How to Create an Ombre Effect for Your Lips

In the past few months, I’ve really grown to love wearing dark bold lipstick. According to my friends, it’s become my signature look. As intimidating as applying dark lipstick can be, it is possible to get amazing results with a little bit of practice! One of my favorite looks with dark lip color is the ombre effect. Basically, your lip color starts with a dark shade and fades into a similar, lighter shade towards the center of your lips.

I think it’s important that when going for this look, you stick to more nude/light eye shadows so that your lips are the focal point of your overall look. I like to use nude eye shadows paired with "cat eye" lined eyelid and a few swipes of mascara. So let's get started on those lips!

Start with clean, well-moisturized lips; ensuring there is no residue from your lip balm or any other makeup products on or around your lips. You’ll need a two complementary lip colors and a lip brush or a dark lip liner {if you don't have a brush. I'm using an eye and lip brush by Ecotools, and chose a matte mauve-colored lipstick to line my lips {Noyah lipstick - Deeply in Mauve}. You could certainly just use a lip liner as well! Using the lip brush and mauve lipstick, I line my bottom lip first, my top lip (outer to inner) and then *open wide* connect top and bottom in the corners. I then go back and fill in towards the middle creating a thicker line of the mauve color.

Lined lips - tutorial by www.sweetcayenne.com — My lips at this point were lined with the mauve lipstick - I had not filled them in yet.

The hardest part is over; and that wasn't so bad, right? All that’s left is to fill in the middle of your lips. I chose a matte lipstick in a deep shade of red to fill in the center of my lips {Nars Velvet Matte in Cruella} and added a touch of red lip gloss to the very center of my lips to further enhance the ombre effect {Tarte lip gloss in True Love}.

Ombre Lip Effect tutorial by www.sweetcayenne.com — Here's the finished look! See how the dark mauve on the outside fades into the red in the center of my lips?

Feel free to experiment with this technique to create your own ombre color combinations - a dark purple lip that fades into a purply-pink would be awesome for spring, as would a rose-colored lined lip that fades into a baby pink. Try it out and upload a photo to Instagram, and be sure to tag it with #SweetCayenne so that we can see your awesome lip look!

Get the look with these products! {Affiliate links)

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