when nobles wore lip tint made from crushed red rock – and has resurfaced over the centuries since. From the Han Dynasty from 300 BC on, vermilion pigment mixed with beeswax adorned the lips of both men and women. In 18th-century France, the craze at the court was for red lips painted with animal fat and beetroot colouring. It is the mark of a fully fledged geisha in Japan to adorn herself with a red lip. But it was the early decades of the 20th century when bold red lips took on a modern symbolism. We hear a lot about suffragette white, but there was also suffragette red: red lips came to symbolize defiance. Jumping on this bandwagon, Canadian-born beauty entrepreneur Elizabeth Arden handed out tubes of her lipstick to suffragettes marching on Fifth Avenue in New York. Later, during the Second World War, red lips were deployed to take a stand against Nazism, as Hitler, apparently, hated cosmetics and especially red lips, preferring the Aryan ideal of a freshly scrubbed face. Arden is part of this story, too, producing a line called Montezuma Red for lips, nails and blush for women who joined the support ranks.
To get the 21st-century take on the look, I spoke to makeup artist Jukka Suutari, who works in fashion, film and TV, from Canada’s Drag Race to The Great Canadian Baking Show, and with celeb clients such as Elle Macpherson and Annie Murphy. To him, a classic red lip is a sign of strength, femininity and sophistication. Don’t let anyone tell you you are ever too old for a red lip; Suutari is a fan of the look on women of every age. His go-to celebrity references range from Old Hollywood – Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Elisabeth Taylor – to modern-day beauties such as human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, burlesque star Dita Von Teese and actresses Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren and Tracee Ellis Ross. But his favourite examples are (the late) designer Iris Apfel, the iconic soul-funk-jazz artist Sade and model Carmen Dell’Orefice, who still rocks scarlet lips at age 93.
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The right red can be tricky, though. Makeup artists often custom-blend colours, which is above our paygrade, but they can steer you towards understanding your colour tone. Suutari gives us a quick primer on how to understand your undertone: “There is an easy way to check,” he says, “look at your veins in your neck or arm. If they are blue or purple-ish then you’re more cool undertone. If they are green/olive-ish, you have a warm undertone.” If you can’t tell which you are, most likely you have neutral undertones.
In general, he says, deep skin tones look great with warm-undertone reds, and very fair skin tones look great with cool-undertone reds and “true” reds. “Cool undertones are more blue/red; warm undertones are peach/gold,” he explains.
In terms of depth of colour, “if you’re timid, start with softer textures, like sheer lipsticks and balms.” (We love Sephora’s Moisturizing Lip Balm in cherry or watermelon). Opaque reds are a bit of a commitment (think about whether you are going to be eating or not!) and more of a challenge to apply. I asked Suutari for suggestions for red lip products and application techniques for mature ladies. “I probably would steer away from super glossy finishes,” he says, “Glossy finishes tend to ‘travel’ and run into the fine lines around the mouth.”
First, start with lip care, a particularly critical step in February when the whipping wind and indoor heating is wreaking havoc on your pucker. “Make sure your lips are conditioned for a flawless application,” he says. “A nice lip scrub is a good start.” Fresh Sugar Lip Polish Exfoliator is an indulgently delicious one, using brown sugar to scrub and shea and jojoba to moisturize. If you’re worried about the lip colour bleeding, try lip liners. “I often do the full application just with lip pencils, they last a long time and you can play with the texture by adding balm or gloss.” A versatile red option is the Ruby Woo lip liner from M.A.C. Suutari is also a fan of lip primers; Anastasia Beverly Hills Hydrating and Smoothing Lip Primer is a cult favourite known for its longwear hold and moisture punch.
To make your lip colour last, he suggests a layer of lipstick, then a layer of loose powder dusted on top, dabbed off with a tissue to regulate the amount. Then you put a final coat of lipstick on. This is the trick, he says, of professional dancers and singers who need their lipstick to stay put under performance conditions.
Suutari’s pro kit is always stocked with his top all-time red lipsticks, including this trio from M.A.C: Russian Red (cool – and Madonna’s favourite), Ruby Woo (cool), and Lady Danger (warm). He loves DIOR 999 (warm red with a hint of blue that works for almost all skin tones), NARS Starwoman (cool), Charlotte Tillbury’s Love Bite (warm) and Hollywood Vixen (warm). For a great drugstore pop of red, I swear by Cherries in the Snow by Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick. It has just a hint of pink, because I always find true red too much on my blonde colouring.
Balance is key to keeping red lips from overwhelming your look. Suutari agrees with the timeless advice to go more neutral with eye makeup when you wear a strong lip. “Then use a soft blush to make the look cohesive,” he adds.
Take the time to put on a red lip, and you will stand up straighter, feel more pulled together and, as history has shown, make a (confident) statement to the world.
Always asking questions,
—Leanne Delap
