The enemy of the lazy girl is extra steps in her makeup routine. As a part-time lazy girl, I’ve always been lukewarm and uncertain about lip liner. I’m a relative new comer to beauty, so I never experienced needing lip liner because of lipstick feathering. Now, there are tons of great lip formulas that don’t feather on your lip lines, so lip liner has become kind of moot for other people. It is a mysterious appendage to the average makeup user, but a lot of beauty nuts find it indispensable. So, is it?
Short Answer: No.
Long Answer: No, but it’s pretty freaking useful.
I’m not a lip liner devotee. From the hundreds of makeup posts I’ve done on this blog, I think I actually have only one post on lip liner. However, it has recently come to my attention that lip liner does, in fact, serve a purpose other than de-feathering pesky lipsticks.
If you’ve got meh lips, you can slightly overdraw them with a lip liner before applying your lipsticks. The lip liner is actually pretty great at making precise lines and such, so that lipstick is applied much easier. Bold and bright lipstick, including reds, will have a much stronger visual impact when your lines are clean and precise.
My favorite use for lip liners, however, is for extending the longevity of your lip product. I was so astounded when I decided to line my lips with a nude liner before putting on a red lip. It felt like a game changer—a revelation! Adding lip liner as an extra step seems counter-intuitive for lazy behavior, but think of all the effort and time you save from not needing to reapply your lipstick every few hours.
I still don’t think that you have to get a bajillion colors of lip liner (this might be a blasphemous statement for all you lip liner lovers)—I only have a few, most of which are nudes anyway—but for this lazy girl, the answer to lip liners is a yes. Sometimes.
Follow me: Bloglovin' • Twitter • Instagram • YouTube • Facebook
Softly Sometimes 
Great post! I really don’t use lip liner at all, but they’ve been getting pretty dang popular lately! I really need to try them out, the reasons you’ve listed are pretty great!
Tasha // shiwashiful.
I don’t use them ALL the time, but I quite like them!
I’ve purchased a few nyx lip liners but I find that I take too much time applying it. But I will give it a try because I go on hospital duties nowadays and my lipsticks last 3 hours at most
Yeah, give it a shot! I think there really is just a time and place for these. 🙂
I only wear them for red lipsticks to properly shape my cupid’s bow. 🙂
I getcha! My cupid’s bow is pretty prominent, but it does help with everything else, for me 🙂
Since I’ve only been using mostly matte lipsticks, I never found use for lip liners. I think I only have 2. A flesh-toned one and the orange one that I thought I needed but I ended up just using a lip brush instead, as you suggested. 😀 There’s something therapeutic with brushing the lips 😀
I hate having to use lip brushes T^T Hahaha I think I need (“”need””) to get a square-tipped one because I think I’d get on with those the best.
That’s what I’m using. The flat liner brush? Or push brush? I use the one from Japonesque, it’s too poke-y for my eyes. The crease brush by Ellana works well as a lip brush too 😀