Fear Red No More
Red is a bold choice of color and if you're a makeup novice, red can automatically make you feel like you're wearing too much makeup. If not applied correctly, red can easily look overdone.

The Red Rule
The key to successfully wearing red lipstick is to make your lips be the feature you want to enhance.

The beauty is you'll need less makeup and feel very put together. Meaning, put down the heavy eye shadow, blush, brows, etc. Have your face look clean with light makeup, a wash of champagne eye shadow, lining the eyes to enhance the lash line only - if you wish. Playing with basic shades of black, brown, or charcoal.

Red lips pair nicely with a soft clear bronzer for your cheeks instead of a true blush. Again, remember your goal it is play down your other features! My rule is, groomed eyebrows are an absolute when pulling off red lips. Red lips speak- "I am self assured and daring" all balancing out great looking brows!

The Safe Red
Gloss and/or a tint, it's a softer, more sheer effect. If your goal is the true natural look, meaning; it's a blue jeans and tee shirt day -- a suggestion for longer wearability, lightly feathering in the entire lip with a true nude liner -- following up with your red gloss. Giving you less room to make noticeable lining mistakes.

Full Proof Your Red
Light to medium skins look best in a cooler based red -- while warmer reds tend to compliment medium to dark skins. You can reverse this if you desire added drama. Red lipsticks do tend to bleed more than any other lip color.

My makeup secret is to lightly press an oil absorbing powder onto the lips before your lip color. and/or a lip liner that isn't creamy.

The Red Alternative
Crimson lips will be the show stopper this season. Bricks and wines are a more neutral version of the classic red lip and are more user friendly. These colors also should be paired with a clean face and not too much makeup.