preview for Vlada Haggerty Is Behind Instagram's Most Mesmerizing Lip Art

Vlada Haggerty was experimenting with makeup at home in LA in January 2015 when she decided to try drizzling pigment mixed with gloss onto her lips. She thought the result looked cool, so she snapped a photo and posted it to her Instagram account, which had roughly 100,000 followers at the time. She wasn’t braced for the reaction it’d get.

“I immediately had a lot of confused people asking me, ‘What’s going on in this picture?’ and ‘How do you make it drip?’ ” recalls Haggerty, 33. “I was like, ‘I don’t make it drip, it just happens!’ She says the lip art was therapeutic to her at a time when she was trying to make ends meet as a freelance hair and makeup artist with her husband, a musician. “I was just sitting at home, playing with makeup, taking pictures, and I started to notice that people really liked it,” she says.

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Now, with almost 800,000 Instagram followers, Haggerty has built a career out of her mesmerizing lip hyperlapses. She's built partnerships with beauty companies like Smashbox, which in May named her its “Lip Editor in Chief,” a role that includes formulating new colors and using existing products to create new lip looks. But it hasn’t been an easy road to success, which began with makeup school in her native Kiev, Ukraine, before moving to the U.S. in November 2012. Here, the artist talks about her creative process, how she caught the eye of beauty giants like Smashbox, and how she responds to those who try to rip off her work.

I can’t draw on a large canvas, let alone a pair of lips. What’s your process?

If the design is pretty complicated, I’ll sketch it out so that I can see how to position everything on my mouth, because I don’t like to go outside of the lines. In my head [the design] looks OK, but then when I put it on my lips it doesn’t, so to save time, I started sketching it out beforehand to see what works. But for something like the drips I do, I just go for it.

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Ruben Chamorro
Vlada Haggerty got interested in lip art in 2015 while freelancing as a hair and makeup artist in Los Angeles.

Otherwise, I usually pat on concealer first to create a neutral base. [Then,] I apply a liquid matte lipstick as a base color. [After that,] I either draw on my lips with paint or add gems or sequins with glue. When I do choose to paint my lips, I use actual paint brushes instead of makeup brushes — the ones that have really skinny, long bristles. The longer the bristles, the less pressure you’re able to apply, which is helpful since your lips are an uneven surface. So the light pressure from the bristles allows the brush to glide over them easier. I also break off the handles of the brushes so I’m really only holding near the bristles. I also use a 12x magnifying mirror to get as close as possible to my mouth.

Finally, I top the lips with the drippy pigment if the look calls for it. I snap a picture — if I’m creating a drip look, I use a remote that’s attached to my camera, along with an LCD screen, so I can capture the drip perfectly.

How do you come up with your ideas?

If it’s my own creative expression, I usually recall memories, use something that’s going on in my life, or [get inspired by] my favorite food, like sushi. [Laughs.] If it’s a commercial project and I have a goal or look to achieve, then it’s different. With Smashbox’s Be Legendary Liquid Lipstick campaign, I used the names of the lip colors to inspire me — like “Kale My Vibe” prompted me to create a green lip with kale in the model’s mouth.

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OK, talk to me about your lips. Do you feel pressure to maintain them, since they’re your livelihood?

They definitely take a little more maintenance these days. I use injections to fix the asymmetry in my top lips. Every night I use a lip mask called Mecca Cosmetica Lip De-Luscious Treatment — it comes in a little pot and is amazing. Then, in the morning, I gently wipe that off and, while my lips are still soft from the treatment, a few times a week I’ll exfoliate them with a toothbrush to get off any flaky skin.

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Ruben Chamorro
Haggerty uses a remote attached to her camera, along with an LCD screen, to capture her lip drips perfectly.

How do you respond to people who try to rip off your work?

This company I worked with recently made me a larger [watermark] that I used on all of my photos. As soon as you find out someone is misusing your image, speak up. It feels unpleasant for me to reach out, because people will bash you for it, saying something like, “You should be humble!” or “You should be grateful I’m sharing your work,” but they don’t really get the point — this is how I make my living.

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What's the key to becoming a successful Instagram artist and getting noticed by brands like Smashbox?

I always try to use new products so there is an incentive to share the pictures, and then I try to post once or twice a day. I find if you post consistently you grow consistently. I also have a content bank now that I have a re-toucher, Anastasia Petrova, so I can create more content rather than having to retouch my own photos, which used to take me three hours per photo.

Smashbox reached out to me two years ago, in 2015, and at the time I maybe had 100,000 followers, but they were really sneaky about it. They discovered me through Instagram, messaged me, and told me they had this thing they do for Instagrammers where they bring you in and you mix your own custom gloss. So I was like, “OK, yeah, sure! That’s fun.” A few days later, I get an e-mail that said, “Actually, the reason why we had you at the office is because we want to partner with you.” I was like, “Is this really happening?!”

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Ruben Chamorro
For her crystal lip creations, Haggerty places larger Swarovski crystals in the center of her mouth and smaller ones toward the corners.

It’s interesting, because Smashbox is one of the [brands] that I used to practice learning makeup with in Ukraine, but it was very hard to get — you had to go to Europe to get it at the time. They had this [$35] contour palette that I used to think, “One day I’m going to be able to have it — one day I’ll be able to afford it.” And now I have it right there [points to a makeup table].

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Obsessed with Vlada’s lip art? Keep scrolling for three mesmerizing looks she made for Cosmopolitan.com.

Crystal Lips

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Ruben Chamorro

1. Swipe on Smashbox Liquid Lipstick in “Punked Rock.”

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2. Pat on Pros-Aide adhesive all over lips. Let it get a bit tacky to the touch.

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3. Carefully place Swarovski crystals (bigger ones in the center, smaller ones toward the corners). Use a Crystal Katana tool to pick up and apply the gems.

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4. Pop gold mini nail art beads around each crystal.

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Pink Velvet and Gold Lips

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Ruben Chamorro

1. Start with Smashbox Liquid Lipstick in “So Jelly.”

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2. Layer on Pros-Aide adhesive all over. Apply it by dabbing it on with your fingers.

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3. Pat on flocking powder (commonly used for nail art) all over. This creates a velvet-looking finish on your lips.

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4. Create the drip. Outline lips and create the drip with Mehron Gold Powder mixed with Wet’n’Wild Clear Lip Gloss.

BUY NOW Mehron Metallic Powder in Gold, $11

BUY NOW Wet’n’Wild Clear Lip Gloss, $2

Fire Lips

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Ruben Chamorro

1. Apply Smashbox Liquid Lipstick in "Carat Stick" all over.

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2. Layer on Smashbox Liquid Lipstick in “Bawse” to create the gradient. Apply this shade toward the outer perimeter of your mouth for an ombré effect.

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3. Finish with Smashbox Liquid lipstick in “Tar Pit” to outline the flames using a tiny paint brush.

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Senior Video Producer: Jason Ikeler

Shot and edited by: Rashawn Colton

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Carly Cardellino

Carly Cardellino was the beauty director at Cosmopolitan. If you follow her Instagram, then you know she'll try just about any beauty trend or treatment once (the pics of her purple hair are on IG to prove it). But her favorite part about being in beauty is finding the most effective products, and then sharing that intel with others—because who wants to spend money on stuff that doesn't work? No one, that's who. Her most recent discovery: De La Cruz Sulfur Ointment, which will change your blemish-clearing game! Hopefully through the beauty stories she writes—and the experiences she shares—you can see exactly why she's in this business.