If you're obsessed with beauty, then you know firsthand that some makeup looks aren't meant to be worn outside, but rather are there to flex your creativity skills. Sometimes it's fun to dip into your palettes and tubes just to create pure art, and that's exactly what the new succulent lip art trend does —it's an exercise in imagination and innovation.
It's no surprise that succulents are super on trend right now — we have them on everything from little paper weights to chic terrariums — but who would ever have thought to make them grow from your lips? The genius behind the idea was makeup artist Ryan Kelly who was first inspired by the living succulent nail art creations by botanical artist Roz Borg, who actually grew succulents on her nails. Borg put clusters of the flowers on her finger nails, giving new meaning to a green thumb, and Kelly figured she could achieve the same just with lip art.
The only difference was, Kelly made her own plants out of clay. In her caption underneath the succulent Instagram photo, she shared, "I searched everywhere for mini succulents. When I couldn't find any tiny enough I decided to make them out of clay (why do I do these things to myself?!?)" Talk about taking her art onto a whole other level.
In addition to the photo, Kelly also made a tutorial video walking beauty lovers through exactly how to make the clay succulents and how to adhere them to one's lips. In the video she reveals that she used Polymer Clay for all of the mini succulents and crafted them easily using two plastic knives. She then filled in her lips using a mint green lip pencil to make sure any lip peeking through would be an earthy color, and adhered the clay plants with Alconeco 3rd Degree, which is a silicone molding compound that is often used by makeup artists to create special effects. She said it was the only adhesive that would hold the weight of the flowers on her lips.
In this way Kelly brought people's love for crafts and makeup into one amazing project. If you're feeling artsy, try it out for yourself!
