Lipstick is often the least thought about part of a persons make-up. Colour applied properly to your lips can make them as stunning and sensual as the rest of you, but if inexpertly applied nothing is more certain to look a mess! Lipstick applied to unprepared, dry or cracked lips will not give the best effect, so the place to start is with the actual skin of the lips. The fine tissue covering the lip area is not naturally supplied with body oils like the rest of the skin. This means that windy, cold, or even very sunny weather affects the moisture levels in your lips causing dryness, cracking, flaking and sometimes coldsores. All these problems can be minimised by keeping the bare lips moisturised and protected by applying a rich lip barm morning and night, makiing sure you have smoothed it well into the outline area and facial skin around the mouth. When combatting the effects of strong sunlight (or sunbed treatment), use a balm with a sun screen or block to protect your lips from ageing caused by ultra-violet rays. Your soft, moisturised lips are now ready to prepare for colour. lsips2.jpgPreparation has more than one advantage. Not only does it give you a good base on which to apply a defined outline for a professional appearance, but also sets your lipstick for a longer lasting finish with minimal colour bleeding onto surrounding facial skin. Start off by patting on a small amount of foundation onto your closed and relaxed mouth. Allow a few seconds to dry, or lightly dust with face powder to set foundation. You are now ready to choose your colour. It should complement your outfit and the rest of your make-up. A poorly matched colour looks just as out of place as a poorly applied colour. The colour you choose should be influenced by the outfit you will be wearing and also the rest of your make-up, your blusher in particular. Pink base colours and brown base colours should be kept seperate. Using pinks for pink, blue, purple, red and grey based outfits, and browns for yellow, brown, green, orange and beige based outfits is a good guide to bear in mind for all cosmetics.  
  lip3.jpgWhen you have chosen your colour, applying it to your lips is easy to do with confidence. Outline your lips with a fine line of colour using a matching lip pencil or a good quality lip brush (using plenty of lipstick on the brush for smoother brush strokes). If you have thin lips, a fuller more sensual look can be achieved by drawing the outline just outside the natural lip line, tapering the line into the corner of the mouth in the natural lip line position. If your lips are wide, make your mouth look pursed by outlining short of the corners and allowing the foundation applied in preparation to cover the uncoloured lip area. Very full lips can be made to look thinner by outlining lips just inside the natural lip line, taking the line to the full width of the mouth, again leaving foundation to mask the uncovered areas. To fill in the defined lip area, use a good quality lip brush taking small amounts of lipstick onto the brush to minimise usage and thickness of of application, and maximise lip crease infill. Remember, it is easier to 'not enough' than it is to take 'too much' off again! For maximum staying power dab the first application with tissue (not a lot of pressure or too much will be removed) and set with powder, followed by a second coat of colour. For an extra boost to luscious lipsplace a small amount of lip gloss to the center of the bottom lip, being careful not to take it to the outline to avoid bleeding. And that's it! Enjoy your Luscious Lips!