Lip makeup

Liner goes on your natural lip line, or at most a millimetre outside it. Beyond that it becomes visible, and more to the point the product migrates back to the natural line over the course of a day.

What liner really does is fix symmetry. Most people have one side of the lip slightly fuller than the other, and that is what gets corrected.

The same red reads differently on two people, and that depends on undertone rather than on how light or dark the skin is.

• Warm undertone — amber, terracotta, warm red, brick
• Cool undertone — raspberry, blue-red, cool pink
• Neutral — both work, so the choice is about mood
• A dark lip on any undertone — cover the natural colour first, then apply

Lip colour goes first through eating and drinking, which is unavoidable. But there is a second, less familiar reason: the lip is a constantly renewing surface, and product holds on it far less well than on skin.

So staying power is built in layers: liner across the whole lip, colour, blot with a tissue, second layer. Those four steps outperform one thick application by a wide margin.

Matte lipstick is the longest-wearing and the most drying. On naturally dry lips a matte formula emphasises fine lines and looks uneven by the end of the day.

The answer is preparation rather than a different product: exfoliating and moisturising twenty minutes before makeup makes even a matte formula comfortable.

A strong lip is the rare element that changes an entire look with minimal effort. It works even when the eyes are barely touched.

That is particularly useful when time is short and on video calls, where subtle eye work does not read through a camera at all while lip colour always does.