Lipstick Lies: How Lip Blush Helps You Look Like You, Not Overdone
- Ira Bale
- Aug 13
- 3 min read
By Ira Bale – Cosmetic Tattoo Artist, Melbourne, South Yarra & Toorak Village
Permanent makeup isn’t about looking “made up.” It’s about looking undone — in the best way.
The Lie We’ve Been Sold About Lip Colour
Somewhere along the line, lipstick became the shorthand for “put together.”A quick swipe, a bright pop, and you’re supposed to look instantly more polished, confident, and awake. But here’s the thing: for a lot of women, lipstick doesn’t enhance — it fights against what’s already there.
If you’ve ever tried to wear your “go-to” shade and found it suddenly looks too bright, too dull, or just wrong, you’re not alone. Your natural lip tone changes over time — from sun exposure, pigment loss, and even your circulation. That means the same lipstick you wore at 25 might not harmonise with your face at 40.
And that’s where the real lie comes in: the idea that more product is the solution. It’s not. The solution is fixing the base.
Why Lip Blush Isn’t “Lipstick Tattooing”
Let’s clear this up — Lip Blush is not about tattooing on a heavy, opaque shade you’ll wear forever. It’s about restoring the natural colour balance so any lipstick (or no lipstick at all) works for you.
At Ira Bale Brows, I use pigments that:
Work with your undertone, not against it
Neutralise unwanted hues (like blue, grey, or brown fading)
Heal into a soft, natural tint rather than a block of colour
Think of it like tuning a guitar before you play it — the music (your lipstick) sounds better when the base is in harmony.
A Client Story That Says It All
S. walked into our South Yarra salon clutching three lipsticks. She’d spent hundreds of dollars over the past year trying to find “the one” that didn’t make her look washed out. “They all look off,” she sighed. When I looked closely, her lips had lost a lot of their natural border definition, and the central tone was muted by a cool undertone shift — a common change after years of sun and skincare acids. We did a warm-neutral Lip Blush in two stages, focusing on colour correction first. By her second heal, she came back wearing one of the same lipsticks she’d brought in the first day — and it looked perfect. “I didn’t realise the problem wasn’t the lipstick,” she said. “It was my lips.”
The Science of Why It Works
Colour perception is relative. Studies in facial attractiveness show that lip contrast (the difference in brightness between lips and surrounding skin) is directly linked to how healthy and youthful we appear [Russell, 2009; Etcoff, 2011].
When lip pigment fades, you lose that contrast. No amount of product can fully compensate — because makeup sits on the skin, while Lip Blush rebuilds colour in the skin.
Why I Only Trust Myself With Lip Tattooing
Lip tattooing requires a fine balance between depth, pigment selection, and hand speed to avoid patchiness or long-term colour distortion. That’s why I personally handle all lip blush work at Ira Bale Brows. It’s not about control — it’s about protecting the healed result for years, not just weeks.
The Real Point of Lip Blush
Lip Blush isn’t here to make you look “done.” It’s here so you can not wear makeup and still look alive. So you can grab a coffee in the morning, look in the mirror, and see colour that belongs to you — not a product that’s about to smudge.
At Ira Bale Brows in Melbourne, I’ve watched this treatment strip away the lipstick dependency for so many clients. Not because they suddenly hate lipstick, but because they finally have the choice to skip it without sacrificing confidence. And that’s a freedom worth far more than any trending shade.
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