Creating Your Own Lipstick Colour.

After seeing Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face (1957) last week, I was determined to find a Rusty Red shade lipstick which she wore in the film. I started searching google for photos and to my shock  realized that even though I own a million red lipsticks – I don’t have a Rusty Red shade!

Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face (1957)
Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face (1957)

Therefore, I came to the realization that instead of buying a new one, for now I would mix my own shade. The credit for this goes to Marilyn and her Make Up Artist/Friend Allan “Whitey” Snyder who was known to mix multiple shades of lipstick to create Marilyn’s signature pout.

Marilyn Monroe by Milton Greene in Bus Stop (1956)
Marilyn Monroe by Milton Greene in Bus Stop (1956)

Looking through pictures of Marilyn, I realized that not only did she like to wear her signature blue toned red, she too also wore a Rusty Red shade, most noticeably in her 1956 film, Bus Stop. Who could be more inspiring than Marilyn and Audrey?!

I decided to use a red lipstick in a coral shade and a brownish nude shade, choosing; Rimmel’s Lasting Finish by Kate Moss in 12 and MAC’S Twig. Sadly I don’t think 12 is available to buy anymore, but there are some pretty similar shades such as 37 and 110.

To create this look I used my Real Techiques Retractable Lip Brush for the best application.  Firstly, I applied a layer of MAC’S Twig for the base of my lip colour, after applying Twig I added Rimmel’s Lasting Finish in 12. After blending the two colours together, I found that the shade was more predominantly red then brown so I added another layer of Twig. 

After just these three steps I now was wearing a red shade of lipstick that I do not yet own – Rusty Red! I’m definitely going to mix lipstick shades together more often, it’s so fun to see what you can create!

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