Lips are important! They do a lot for us. They help us to form vowels and consonants to communicate. They help us to create facial expressions, hold objects in our mouths, show affection to others, spread joy to others through our smiles, etc.
Lips are also one of the main focal points on our face when talking with others; in addition to our eyes, people focus on our lips. With all the things that our lips do, why not have them look luscious, appealing, alluring? Here are 4 basic beauty tips in creating beautiful, luscious lips:
1. Set them up right! What’s up with putting lipstick on dry, peeling lips? There’s nothing sexy or luscious about that! How many of you go through your day peeling the dry skin off your lips with your teeth and fingernails? There’s a better way, a solution to those pesky dry, peeling lips. Invest in a lip mask and a lip balm!
The lip mask cleanses and exfoliates the dead skin on your lips and the balm moisturizes
your lips, which prevents drying, cracking, and peeling. If you live in a dry area (or if it happens to be a dry season), make sure you use the lip mask and balm every day! Seriously! You want to have fresh, smooth skin to put the color on.
Also color on dry lips will distort the look of the color on your lips. Where there is dry skin, the color will be darker in those areas giving you a beaded look on your lips. It’s also beneficial to use a lip mask because other than food and drink, our lips are typically “cleaned” with toothpaste. When we shower, we tend to avoid cleaning our lips – typically to prevent soap from getting into our mouths. And let’s face it, toothpaste is no cleanser! It’s actually for the teeth. Just a hint ladies!
2. Shape your lips! Some ladies complain about the shape of their lips; I especially hear this from women who have thin lips with very little shape. What they don’t realize is that they can actually create the shape they want! The best way to do this is to put foundation on your lips BEFORE putting on any lipstick! (It’s best to have foundation on your face – but I’ll leave that discussion for another post.) Foundation on the lips will set a blank canvas ideally which allows you to create the lip look (or shape) that you desire. It’s best to use a liquid foundation although you could get by with a powder one as well. (If you use lip balm, the powder foundation will work well.) After applying foundation, use a lip liner to create the shape that you desire.
3. Put some color on them! What is wonderful about lipstick is that the right kind moisturizes your lips! The key to young-looking, beautiful skin is moisturize, moisturize, moisturize! In fact, the product I use is so great at moisturizing my lips I use my lip balm very lightly; otherwise too much balm will distort the color of lipstick. (And slippery lips are really not that sexy either.)
If you’re not sure what colors to use – experiment! You can always wipe it off, right? But if you feel that you’re challenged when choosing lip colors, just stick to the basics: a berry colored lip liner goes well with a berry colored lipstick. A brown colored lip liner goes well with a brown colored lipstick, etc. What I like to do is mix my berry and brown colors. I typically use a dark berry lip liner and a brown lipstick or a dark brown lip liner with a berry color lipstick. (Oh, and don’t get me started with the reds!) I’m actually convinced that you can practically use almost any lip color with the right lip liner. I have even used a bright gold color lipstick with a brown lip liner that created a beautiful brown lip color with gold sparkles in it. Just experiment and have fun!
4. Finish with a gloss! Seems like you already have a lot on your lips already, right? But if you look at the picture I’ve posted, do you see that shine? That glossy look? That comes from lip gloss! Lip gloss can also add that extra ‘something’ to your lip color. Depending on the product you use, it can give you an extra sparkle or glitter effect.
Some lip glosses add another dimension of color as well. In all honesty, I have never found a lipstick that had the perfect color for me. I usually have to add a lip liner and lip gloss to create the color I really liked. One extra tip on using lip gloss… when it’s summer time and the sun is burning hot, lip gloss will bring more heat to your lips. If you are just dying to have ‘hot’ lips, you might want to leave the lip gloss off until the climate is milder.
There you have it! Four basic steps: prepare your lips with a cleanser and exfoliator, use lip liner and lipstick to create the color you want, and add lip gloss to give you that extra lusciousness! For those who are not used to doing all four steps, realize that with a little practice, you’ll be able to do this in less than 5 minutes. (Personally, I end up spending more time on deciding the colors than putting them on!) And don’t be afraid to experiment! Your lips are very important in many ways, so take the time to make them look their best!
Try this out and let me know what you think.
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Filed under: beauty tips • cosmetics • makeup • skin care
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