This look shows that red lips can be paired effectively with coloured eyeshadows on the eyes (not just neutrals) if they are kept very soft.  I used a crease/blender brush (MAC 217) to softly smudge olive green and forest green eyeshadows onto the lid.

I completed the look using a rose-gold blusher and, of course, the hot orange-red lipcolour (Maybelline Colour Drama Velvet Lip Pencil in 410 Fab Orange) shown in the photos.

Looking for more tips, techniques and look ideas for when wearing red lipstick? If so, you might like other articles and products featured as part of the ‘All About Red Lips’ series.

Here’s how to re-create this look:

Products

Base: Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original
Lid: MAC Greensmoke eyeshadow (medium sparkly silver-olive green)
Crease: MAC Bottlegreen eyeshadow (dark matte bottlegreen)
Highlight: MAC Ricepaper eyeshadow (light shimmery cream-gold)
Inner Corners: MAC Ricepaper eyeshadow (as above)
Lower Lashline: MAC Greensmoke eyeshadow ( as above)
Inner Lower Lashline: MAC Ricepaper eyeshadow (as above)
Upper Lashline: MAC Black-Tied eyeshadow (deep satin black with sparkles)
Black mascara (upper and lower lashes)
Cheeks: Benefit Blusher in Rockateur (satin rose-gold) (click to read more about this product)
Cheek Highlighter: The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer (light champagne-gold) (click to read more about this product)
Lips: Maybelline Colour Drama Velvet Lip Pencil in 410 Fab Orange (demi-matte orange-red)

Steps

1. Apply Primer Potion all over the lid as a base. You can either use your fingers or a flat synthetic brush (e.g. MAC 242).

2. Take a crease/blender brush (e.g. MAC 127) and gently pat Greensmoke on to the eyelid.  I used a crease/blender brush instead of a flat shader brush for this step as I wanted to keep the colour very soft and diffused (flat shader brushes generally make a colour look more dense and packed on)

3. Sweep Bottlegreen into the crease using a windshield wiper motion (e.g. MAC 217).

4. Using a crease/blender brush (e.g. MAC 217) or a pointed crease brush (e.g. MAC 226), sweep Ricepaper on to the browbone to highlight and blend out the edges of the crease colour.

5. Take a small eyeshadow brush (e.g. MAC 228) and pat Ricepaper into the inner corners to help brighten the eyes.  You can use a crease/blender brush for this step if you want to stick to only using one brush.

6. Take an angled liner brush (e.g. MAC 266) and lightly stamp Black-Tied along the upper lashline.  Using an eyeshadow instead of a pencil for this step gives much softer definition to the lashline.

7. Take a pencil brush (e.g. MAC 219) and lightly sweep Greensmoke along the lower lashline.  Apply a little Ricepaper to the inner lower lashline to add extra brightness to the eyes.

8. Apply black mascara to the top and bottom lashes.

9. Take a blusher brush (e.g. Real Techniques Multi-Task Brush) and apply Rockateur blusher to the cheeks.

10. Take a small contour or highlight brush (e.g. Real Techniques Setting Brush) and dust Mary-Lou Manizer on to the top of the cheekbones.  This step helps to highlight the cheekbones and make them look more pronounced.  You can also apply a little of Mary-Lou Manizer lightly at the top of the cupid’s bow (on your lips), lightly across the forehead and down the centre of the nose to further brighten the face.

11. Take Fab Orange lip pencil and line the edges of the lips.  Fill in the lips with Fab Orange.  This product is fantastic, as you can use it to line and give colour to the lips – extremely versatile and easy to use!

Here are some bigger versions of the pictures above, in case you want to take a closer look at this ‘Face of the Day’: