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Is lip liner necessary?
Is lip liner necessary? If so, what prompts you to use it regularly? If not, do you ever use it? What keeps you from using it?
Honestly, I’m usually testing lip color, so I rarely use lip liner, since it serves to alter the color as well as extend the wear, which would render a test worthless! I use lip liner when I need long-wearing, crisp lip color, so that typically means special occasions or business events.
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I only use lipliner when I’m wearing a bold shade, so it stays longer, feathers less, etc.
it is completely necessary for dark lipsticks
It actually depends on the color I’m wearing. For pinks, beiges, purples, plums, oranges, etc., I usually don’t have problems with feathering or smearing around the lip lines, so I’ll only put a lip liner on underneath if I want to alter the color or shorten the time between reapplication. Red lip pigment, however, can be a real chore when it comes to long wear. I double lip line in that case – first in a similar liner shade on the entire lip, and then I draw around the edges of my mouth with Urban Decay’s lip liner in Ozone to keep the color from feathering out. Oddly enough, I can sometimes get away without liner for a fuschia/magenta, but for some reason, reds and burgundies just refuse to stay in place without help.
I will occasionally wear a lip liner by itself, usually as a base layer for a lip gloss or for a more subtle, matte lip color.
Usually, I don’t have problems with feathering or bleeding, and I don’t mind reapplication, so it’s not a necessary step for me. However, I’d probably wear lip liner if I were, say, going to a wedding or other fancy event and needed my lipstick to stay put and not fade for a while.
Definitely not necessary unless you’re an avid lipstick wearer. But sometimes it’s nice when you take a natural lip liner pencil and run it around your lips after putting on a gloss. It adds subtle definition and poutiness without showing a distinct line
In my case, a lip liner is very necessary, especially on my upper lip. I have no pigmentation on my upper lip line, so if I don’t use a liner, and only apply lip color to the pigmented part of my lip, I lose alot of fullness. I don’t usually apply it to my actual lip, though, but only to line my lips.
Only with nudes and bold shades. I find with nudes my lips can look shapeless, so I line with a slightly darker nude liner for definition and depth. With bolds, it helps prevent feathering/bleeding, and I think it makes the lip shape look crisper/cleaner. I usually also outline around my mouth with concealer and blend out. Otherwise, with other shades, I’ll use lip liner if I want to alter the color or extend the wear.
I remember the days of burgundy liner & nude lips, or black liner & red lips (I’m quite sure there were other combinations, as well, but those were the most common). I’m probably guilty of straying myself, but I at least *tried* to stay close to the same color. It made me cringe a bit back then when I saw it, but nowadays, I say, “Go for it!” Makeup should make you feel good, above all else.
@Miss J Hi Miss J….I don’t wear lipstick but I wear lip glaze and highly pigment glosses (I can get a good red lip). I wear clear lip liner to help with feathering on runny formulations that I can’t wait to use up or darker colors. I’ve never tried the concealer tip you gave…can you give me some tips? Does it work for the same purpose that I’m using clear lip liner (as a fence)? If you are not wearing makeup (just some gloss, etc.) can you get your concealer blended enough to have it work or do you only use that method when wearing foundation? Thanks!
Kelly B Hi Kelly B! I use the concealer trick in part as a fence, but also as clean up and it makes the shape of the lips look crisper. I still like to use clear lip liner as an additional barrier, though. With the concealer, I just take a stiff brush of some sort (angled helps) and go around the outside edges of my lips then pat it down, and feather the edges. I’ve never used it bare faced…only with full makeup for events or at the very minimum a powder to over the entire face. There’s too much color/texture difference with no other face makeup on, which makes it end up looking like noticeable concealer around the mouth.HTH!
My lips completely lack definition. To the point where I will covetously stare at a woman who has a naturally well defined lip. I don’t mean to look like a creep, I’m just so frustrated with my utter lack of lip defintion. I am never pleased with where the MUA places it either. So YES I use that lipliner like it was going out of style. I used to make my mother cringe with my contrasting color/liner- reminding her of some crazy females from her youth. However I tend to make my own fashion rules-as in I have NONE. Yay Kevyn Aucoin!
I have to use liner, as well. I have enough definition, but my upper lip lacks pigmentation on the lip line, making my already thin lips look even thinner.
18thCenturyFox You win most entertaining answer! Hands down!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have any little wrinkles around your lips then you need lip liner. I don’t use lip liner.
Not for me no. In fact I don’t even own one single lip liner! I did learn a useful trick recently when I complained to an SA about how nude colors always make me look dead. She used a lip liner that’s close to my lip color (maybe just a tiny bit darker) to contour my lips before putting on one of those concealer lipsticks that I would never otherwise purchase and you know what? It worked! I didn’t look dead, and my lips are very defined. Just for that I’d start looking for a good lip liner!
Mostly Sunny Hi Sunny: so interesting because I have never thought of wearing lip liner with a nude lipstick..ever. But it does make some sense because you do lose definition with really light shades of lipstick. And the lip liner didn’t look obvious??
wwendalynne Actually if you blend well then no. I was really skeptical too, but the Estee Lauder SA who tried the trick on me really made it work!
Mostly Sunny Confirmed, it works!! Thank you !!!
wwendalynne Yaaaay I’m so happy it works for you!
for me it’s not, i almost never use is..
To some extent it depends on the actual lipstick formula but as I’ve got older, I have found myself relying on lip liner more than I used to if I’m wearing a darker shade of lipstick. And Lise Watier makes a colourless liner called “Virtual Lip Liner” which is excellent and leaves no ugly ring if your lipstick wears off!
I have quite a bit of pigment to my lips and very deep in skintone so to make some nudes and pinks work I pair with a liner. I usually shy away from lipsticks and glosses that require a liner because very rarely do I reapply.
I really do not care for lip liners and perhaps living through the hideous VLLY (visible lip liner years), it manged to turn me off the product forever. Perhaps I have never found a quality lip liner. Perhaps I haven’t a clue on how to apply lip liner properly. But all I can say, is it looks like total crap on me so I just stay away from it. Whenever I have tried to layer lip liner under my lipstick for greater staying power, it just looks ridiculous. So, when I really want a stay put lip, I use concealer and powder on the outside contour. I dunno..I find lipstick pulls away from lip liner and eventually you are walking around very very VLL or.. VVVLL.. OMG it’s roman numeral time! Wheeeeeeeep.s. And I’m not even medicated..
I really never understood that trend.
xamyx so Pamela Anderson…so NOT me.
Roman Numerals? Killing me! I like the way Gwen Stefani uses dramatic lip liner. I feel like since I lived in Echo Park for awhile I have earned the right to do my darker line and lighter lippie. Trust- no part of me, including the lips, ever resembles PA. It’s all blend blend blend for me! And can I say I am still kicking myself for moving out of Echo Park right before they filmed Drive? Ugh.
18thCenturyFox Gwen is special. I seriously thought her style icon thingee was to cover up a less than spectacular face.. so NOT true. She’s freaking gorgeous without makeup. Some people just seem to have it all Bitch.. LoL :0)
You have indeed earned the right after living in Echo Park, LOL. Blending is a good thing. When I think of VLL, I think “cholas” (whose makeup I quite like), or Pam Anderson, neither look I can pull off.
Depends… I don’t use lip liner myself (but then again, I don’t often use lipstick either). But I do on a client or a model that needs to her lipstick to stay in place and to last.
I only wear it when I’m wearing bright red lipstick and gloss. I use MAC’s cherry and thats about it. I feel like if I had less defined lips I’d wear more.
I only wear lip liner when I go out .. So I have 2 MAC ones and 2 Christian Dior ones but that’s it
oh yes, the MAC VIva glam Nicki M lipstick is wayyyy too bright on me and the liner does help to tone it down. Also, I am blessed with lips bigger than Angelina Jolie so liner helps to make them appear smaller. I only use it with bright lipstick though.
I love my lipliner and must use it because of color bleeding.
I’m in my sixties and I always use a lip liner when I wear lipstick. I choose a shade that is the same color as my natural rosey lips and blend it over the lip so there is no harsh line. It prevents feathering plain and simple. Days that I ‘m just wearing tinted lip balms or glosses, I don’t bother with it.
I come from the generation of a VLL. I am still a fan but wouldn’t at my age wear it.
I personally don’t wear lip liner much. I tend to find it does nothing for my lips. The liners I do have, I use them to fill in my entire lip and then pop a gloss over.
I have never actually just lined my lips with a lip liner. I hate the vll but I will fill in my lips with a lip liner and place a lipstick on top and as long as I don’t eat it off… don’t ask… it extends the color of the lipstick for me.
Sometimes I use lipliner allover my lip then put lipgloss over it…it gives me long-lasting natural looks 🙂
Colored-no, clear- yes..at least for me:)
I only use lipliners with darker colored lipsticks- from brighter pinks and berries to true read. Once in a while I use a nude lipliner for lighter colors but only if I’m playing with my colors.
I only use lip liner when I feel like using it. I dont really think it is necessary for everyday wear
I’ve never used a lip liner. Mainly because I never wear lipsticks. I prefer glosses, which don’t require any lining.
99% of the time I don’t use lipliner – never want it to change the color of my lipstick!!
Absolutely not! I rarely wear lip liner! I only own two, and I use them underneath two glosses that travel outside my lip lines without them. Personally, if I didn’t need them for those two glosses, I’d never use lip liners. Honestly, I hate using them. They are just an extra step in my make up routine! =/
Yes. It provides a surface for the lipcolor to cling to.