Food-Colouring Lipstick: Editor Experiment
I Tried the Viral Food-Colouring Lip-Stain Hack, and It Worked
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On today's episode of me spending entirely too much time on TikTok: I think I may have just found the most perfect lip stain hack.
While scrolling through the app one day I came across a video by Sarah Wolak, who, in less than a minute, convinced me that I needed to use food colouring as a lip stain. As someone who is very much a makeup aficionado, I can't say that I've ever been inclined to reach into my baking cupboard for a beauty product. However, I'm also extremely prone to procrastination so I can see how useful this will be if I need a last minute, blush, lipstick, or eye colour, for the upcoming holiday season. Of course I had to try it.
I got my Spice Supreme Food Colouring from my kitchen and gathered my additional supplies: q-tips and some paper towels. Instead of putting the colouring on my finger as Wolak did, I put a few drops onto my q-tip and decided to apply it that way.
Starting off on the more cautious side, I added two drops of the red colouring to the q-tip and applied it directly to my lips. The colour was bold and vampy and I could almost hear my Christmas playlist in the background. I excitedly proceeded with adding a few more drops to the q-tip and applying it to my upper lip.
This is where things started getting a little wonky. The colour that I achieved on my top lip was nowhere near as pigmented as the one of the bottom. No matter how much I layered the food colouring, my bottom lip just kept getting brighter, while my top lip looked like I barely had anything on it.
I presumed that this issue arose because like many Black people, I have two toned lips and my bottom lip is a bit lighter than my top one. After a few more attempts at getting the colour right, I resigned to my fate.
I wiped the colour off after letting it sit for a while like Wolak did, and my lips looked exactly how I expected them to: a bright, vampy red on the bottom, and just a kiss of colour on the top.
Now, this is not to say I did not like the colour — in fact it was quite the opposite. The food colouring looked very natural and it looked like I just enjoyed a cherry lolly. This look can definitely be useful for certain occasions.
However, as the hack stands it would not work for my intended purpose: dressing up, particularly for Halloween. This lip colour, which would be one of the focal points for the look, is cutesy rather than sultry and that is simply not the vibe I'm going for.
I would absolutely try this hack again but I will be adding some additional steps like potentially using concealer to blank out my lips and maybe lining with a lipliner to give some added dimension.
