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Establish a great base. With lips this dramatic, you’ll want your skin to look as flawless as possible. (This look is about precision and perfection, in case you hadn’t noticed.) So, after moisturizing, create a seamless, long-wearing canvas with a full-coverage foundation that still feels light and airy on your skin. Gal is wearing ColorStay Full Cover Foundation in True Beige. Brush it on starting in the center of your face and moving out toward the sides (we like to use the Revlon Buffing Foundation Brush). This keeps the bulk of the product in the middle of your face (where most of us tend to have the most redness and discoloration) and makes the color diffuse the most naturally from your jawline to your neck.
Downplay your less-than-favorite spots. Reach for an easy-to-blend, creamy concealer like ColorStay Full Coverage Concealer (Gal’s shade is Light Medium) and dot it on any areas you’d like to hide such as blemishes, redness around your nose, and darkness in the undereye area. Then take your finger and lightly tap, tap, tap the concealer so it melts into your skin. (Don’t rub it or you’ll end up erasing a lot of your camouflage work.)
Get moody with your shadow. Dip your finger in the metallic gray ColorStay Crème Eye Shadow in Licorice and run it over your lids, concentrating an extra dose of color in the creases of your eyes for depth. Then blend the color outward so it diffuses into a slightly smoky look. Run a little under your eyes to continue that smoky effect. We like to use the brush that comes with the shadow—it’s tucked in the cap—to sweep the color along our lower lids and out a bit beyond the outer edges. (This ColorStay formula wears for up to 24 hours.)
Define your eyes. Now it’s time to add crisp definition, courtesy of the beauty-insider cult-favorite ColorStay Eyeliner in Black. Trace a thin line along your upper and lower lash lines (avoiding the inner corners, so the look stays soft).
Make your lashes pop. Smoky eyes look surprisingly naked without intensely lush, black color on your lashes, so rev up the look with several coats of Volumazing Mascara in Blackest Black. First, be sure to curl your lashes so you get an ultra-feminine, uplifted effect. Check out the Salon Pro Lash Curler, which is really comfortable with supersoft pads and excellent curling power. We like to wiggle the mascara wand into our upper lashes (a makeup artist trick we learned backstage at fashion shows) for extra thickness, then draw the mascara up and out beyond the tips of our lashes. (We even go over those tips a few extra times, because the darker they look, the longer our lashes appear.) We treat our bottom lashes entirely differently, holding the mascara wand vertically and lightly swishing it back and forth for just a touch of color.
Apply color. With a lip shade this dark, we love when the edges look really precise (what can we say—we’re perfectionists). Starting at the Cupid’s bow and moving outward, smooth on the ultra-creamy Super Lustrous Matte Is Everything Lipstick in Power Move, then swipe the lipstick across your lower lip and smack your lips together. Follow up with a second coat for added intensity, because this definitely isn’t the moment to hold back. Then, to get those crisp edges, use a small brush or even a cotton swab to trace around your mouth with some ColorStay Full Coverage Concealer, and dab it in to blend.
