For all day lip color, skip lipstick all together and go for a lip pencil.  The lip pencil has the ability to “stain” the lips far longer than ordinary lipstick.  After applying a great lip pencil shade to your lips, use a gloss or lip balm on top for moisture.  Lip pencils outlast lipstick by almost double the time.  And lip pencils are generally less expensive than lipsticks.  Go buy a handful of lip pencils and experiment on your lips.

Kevyn Aucoin’s Face Forward is one of the best books on the market (still) for learning proper makeup application and principals.  After all, if you are wearing makeup every day, you should be the artist of your own face.  You should know basic principals on bringing out your own gorgeous features.  The late Kevyn Aucoin was a self-taught master of makeup, and his book depicts all kinds of celebs in all different and amazing ways.  Want to become a makeup artist?  Train yourself, like so many successful makeup artist do.  Many of the best makeup artists today are self-taught.  The difference between self-taught and formal teaching, many times, is passion.  Check out Kevyn Aucoin’s book Face Forward for a crash course in makeup application.

Ever think about the ingredients in your lipsticks and lip balms?  Probably not.  Why would you?  If  it’s available in stores, it’s safe, right?  Wrong!

Did you know that women use and ingest about 7 pounds of lip products over a lifetime?  And many of those lip products contain petroleum, a by-product of oil.  (gross!)  The petroleum jelly provides the gloss and shine to the lipstick, but there is an eminent danger lurking below that shimmery gloss.  The European Union has even banned many petroleum jelly products, and experts are concerned that they may be linked to cancer.  The last thing we need is danger in our lip balms, for crying out loud.

It’s a simple fix, so not to worry.  Simply use products that do not contain petroleum.  Start reading those ingredient labels and see what you are actually putting on and in your body.

Stick with ingredients you know and trust, like beeswax, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, and organic peppermint.  That’s a healthy recipe for a safe lip balm.  Not only that, it works better to moisturize your lips.   Good quality lip balms will make your lips feel moisturized and soft, and not like there is two pounds of an oil slick sitting on your lips.

Want to find your new favorite lip balm?  Try Supernatural Botanicals Lip Balm. With customers ranging from toddlers to glamorous divas to union-metal working men (yes, we actually had an entire crew of union metal workers in a clinical test trial), this lip balm can’t be beat!  And because our lip balm does not contain petroleum, it doesn’t give your lips a shiny or greasy appearance (one accolade that the men in our study loved).  Try it, you’ll love it!  Guaranteed! 

Tired of inconsistently sharpened lip and eye pencils each time you try to sharpen pointy new tips on them?  Chances are good that it’s your sharpener, not your pencil.

Try these tips to get the most consistent, perfectly sharpened pencil.

1. Always use the proper sized sharpener for the pencil.  Don’t sharpen a small pencil in a large sharpener….you’ll get a crooked edge on the pencil.
2. Use good quality sharpeners from an art store.  Purchase several sizes for your various pencil sizes.  Even good quality sharpeners are fairly inexpensive, and you’ll only need to purchase these about twice in your lifetime….it’s a good deal, go with it.  It’s worth it.
3. Maintenance.  Keep your tools clean.  They’ll perform better and it eliminates any entry point for bacteria.  Use a Q-Tip to gently clean our the sharpening barrel.  Never use alcohol or water on your blades…it will make them rust.

I have just found my new favorite lipstick!  Covergirl Outlast All Day Lip Color.  Amazing!  Let’s discuss.

Who it’s for:  This lipstick is great if you love a very matte lipstick that doesn’t come off on coffee cups or your man.  Much in the way a lipstick pencil would be on the entire surface of the lips.   Unlike all-day lipsticks of the past, this formula feels lightweight on the lips.

It also comes with a clear balm/gloss stick that allows you to moisturize the lips and give you a “slick” or “glossy” feel if that’s what you are going for.  Without exaggeration, this lipstick had 13 hours of staying power!  Impressive.   And it feels like you aren’t even wearing lipstick.

The selection of colors is huge….I found the shade of Lingering Spice to accentuate my lip’s natural color, yet made them pop!  This lipstick definitely brings out the sexy in your lips.

The staying power lasts so long, that you literally need to remove it with a makeup remover or baby oil at the end of the day.

Star Rating:  Five stars for Covergirl Outlast All-Day Lipstick.  Fantastic!

For lip color that lasts all day long, try this… Use a lip pencil to color the entire lips.  Next, blot lips to “seal” the color onto the lips.  This will create a matte look and will “stain” the lips and lock in the color.

Your lips will maintain the color for most of the day.  Lips are also more kissable when they are not layered with a gloss finish.  Great lip color that won’t come off on him….love that!

Periodically apply a great lip balm to the lips to moisturize, as a lip pencil can be somewhat dry and matte on the lips.

Ever wonder how an “X” came to represent a kiss? Starting in the Middle Ages, people who could not read used an X as a signature. They would kiss this mark as a sign of sincerity. Eventually, the X came to represent the kiss itself.

Fun Fact:  Over 90% of cultures in the world kiss to show affection.

Don’t you just hate when you get to the bottom of your favorite lipstick?  You know it’s gone and you should just let it go, but you also know that there’s still a third of the lipstick left in the base of the tube.

You also know that if you really, really love that lipstick, you’ll start digging into the base of it with tools (and sometimes, not even a lip brush…like the cap of a eyeliner pencil).  …Don’t judge, you know you’ve done that.

Well, finally someone has done something about this travesty of wasted lipstick.  Jill Quillin (let’s just call her a genius from here on), created the LipStix Remix.

This cool tool allows you to capture all the waste.  You simply empty your lipstick containers of the lipstick to the very base of the container.  You can use various lipsticks to create your own custom shade.

This can save thousands of dollars alone from buying lipstick that you didn’t like once you ended up getting home and trying it on.  Simply mix that color with one that  you like.  That’s recycling at it’s finest!  *Team Earth*

This is an absolute must have for everyone who wears lipstick.   Check out the video to see how it’s done.  You can visit their website here:  LipStixRemix.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg5A_Le_7LI