The hot-pink pout-off: indie-girl vs barbie-girl

Tue, 13 March 2012 10:34AM

Does anyone else have a small girl crush on indie actress Rashida Jones? She just seems the definition of cool to me. I was having a look through some recent photos of her, and noticed how she’s usually photographed rocking a hot pink lip, which is usually worked back to a smudge of black eye makeup and mussed-up hair. Like here:

It got me thinking: some girls are so cool that they need little more than a swipe of statement lipstick to be ready for the day. And that statement colour is never red (too obvious) nor orange (too fashion-y) nor purple (too gothic). These are girlie-girls at heart, so it has to be pink, but a high-voltage one, because they’re not shrinking violets, or should we say roses.

Cases in point:

Sophia Coppola

 Krysten Ritter

Zooey Deschanel

And, of course, there’s the indie queen herself, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Here she is with the requisite hot pink lip a couple of Oscars back, which is still one of our favourite looks for her:

Makeup artists have all sorts of rules about wearing hot pink lipstick (go for cool tones if you have pale skin, wear minimal eye makeup, blah blah blah) but what I think these girls show is that the best secret to pulling off a hot pink lip is attitude. Sounds a bit twee, I know, but in general you can carry off anything if you’re confident enough.

Oh also, have you noticed how these girls tend to wear their perfectly-painted-on pink lipstick with a was-too-busy-writing-some-new-music-lyrics-to-do-my-hair ‘do? And speaking of hair, these girls tend to be brunette. Because a hot pink lip worked back to a serious coiffure, and a blonde one at that, would probably veer way into Barbie territory. And these are girls who, if they had dolls at all when they were little, probably drew tattoos on them, instead of oohing and ahhing over Pretty in Pink Barbie’s pastel wardrobe.

So what if you’re blonde? Well, you’re not totally left out of the pink lip game. Emma Stone, about a year ago, showed one way to wear the look, with creamy skin, liquid liner and tonged hair:

And more recently, Blake Lively had a go at a bright pink pout, choosing a matte formulation lippie, and adding beachy hair and bronze skin to the look:

True, neither of the above looks are what you call indie, and certainly don’t have the it-girl factor of Rashida & co’s pink lips. In fact, they do go more than a little bit in the Barbie direction. But still, we can’t all be brunette, nor cool. Some of us are probably quite happy to simply be – like our first Barbie – pretty in pink.

By the way, some good hot-pink buys are the cult makeup artist faves Nars Lipstick in Schiap, $45 (a bright lolly fuchsia in a semi-matte formulation) and YSL Rouge Pur Lipstick #19 Fuchsia, $49 (a purply-pink that has a fabuluous ’80s edge). For more budget-friendly buys, try Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick in Candy Pink, $23.95, and Rimmel London Color Show Off Lipstick in Shocking Pink, $14.95.

What about you? Are you a hot pink lip kind of girl? If so, got any great tips or buys to share?

Kat x

Posted by: Katrina Lawrence

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Tags: blake lively, bronzer, cult beauty products, emma stone, featured, hot pink lips, krysten ritter, liquid liner, maggie gyllenhaal, nars, pink lips, pink lipstick, rashida jones, revlon, rimmel london, smoky eye, sophia coppola, ysl, zooey deschanel