With all the brushes, cotton swabs, and pricey liquid lipsticks (not to mention time and skill) that go into keeping our lip color in place — and not on our S.O. — it was only a matter of time before someone got inspired to flip the script. Go figure. Well, that day has arrived, and it's time to welcome the latest lip trend you need to know about: snogging.
Named after the British slang word for making out, the deliberately messy red lip application is meant to mimic a hot-and-steamy rendezvous in which lip color precautions are totally ignored. (That's high-risk behavior, people.) In fact, anyone whose heart flutters at a perfect, precise, crisp red lip should divert their eyes, because this is messy.
It was veteran makeup artist Val Garland who created the look, which stole the show at Preen by Thornton Bregazzi during London Fashion Week. Vogue confirms that we're correct to assume Garland was indeed alluding to a steamy hook-up session. “It's about kissing and snogging. This girl goes clubbing, she’s confident and she loves kissing,” Garland told Vogue. “I’m using MAC’s Lip Mix and smudging out the line, using a larger brush and buffing it out, and then applying gloss within the lip line but not outside it.”
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Now, this is far from the first time smudged or diffused lips have graced the runway — but these are quite possibly the messiest we've seen. Looks aside, what we're nerd-ing out about is something else entirely. Thanks to Instagram, it's surprisingly easy to take a look back at Garland's inspiration and past experimentation that led to her creation of this viral look: classical and modern art, photo shoots, and other artists all played a role in her creative process.
Keep scrolling for a chronological look back at Garland's flirtation with snogging-inspired makeup. Then grab your lipstick, your S.O., and get to work trying the trend.
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