According to backstage make-up artists everywhere, and in particular the lovely Nicole Thompson, Senior Artist for MAC cosmetics, red lips are the coolest thing since 90210 swap cards.

In fact she loves them so much, that she tied us to our chair and made us take very thourough notes on just how to perfect this red-hot look so we could pass it on to you (ok, maybe she didn't tie us down.. but our notes were very detailed!).

GET THE LOOK:

1 - First up your skin needs to be flawless to pull off this look, so make sure you ace your foundation application before even attempting it.

2 - Apply a lip conditioner to make sure lips are soft and easy to work with. MAC have an amazing lip conditioner ($20), but even a pharmacy brand will do.

3 - For a shade this intense a lip liner is a must. Choose a similar shade (or exact match if you have it) to your lipstick. Use a 'join the dots' method to make sure your lines stay on track. Draw in the cupids bow (little V top and centre of your upper lip) and also the mid point of your bottom lip. Then work from the corner of your lip in to 'join the dots' (apparently this is far easier than trying to trace from scratch).

TIP: Ever wondered why your lipliner looks sharp and strong on the top lip and then fat and smudgey on the bottom. It's all in the angle you hold the pencil. Don't swap it arond from lip to lip. The best angle is just below about 45 degrees for both.

4 - Colour in your lips with the lip pencil, it should glide on easily thanks to the lip conditioner and not leave any nasty flakes.

5 - Lippie time! The colour used at Karl Lagerfeld's show (seen above) is a MAC cosmetics lipstick called 'Lady Danger' ($35) (awesome name huh!). Load up a lip brush with lots of it and make like Picasso on that pout.

6 - The gloss. I'm sure you've all heard of MAC's lipglass, which does exactly what it says on the tin. It makes you lips glass-like glossy, and to finish this look slather them up MAC Lipglass in clear ($34).

And voila, you're done!

SHOP IT:

1 - MAC lip conditioner, $20, maccosmetics.com.au

2 - MAC lip pencil in 'Redd to shop', $30, maccosmetics.com.au

3 - MAC lipstick in 'Lady Danger', $34, maccosmetics.com.au

4 - MAC lipglass in 'Clear', $34, maccosmetics.com.au

Quick tip: Banish yellow teeth!

Too pretty to use: Stop and smell the...