First things first
I’m a makeup-obsessive from way back, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about makeup, it’s that you can make almost anything work. Colour should never hold you back, and you shouldn’t be afraid to rock a bold lip if you feel like it.
Bold lips, huh? Well…they don’t come much bolder than Violent Lips. If you haven’t heard of them before, they’re vitamin-enhanced, vegan-friendly lip appliqués tested on celebrities, not animals, and above all, they’re temporary!
Kim Kardashian and her sisters Khloe and Kylie recently posted twitpics wearing them. I’d already sourced some myself and figured it was about time to figure out if the company’s tutorial was as easy to follow as it looked.
What you’ll need to get started
- In each pack of Violent Lips, you’ll find three sets of lip appliqués — three top lips and three bottom — easily separated, in case you make any mistakes and need to use half of another set.
- The directions, which can be found on the back. They’re very basic, so you might need to refer to a tutorial to fill in the blanks because, for example, the directions don’t mention that you’ll also need water.
- Water
- A cotton pad
- Scissors
- A mirror
- Violent Lips in Pink Cheetah (or any of the other 76 varieties)
Ladies, start your engines!
Firs, make sure you start with dry, un-moisturised lips, and you don’t want to be wearing any other products. That’s important, because if you already have something on your lips, your Violent Lips won’t stick.
I started with my bottom lip first, removing the correct shape from the perforation, and holding it up to my lip to measure the length. Try to make an “Aaah” shape with your lips, and remember — your lips are 3D; Violent Lips aren’t.
Then, following the guides on the back, cut the appliqué accordingly. You may have to go back a few times to make sure you’ve got the right length.
Next, your top lip. Hold it up, and look at your pretty self in the mirror, making an “Aaah” shape again with your mouth.
Cut the appliqué like the previous time, according to the guides, if you need them again.
Soak a cotton ball/pad with water. Now, take the bottom lip appliqué shape, and press it against your bottom lip. Hold the wet cotton pad against it, saturating the appliqué with water.
Gently remove the paper backing, and tidy up any areas that don’t look quite right, or any edges that might have lifted. Use your wet cotton pad and/or fingers for this.
Now, you’re ready to repeat the process with your top lip.
All done!
Final thoughts
The big question for me was how easy or hard these would be to apply, and the answer: hard. Violent Lips are ridiculously fiddly, and I actually went through one-and-a-half packs to get my lips looking right. I cut the upper lip shape wrong — oops! — and then the bottom lip didn’t look quite right. But I don’t think it’s that noticeable.
They also take a while to apply. The first time you try it, allow yourself about 30 minutes. Then, once you know what you’re doing, you could probably get them on in about 10 minutes, because then you’ll know what size to cut the appliqués.
They’re fairly easy to remove using an oil-based makeup remover on a cotton ball, so that’s nice.
Violent Lips don’t feel particularly comfortable to me. They’re like stick-on baby tattoos, but I can live with it. They do make my lips feel dry, which is something to keep in mind. You could definitely wear a gloss or lip balm over them, but test first by taking a piece of an appliqué that you’ve already cut and apply it somewhere out of the way, like the inside of your arm. Then, apply your lip balm over that to see if it lifts the appliqué. I didn’t want to risk it, and so I don’t use any products on top of mine.
Finally, cost. They’re a novelty item, and they’re priced accordingly. $14.95 / £10.00 each. As you’ll probably only be using them on special occassions, and you do get three sets in each pack, I think it’s money well spent.
There are 76 different varieties to choose from, including a fun rainbow one, silver sparkles, various flags, polka dots and many, many more.
Would I buy them again? Definitely! More than anything, they’re an excuse to go out and get noticed.
Just don’t tell my boyfriend I said that, mmk?
Written by Clare
Hi there! I’m Clare, and I grew up in Indonesia and Australia, but I recently embraced my inner gypsy, packed up my whole life and moved from sunny Sydney to bustling but cold London. I also run a beauty blog, cclarebear.com, with my sister, who’s back home in Australia, conveniently freeing up some of my time for traveling and discovering new European and British beauty brands.
Clare you crazy cheetah girl! Love the violent lips on you. So that’s what you get up to on the other side of the world, releasing your inner cat! xo
Aw, thanks! You know… I should have done a winged cat eye to go with the lip look. Can’t believe it only occurred to me now!
These are still on sale on Sephora’s website for half price; if anyone wants to satisfy their curiosity about these.
Thank you Kristy! Some of these look very cool and even cooler for half price.
Looks cute but too much work!!!
I tried these! The first time I failed miserably and then i tried them again and they went on waay easier. I just made the mistake of buying them in gold. And i’m quite tan so it just kind of looked like i didnt have lips hahaha
Aww, that’s kind of funny – at least you didn’t give up and gave it another go though. If you still have some left, you could cut them up into little pieces and use them as a fun gold-leaf look.
Thanks for the post! I have always wondered how those work. Seem easier and quicker just to do the design manually using longlasting lip colours though.
Check out the polka dots here – http://www.bagfulofnotions.com/bagful-of-content/violent-lips—review-2.html. The red and pink sparkly tattoos are next on my list!
Clare I am disgustingly proud of you!
But there is no way those things would ever work on my lips!
xx Chris
Haha Christine you totally could – just lashings of mascara and some killer heels – you’d look faboooosh 😉
Love this. I had never heard of them before! Next concert I go to I am going to rock these like nobody’s business
That looks really fun! Does it come off when you eat or drink? Or…. kiss?
You know, good question. I didn’t have trouble eating or drinking but I didn’t try the pash-test 😉 I think a peck or two would be fine but if you’re having a drunken snog, the other party might have bits all over their lips/face lol
I don’t know if you guys have heard of Kandee Johnson but she’s a youtube makeup guru and i love her videos. Anyway, she was the first person I’d seen try out the violent lips lip tattoos and she talked about applying lip balm over her lip tattoos and that it didn’t come off when she ate/drank/kissed.
They were on a sale at Sephora for only 5 bucks! Online and in stores. The tattoos look like fun.. but you need two hands to apply them! Haha..
that’s so cool!!!! too bad it’s so hard to get the shape right :((((( wish i had that stuff over here 😀
Thanks for trying these on for us and I must say you are such a good sport and rockstar! Unforunately, I now know I will not be buying these for myself. LOL! That’s why I love this blog.
Awesome review! It is especially great to see “real-life” photos. I just wrote about this on my blog so I am really intrigued by them. You look really great, shame it’s a bit tough to get the hang of, I suspected it would be!
x Renee
I love Violent Lips! It it is a lot of fun to go out with friends on weekends wearing them, as you said. I definitely recommend them!