If you’re a newbie to lip gloss, that liquidy, sticky potential mess might be intimidating. But fear not!

You’ll learn all about how to apply lip gloss in this post. I’ll cover how you can wear it on its own, whether highly pigmented or not. And I’ll discuss how to wear it over lipstick and how to keep it from bleeding.

Let’s get going!

How to Apply Translucent or Clear Gloss

Lip gloss that isn’t opaque is the most forgiving way to get started. Clear gloss is still my favorite type to use after all these years of gloss love.

For glosses with a doe foot applicator or brush, simply

1. Take out the wand.
2. Scrape off any excess product so that it goes back in the tube.
3. Use the applicator to apply the product to your lower lip and your top lip.
4. Press your lips together to spread the product out evenly.

If you’re using a squeezy tube, the steps are mostly the same.

1. Open the cap.
2. Squeeze out only a small amount of product and let it rest on the applicator. You can always add more later.
3. Use the applicator to apply the product to your lower lip and your top lip.
4. Press your lips together to spread the product out evenly.

For both these types of gloss delivery, you can be a bit sloppy about step 3 as long as you stay within your lip line. Everything gets evened out in step 4.

The biggest mistake you can make is to overload your lip gloss. This will cause a sticky layer to gather on your inner lip that can—ew ew ew—cause the gloss to stick together in strings when you open your lips.

Some glosses that do this include the Colourpop So Juicy glosses and Ulta’s lauded Plumped Up Pout in Crystal Sugar. They’re both beautiful glosses, but use too much product, and they will give you horror movie strings.

As long as you avoid overapplication, you’ll be on your way to applying translucent gloss in seconds, on the go, in no time.

How to Apply an Opaque Lip Gloss

Opaque gloss, like Anastasia’s High Shine Lip Gloss, is trickier. You’ll mostly follow the same steps above, but there are a few more things to keep in mind.

Because of the color saturation, you’ll need to concentrate on getting the color applied perfectly to your lip line.

For this, I offer two techniques.

First, you can use the brush or doe foot applicator to carefully line your lips before filling them in and carefully pressing them together to evenly distribute product.

If you feel like opaque gloss is going to be your jam, I might even recommend buying a whole separate lip brush, like Sigma’s L06 Precise Lip Line Brush. Then, you can just dab the brush on the product wand and use the brush to line your lips.

If you find that too nerve-wracking, why not go for a lipliner first? You can check Colourpop’s selection of nice, creamy liners and find one that matches the gloss.

Once your lips are lined, you still need to be careful with your application. But it’s much easier to color inside the lines when there’s, you know, actually a line to color within.

And here’s another liner-related tip good for any opaque gloss user. If you have trouble with color bleeding outside your lip line, this will especially be a problem for opaque glosses. Try using a clear lip liner to prevent bleeding.

I’ll also give you the same warning here as I did with the translucent glosses: be lighthanded with opaque glosses. You can always add more, but add too much and you’ve got a gloopy mess on your hands.

One last thing: know you’ll always need a mirror to apply an opaque gloss, and you can’t just swipe and go when you need to reapply.

How to Apply Lip Gloss Over Lipstick.

This is an easy one. It’s mostly the same techniques you used before.

1. You’ll want to line your lips. Even if liner isn’t part of your normal routine, you’ll find the lipstick/lip gloss combo can look pretty sloppy if you don’t line first.
2. Apply the lipstick as you usually would.
3. Carefully apply the lip gloss as described in the section on how to apply translucent gloss, namely
   1. Take out the wand.
   2. Scrape off any excess product so that it goes back in the tube.
   3. Use the applicator to apply the product to your lower lip and your top lip.
   4. Press your lips together to spread the product out evenly.

One thing you will want to consider is the fact that you’re going to stain your gloss applicator if you don’t use a separate brush. Might be another reason to consider that separate, precise lip brush we talked about earlier!

Note that lip gloss will make your lipstick more mobile. You might be used to that matte bullet lipstick not budging, but that’s not going to be the case with lip gloss over top. Be careful of the dreaded lipstick-on-the-teeth look that’s more likely and the post-meal smearing that might be on your face. Maybe have some makeup playtime at home one day and see if these things might be problems for you with the lip combo you’re thinking of.

Now that we’ve covered how to apply lip gloss, let’s turn our attention to some questions you may have had before landing here.

Can You Use Lip Gloss Without Lipstick?

As you can probably tell from the first few sections of the post, my answer to this is a resounding yes. You can absolutely use lip gloss without lipstick, and it’s my favorite way of using it.

There’s something youthful about having a your-lips-but-shinier look on your pretty face. Just ask all the beauty gurus who talk about “just throwing on a gloss” on no-makeup-makeup days.

Should I Reapply My Gloss?

If you want that shine for more than a few hours (or after a meal), yeah, you’re going to need to reapply. More bad news; any look you’ve created other than a swipe-and-go translucent or clear gloss means some time in front of a mirror. If you’re using an opaque gloss or doing the lip-gloss-over-lipstick thing, you’ll need to have ready all the products you needed to build the look from scratch. That’s because you’ll be doing it again.

If you want tips on lip gloss longevity, check out this article on how to make lip gloss last.

Wrapping Up

This was a short one, and that’s because applying lip gloss is super easy! Just remember:

1. Take out the wand.
2. Scrape off any excess product so that it goes back in the tube.
3. Use the applicator to apply the product to your lower lip and your top lip.
4. Press your lips together to spread the product out evenly.

Keep those steps in mind and you’ll be cruising to a perfect application every time.