Whether You Prefer Lip Stick or Gloss, Here’s How to Instantly Plump Your Pout

You can take one of two routes for lip contouring: an opaque lip stick or a shimmery gloss.

Lip stick

No matter what look you're going for, you'll need a liner that's a few shades deeper than your lippie. For professional makeup artist Ricky Wilson, nude shades are the way to go. He tells Refinery29 that you should find a lip liner that's a shade darker than your natural lip tone, to create a believable fullness that will work with any lip stick you put on top. But, Maybelline shows us that you can also make it work by using a colored lip liner, getting a more deliberate ombre effect.

Start by defining the center of the lips. In an Instagram post, Huda Beauty recommends drawing an X at your cupid’s bow and then outline the rest of your lips. If you're going to over line, Wilson says that you should only over line your cupids bow. This can help you fake it without it being obvious. Pro tip: Use the side of your lip pencil instead of the tip so you're not left with a harsh line, Wilson says.

Next, add lipstick on top, but be careful not to cover the lines you created. Instead, fill the lines, blending your lip shade into the lines without covering them completely.

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Lip gloss

Like you apply highlight to your cheeks, adding a bit of shimmer will attract light to your lips and add more depth. Sara Happ, The Lip Expert, tells Well+Good that it's all about playing with shadow and light.

"Adding a highlight to your cupid's bow and the center of your bottom lip draws attention there, creating the appearance of fuller lips," she says. "Adding a thin layer of a deeper shade just outside the lip line actually creates the illusion of fullness for the lips' surface area."

To complete this look, she turns to the let's glow lip illuminator ($24) from her eponymous makeup line. She adds the lighter shade, Pearl, to her cupids bow,  and then adds a bit of the darker shade Golden right underneath her bottom lip to create contrast.

These five red lipsticks are super gorge, and totally natural. But incase things get messy, here's how to keep lipstick off your teeth.