There are things that those of us who grew up in the ’90s like to remember as defining our time: Kurt Cobain, the original supermodels, apathy, Seinfeld, landlines. And then there are the things we’d sooner forget happened: the return of boy bands, Jerry Springer, the McPizza, Friends, Crystal Pepsi… the list goes on. The jury is mostly divided, however, on lip liner, or better put: obvious totally-different-colour-than-your-lipstick lip liner.
Back in the day, it was cool to rock a dark brown liner around your lips only to top it off with a crazy metallic lipstick. It was edgy and suited the heroin chic aesthetic of the time. Sure, it looked super cheesy on people like Eminem’s ex-wife Kim and anyone who tried to mix it with the raver aesthetic of the day, but it looked insanely glamourous on trendsetters like Naomi Campbell and Gwen Stefani. In honour of #ThrowbackThursdays, we’re bring back ’90s-inspired lip liner.
To modernize the look, use a liner that’s at least a few shades darker than your natural lip colour and pair it up with a lipstick that’s at least a few shades lighter. If it’s a little to extreme for you when you’re done, top it off with a gloss and smear it in ever so slightly for an ombre effect. Yeah, this is bold, but so is all-white eye makeup, and that’s in style right now, so live on the edge. It’s totally what Naomi would do. In fact, she is doing it.