Lips Care and Lip Sticks

By Helen Wang

The celebrity photos in magazines. Why are these women so attractive? Answer: Gorgeous lips achieved with excellent lips care.

Yes, photo retouching and natural beauty has plenty to do with it, but you may also notice that most of them have a great smile highlighted by gorgeous lips.

So what can you do to make your own lips kissable and lovely?

A lot of your look will depend on the type of lips care products you are using.

Besides, beautiful lips are easier to achieve than you may think. The best advise for lips care is to keep them supple: One of the first steps to creating luscious lips is to keep them soft and smooth.

That may be easy for those of you blessed with naturally moist skin, but most women need to turn to thick, soothing lip balms to help avoid cracking or roughness, particularly in very dry, sunny, cold or windy climates.

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Lips Care:
The environment and weather can both wreak havoc to your lips, so to protect and restore lips, look to products like Lifeguard’s Choice or Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm, which contains ultra emollient lanolin and almond oil.

The Lifeguard’s Choice balm from Burt’s Bees isn’t restricted for lips care either; it can be used on ears, nose and other areas prone to dryness and chapping, so it’s a great product to having handy.

There are all kinds of great lip balms, or lips conditioners and other lips care products available. Many come in delicious flavors and colors, as well as different formats - tubes, pots and sticks.

Go shop around for one that works well for your lips and that you enjoy using.

Universal applications on beauty products and lips care are available everywhere but it's up to us to decide the way we use these applications in order to get the best results.

Definition: You’ve probably heard of lip liner but may be wondering if it’s really necessary. The answer? It depends. If your habit is to slick on a light gloss, which needs to be re-applied fairly often, you probably don’t want or need lip liner.

However, lip liner will give you a crisp, defined look with no smears or feathering if you wear lipstick, particularly in a bold shade. On top of that, the liner will help your lipstick stay in place longer.

For lips care, some women use lip liner to draw an outline at the very rim of their lips and then fill with lipstick while others draw the outline and then fill in the rest of their lips with the same color before adding lipstick for a more durable application.

Lip liners come in traditional ‘pencils’ (you’ll need a small sharpener, too) and also in highly pigmented cream pens. M.A.C. Cosmetics offers a superb collection of both pencil and cream lip liners in a terrific range of long-lasting colors.

Check out your local M.A.C. cosmetics counter or go to their website for more information.

Dazzling color:
It's time to add some colors, once your lips are defined and smooth. Fashionable shades change from season to season, but a good rule of thumb to follow is to stick to a natural shade during the day, and go a bit darker at night.

You may decide to choose a totally dramatic shade of lipstick to highlight a special outfit or for a special occasion but do remember that the color appears to change under different lighting conditions.

That daring shade of lipstick that looked so good under the mellow lights of home may take on a more garish look under sunlight or stark florescent lighting often found in retail outlets or office buildings.

On the other hand, it may be the perfect touch to draw attention to your lips in a softly lit restaurant. Though, there is a huge selection of lipsticks and lip glosses you can choose, do keep your destination in mind when choosing a lip color.

Generally, lipstick has more staying power compared to gloss but choose whichever you prefer. Several companies offer a number of quality lipsticks designed for moisturizing, volume-boosting and durability for those who are just starting out in the world of lipsticks.

Final touch -- plumping:
Look closely at those pictures in magazines again, you will notice that nearly every model appears to have plump lips.

You may prefer a simple and more inexpensive trick to achieve fuller-looking lips though there is a wide selection of lip-plumping lips care products available on the market.

Add a shimmering white eye shadow (or eyebrow highlighter), once you’ve applied the lip color of your choice. This has the effect of centering your lips, so blend it carefully toward the edges.

Having a subtly lighter area where your mouth opens will give you the look of fuller lips.