How To Apply Lip Liner

Darlings, discover how to apply lip liner to perfect the look of your pout! Lip liner is a magical makeup bag essential that acts as the secret to fuller-looking lips while helping to boost the staying power of your lipstick.

The key to lip liner application is the perfect colour match! With the right shade of my Lip Cheat lip liner, you can create a pouty, natural-looking lip shape that you can wear day or night.

Discover my tips and tricks on how to apply lip liner with this easy tutorial featuring iconic, globally loved and NEW! shades of my award-winning Lip Cheat lip liner!

How To Apply Lip Liner: A Step-by-Step Guide

How To Apply Lip Liner: More FAQs

Where should you start when applying lip liner?

The best way to apply your lip liner is to start with your top lip. Glide your lip liner along the natural line of your lips starting halfway between your Cupid’s bow and the corner of your mouth. Trace back and forth along your top lip to create a defined line that softly accentuates the shape of your cupid’s bow and connects with the outer corners of your mouth. Once you’ve perfected the look of your top lip, you can line your bottom lip to balance out your shape.

Do you put lip liner or lipstick on first?

Lip liner is designed to be applied before lipstick. You can reshape and define the look of your lips with lip liner to create a fuller-looking lip shape, which in turn makes it easier to get a neater lipstick application. Filling in your lips with lip liner before applying lipstick can also help to build intensity, giving lipstick greater colour opacity and helping to increase its longevity.

Should lip liner be darker or lighter than lipstick?

As a rule, your lip liner should be a close colour match to your lipstick to help them mesh seamlessly on the lips. However, you can also use a darker shade of lip liner to contour the look of your lips; reach for a shade that mimics natural shadows on the outline of your lips to make them appear fuller and more dimensional.

What is overlining lips?

Overlining your lips involves applying lip liner just outside of your natural lip line. It’s sometimes referred to as overdrawing and is the secret to exaggerating the look of your lip shape. Your lip line is the very edge of your lips where the pigment of your lips stops and your skin tone begins; taking your lip liner and subtly overlining past this point allows you to create the illusion of a fuller, wider-looking lip shape.

Are you supposed to blend lip liner?

You can blend your lip liner to get a softer, more natural-looking lip look, however, to create a well-defined lip line it’s important to leave the outer portion of your lip liner sharp and unblended. The purpose of lip liner is to create a defined line around the lips and blending out the line you have created will lose the definition you’ve built. To get a flawless blend, I suggest lining and filling in your lips with lip liner, then applying a lipstick or lip gloss inside the lines to create a diffused, soft-focused finish.

Can you wear lip liner alone?

Yes – you can wear lip liner on its own, darlings. Whether you want to use a lip liner shade that’s close to your lip colour to softly enhance the look of your lip shape, or you want to use a bold shade of lip liner to fill in your lips, you can create a magical lip makeup look with a single lip liner.

How can I make my lip liner look natural?

To get a natural-looking finish with lip liner, choose a shade that’s a close match for the natural tone of your lips such as a beige-nude, pink or brown. Opting to follow the natural line of your lips instead of overlining them will also create a more natural look.

Tilbury Tip: My Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk Original is everyone’s perfect shade! I created Pillow Talk as the perfect nude-pink shade that suits everyone – it’s a natural makeup must-have!

Shop Pillow Talk Original Lip Liner

What lip liner shade makes lips look bigger?

Darker shades of lip liner can help lips appear bigger and more voluptuous. Deeper shades like browns, mauves and mid-toned pinks can mimic the look of shadows to create the appearance of contouring on the lips. By accentuating the outline of your lips with lip liner, you can create the illusion of fuller, wider, plumper-looking lips!

Tilbury Tip: To make your lips appear bigger with lip liner, discover my Supersize Me Lip Cheat!

Discover how to make lips look bigger

Darlings, I never go anywhere without my Pillow Talk Original Lip Cheat! Now that you’ve learnt how to apply lip liner, use my makeup secrets to create the illusion of a fuller, more defined-looking pout!