Tricks of the trade – Lip locked

Sick of your lipstick vanishing the second you put it on? Well worry no longer as these tips will ensure your lipstick lasts for hours

If I had a pound for every time I was asked, 'How can I keep my lipstick on for longer', I would be a very wealthy man. It's an age-old problem. You apply your lipstick with tender loving care, only to find that it up and deserts you before you manage to get yourself out of the front door. But there are ways. And like the nice bloke that I am, I am about to share some of them with you. The difficult thing with staying power is that what works for some women will not work for others, and vice versa. That is why you may find your best mate will be able to go through the entire day without touching up her lipstick while you are in front of the mirror every ten minutes…even though you use the exact same product! So how can you keep a lipstick on for longer? Makeup pouches at the ready? Here are some tricks of the trade...

Base

  Maybe she's born with it?One of the easiest and cheapest ways to keep that colour in place is to apply some sort of base to the lip area. That can be a purpose bought product like Elizabeth Arden's Lipfix or Guerlain's Liplift, or something as simple as your foundation and powder. Or both.

Make sure there are no residual products on your mouth – moisturiser, balm, etc.
Apply a thin layer of your concealer and/or foundation over the entire mouth
Dust a fine layer of powder to set that
Use your lip pencil and/or/lipstick as per usual

Know that with this option you will slightly alter the shade and depth of your lipstick, so the less of the base colour you use, the better. It will also usually make the colour a little bit less vibrant or even more ashen, but the trade-off will be that it gives you that little bit more staying time.

Layering
Generally, the more layers you have applied, the better the chances of keeping at least one of them on! This can be done one of two ways:

Option 1: Multiple lipstick layers
Basically with this one you want to apply your lipstick as you normally would, either with or without a lip pencil
Blot away the excess oil from the lipstick by pressing a tissue over the mouth. I usually do not have someone clamp her mouth shut onto a tissue as I think it moves the colour. Instead, I would lay a single ply of tissue over the mouth and allow the tissue to absorb the oils
Re-apply lipstick
Repeat if you want or need to

Option 2:
Apply your lipstick and/or liner as you did above
Lay your single ply of tissue over the top, but instead of pulling it away once the oils have absorbed, dust a layer of powder over the top
This allows the powder to sneak through the fibres of the tissue and absorb even more oil from the lipstick, setting like it would your foundation
Now re-apply lipstick

The reason this often works is that you are removing the emulsive oil layer and building stronger pigment layers. It will serve you much better than simply apply loads and loads of lipstick that will just end up sliding off of your chin!

Pencils
Lip pencils can be used not only to give definition to the shape of the mouth; they can be used as a base to the lip colour.

First, apply your lip pencil as an outline to your lip shape
Now, fill in the entire mouth with the pencil. Don't be mean…apply the colour in a decent layer
Make sure you choose a pencil that is not dry and cracked looking when you fill your mouth in otherwise the entire effect will look crumbly and horrid
Apply either a lipstick or a gloss to give a satin finish

A few words of warning… Ensure the lip pencil colour is as close as possible to the lipstick colour: if not, you will alter the shade. And do pay heed to the texture of the pencil. If your lips are prone to dryness, choose a creamier pencil. They are usually the softer textures as opposed to stiffer pencils. There are also a few that are nearly waterproof, which you may find to be very helpful like Clinique Quickliner, L'Oreal Invincible Lip Liner, and Revlon Colour Stay.

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