5 Tips Lipstick Lovers Need to Know

Do you enjoy pampering yourself with a new lip color every now and then? Are you usually the first among your social circle to try the latest hot lipstick color?

You can enjoy pampering your pout if you know how to take care of your lips and your lip cosmetics. Review the following five lip tips to ensure your kisser is all that it can be:

1. Regardless of the quality of your lipstick, your lips will never look luscious if you don't smooth your lips before applying your preferred product. Especially during the cold winter months, lips can be rough and chapped. Gently exfoliate your lips before moving forward with your lipstick routine.

sara happ The Lip Scrub

sara happ the lip scrub™ eliminates dry, flaky skin, leaving lips ridiculously soft and supple with jojoba oil and grape seed oil. Comforting, familiar, just downright delightful. Wonder how you ever lived without it.

2. If your lips tend to dry out quickly, opt for a creamy lipstick instead of matte. Not only will your lips look vibrant and kissable, they'll remain moisturized longer too.

Guerlain KissKiss Shaping Cream Lip Colour

Guerlain KissKiss Shaping Cream Lip Colour lets lips immediately regain their fullness and softness thanks to a formula enriched with plumping hyaluronic acid spheres. Commiphora oil helps smooth the lip surface.

3. Line your lips in their natural tone before applying lipstick (no, this isn't the time for a dark lip liner). A lip liner helps to frame your lips and anchor your lipstick in place.

Make Up For Ever Aqua Lip Waterproof Lipliner Pencil

Make Up For Ever Aqua Lip Waterproof  Lipliner Pencil has an extremely waterproof texture that allows it to reshape and emphasize the lip contours. It can also be used on the entire mouth, after applying a non-oily skincare on the lips.

4. If you want to get more wear out of your lipsticks, apply to the lip using a small, fine-point brush. The brush helps the lipstick to sink into the crevices of your lips, instead of just resting on the surface.
  
5. Lip gloss applied to the middle of your bottom lip can give your lips a plump look without the sticky feel of too much lip gloss. Just a little shine enhances your pout and keeps your lips moisturized.

Jill Stuart Jelly Lip Gloss N

Jill Stuart Jelly Lip Gloss N transforms your upper lip into a "Cupid’s Bow", bringing you the aspect of an innocent angel with fragrance of Crystal Floral Bouquet. It spreads easily with the lightest touch, providing a full, rich luster, pure sparkle and plump impression. It is designed with diagonally cut tube which allows for easy application on the lips, and perfect coverage.

Whether you choose to wear a nude-toned lipstick or opt for a ravishing red, bearing the above-listed tips in mind will help you get the most out of your cosmetics. You can enjoy taking care of your lips and extending the life of your lip liners, glosses, and lipsticks too.

Five Makeup Mistakes to Avoid

Along with clothes, accessories and hairstyles, makeup really helps you to express yourself visually. It is a good idea, then, to make sure you are creating the impression you want with your cosmetics, and that people are looking at you for the reasons you intended when you step out to face the world. This article outlines five common makeup mistakes that will detract from your beauty, rather than enhance it.

1. Too Much Powder

A light covering of translucent powder applied in the right places, with a brush, can help to set makeup and prevent shining. Take care not to overdo it, though, or your skin is likely to appear pale and chalky, and the mask-like finish will only hide your best features. 

Even worse, the powder will sink into any fine lines or wrinkles and magnify them, ageing you in the process. None of this is good news, so think twice before reaching for the powder pouf.

2. Playing up Eyes and Lips

It is a general rule that you should never wear heavy eye makeup when you are rocking dramatic lips. Not only can it be daunting, but also there is a risk you will end up looking like a clown. 

Make a statement with one or the other, not both. By doing this, you will make the feature you are choosing to highlight stand out much more than it would if your whole look is too busy.

3. Unnatural Looking Foundation

If you wear foundation that is not the right shade for your skin, or apply too much, the chances are your face and neck won't match and you will end up working the orange lollipop look. To avoid this particular beauty blunder, make sure you select a foundation that matches your skin type and colour. If you are not sure what to go for, visit any of the beauty counters at your local department store and staff will usually be happy to advise you.

4. Not Blending Your Products 

Failure to properly blend your eyeshadow, blusher, concealer, foundation or powder can put you firmly back in clown territory when you should be aiming for a smooth, flawless finish.  If products are blended correctly, makeup can work like magic to accentuate your best features and contour your face. If you need a bit of help with this, there are plenty of online tutorials showing you how to blend and a key tip is to purchase the right tools for the job. With a bit of practice, blending brushes, sponges and wedges will help ensure there are no harsh lines and streaks. 

5. Overdoing Lip Liner 

Lip liner defines the lips and prevents lipstick from bleeding, so it is an important product for perfecting your pout. However, harshly lined lips or wearing a liner that is too dark will just look unnatural and dated. And if you stray outside of the natural line of your lips, you also risk emphasising any fine lines around the mouth. 

When working with lip liner, therefore, do take care to follow your lip line and make sure the colour is a good match for your lipstick. To avoid severe lines, choose a creamy pencil that is easy to blend. If you avoid using lip liner altogether, give it a go. When you get it right, you will probably want to kiss yourself. 

If any of the above mistakes sounds familiar, don't give yourself a hard time. Remember, even celebrities fall foul of them sometimes and they usually have the benefit of professional makeup artists. And at least when you are having a bad makeup day, there is unlikely to be a photographer on hand to capture your every blunder.