You know Taylor Swift’s red lip classic thing that you like? Her signature red lipstick was almost a no-go owing to qualms voiced by her mother, according to celebrity makeup artist Gucci Westman.
In an appearance on Today with Hoda and Jenna on Tuesday, the stylist revealed that she introduced Swift to her trademark lip color while doing her makeup for the then 19-year-old for the April 2009 cover of Allure. Not only that but the bold shade that has now become standard for Swift was nearly vetoed by Andrea Swift.
“I remember I really wanted to do a red lip on her because I hadn’t seen her in a red lip before,” Westman told Today hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager of the shoot. “And her mom, if I’m allowed to say this, was like, ‘Well, Taylor doesn’t wear red.’ And I was like, ‘Please, can I just try?’… look at her now.”
Westman, who started her makeup line Westman Atelier in 2018, helped Gwyneth Paltrow create her makeup look and get ready for her wedding to Brad Falchuk, and made up Anne Hathaway for her latest Vanity Fair cover shoot, among many other celebrity and editorial bonafides.
She demonstrated how quick the application of red lipstick can be with an on-air demo, saying that it can be applied straight from the lipstick tube, with a brush, or even blotted on with your finger.
“You can kind of make it cool and it doesn’t have to be so fussy,” she said of the shade.
From watching the Super Bowl to making Grammys history, the star’s seemingly unsmudgeable red lipstick has been there, stalwart since that nudge from Westman a decade and a half ago.
Back in 2014, Swift even told People, “I never really get too far from red lipstick, do I? I guess I just think my face looks worse without it. That’s pretty much the only rationale behind it.”
In this one case, with apologies to Andrea, it would seem that mama doesn’t always know best.
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Palmer McAllister
