Lipstick Frustration to Lipstick Sensation - Day 2 (With Jay Harper)

 WHAT COLOR WOULD LOOK GOOD FOR ME?

There’s no science to this, but there are some concepts. Once you wrap your head around these concepts, they will ease your fears and allow you to experiment more. In turn, they will allow you to find all kinds of new colors and looks you had never thought of… or were afraid of!

I’ve performed many lipstick transformations in person. No matter your age, race, shape or complexion, lipstick is universally fascinating… and intimidating.

FIRST THINGS FIRST
LIPSTICK IS THE MOOD BOOSTER
OF YOUR MAKEUP BAG

It’s no wonder lipstick is fascinating. The lips are one of the most sensual things about your body. You share your most intimate kisses, your messages, your favorite subjects... all with your lips.

Sometimes, you see a stranger and she commands your attention, and you might not even know why.

Few people think about the fact that your lips and mouth convey a lot of emotions, similar to the way body posturing does. You’ve probably read about “reading someone’s body language”, but what about lip language?

There actually is a science behind lip language. Why? Because we as humans have a habit of looking at another’s mouth when we are reading their overall tone and body language. It’s part of the unconscious “sizing up of the situation” . We do it to mentally decode each other’s mood, tone and emotional set, and you don’t even know you do it.

Parted, pursed, puckered, flattened, moving, twitching, biting, and licking… all cues, among some, to another’s current state of mind and intentions. Start paying attention, and you will find you do it without thinking.

Your eye’s generally scan someone to determine what’s about to happen. Is this about to be a happy conversation or a confrontation. Is this person of value to me, or about to say something important?

Your eyes scan their eye’s, over all manner of dress, general appearance, hair, then… mouth… and in less than 1 second, you’ve unconsciously decided how you are going to handle whatever is about to take place in this interaction.

YOU DECIDE THE STORY YOUR LIPS TELL

They can be playful or tense, seductive or agreeable, stunning or purposely expected, simple & lovely or magnetizing. They can “Act Your Age” or “Act Another Age”, they can be ready for church or ready for the gala, they can graceful or irresistible. YOU can be amiable, bewitching, understated or overstated: elegant, lovable, tempting, intimidating, or cute.

What it boils down to is …

…lipstick is the mood booster of your makeup bag.

All of the “emotions” I have just described you are, in all honesty, moods. They change from day to day, season to season, setting to setting… this is life, and for every thing under the sun, there is a season.

Lipstick is that one piece of makeup that always allows you to perfectly tailor your look and appearance, to your mood. It completes the mood, keeping you confident and moving forward.

TO THIS END, YOU CAN'T ACCOMPLISH

THAT... WITH ONE LIPSTICK

If you’ve worn the same shade of brown and browner lipstick for 20 years, you better sit up and pay attention. Because, you’re stuck in a rut, and everyone around you sees it (and might even be a little tired of it).

Here’s the real answer to the question of “What Color Would Look Good On Me?”… Almost ALL OF THEM.

“How can this be, Jay?” you say. What about warm, winter, autumn and spring —- hogwash.
The real truth is, clashes do happen, but they are rare, and I’m about to show you why.

Once you get your head wrapped around these three concepts, your mind will expand!

IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO FULLY JUDGE A LIPSTICK BY

LOOKING AT IT, OR A PHOTO OF IT

When you look at a lipstick as a bullet, you’re only getting 5% of the picture. The entire lipstick is compressed into a dense, half inch thick chunk. All you see is what the light reflects off of the outside into your eyes.

But you'll never wear a lipstick a half in inch thick. You wear lipstick is thin short layers.

It’s kinda like water… in very shallow, clear water, you can easily see through it to the sandy bottom. But clear or murky, once water hits a certain depth, you will never be able to see through it to the bottom.

Lipstick is like this, sometimes it will come off sheer, sometimes murkier, but you will never know until you spread it out onto something.

You will also never see the true base color until you spread it out on some white paper. Which leads me directly into my next concept…

CONCEPT #2
Your Base Lip Color

Have you ever rubbed a lipstick on the back of your hand, liked it, bought it, but hated it on your lips?

If you’re like most people, the base color of you lips is different than the rest of your bodies skin tone. Base lip colors are an amazing array of colors and tones. Look around you, friends and co-workers. You will notice pink lips, pink red lips, pink brown lips, brown lips, nude lips, rusty lips, red lips, rusty brown lips…. and it doesn’t always have anything to do with the rest of their skin tone.

Any lipstick color you put on your lips is going to mix with your base lip color to form a new color. Unless you’re in the habit of piling on way too much lipstick, which I am going to show you exactly how to break that habit in Day 3, and solve many frustrations by doing so….

Generally, when applied correctly, the lipstick is going to change with your lips.

This is ANOTHER REASON why you cannot fully judge a bullet by it’s color. There’s no right or wrong to this… but make it a habit to take note of the base color of any lipstick. And I mean spread it out super thin on white paper, and look at it. Is it fuscia? Purple? Blue? Orange? Pink? Lavender? Mauve?… every lipstick will be a little different, and this is where the magic begins.
Over time, you will fine tune your senses, and do this quickly with a full understanding of how a lipstick base mixes with your base.

This is one of the biggest frustrations about lipstick!

— is not understanding why a lipstick looks different on you than it does in the tube. And it’s not a bad thing, it just might be frustrating when you are going for one thing, and you get a different results. Once you understand it, you can control it, and it becomes your power. Of course, this requires that you be unafraid to experiment. That means buying lipsticks and trying them. Do it.. just ask what the return policy is, and if it’s good.. go nuts.

CONCEPT #3
It's All About The Coordinated Look

Coordination is the key. The best lipstick color is the one that “makes” your look… today.

Lipstick is going to set the tone for everything about YOU, TODAY. Even it’s a totally nude lip set in place on purpose to support a heavy eye… it’s the lipstick that completes it.

When you look coordinated, you look like you care. I’m not saying that every single minute, of every single day, you gotta be on your A-Game. All I’m saying is, in those times where you care about your presentation, a coordinated look is going to help you look your absolute best
(and yes, sometimes I do like purposefully uncoordinated looks).

Whenever you look at a magazine cover, or a glamour ad for perfume, or whatever… In most cases, you will notice that the professional person putting this together has matched a lipstick color… to something else in her outfit.

It might be her shirt, her scarf, her earrings, her bracelets, her jacket, her rings, but somewhere, they are going to coordinate.

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…its all about the coordinated look. You’re going to be frustrated as all get out if you try to make one lipstick color match every outfit you own.

And when you look at it like this, it all of a sudden seems so much more simple. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Experimentation is where you going to find the most awesome, amazing new things you never knew you didn’t know about.

Tomorrow is Day 3 of our Lipstick Frustration course:

Chill Out On The Intensity...

Until Tomorrow,

Jay Harper