Who doesn’t love luscious lips in striking colours, perfectly contoured?
The secret to an envious, photograph-ready, and long-lasting pout is in the base. So that the colours just glide on, even the matte ones, and stay looking fresh.
To make lipstick last long:
- Step 1. Exfoliate with a mild lip scrub. Lip scrubs are available in the market or you can create your own at home.
- Step 2. Apply an intensely hydrating lip balm. (My favourite is Smith’s Rosebud Salve. You can use whichever works for you.) Do this early on so that by the time your face makeup is done the product has had the time to sink into the lips. That is a tip I picked up from Rosie Huntington Whiteley in one of her YouTube videos.
- Step 3. Apply concealer around the lip area to even out the skin tone
- Step 4. When applying foundation to the face, go over the lips as well with a beauty blender. This cancels out your natural lip colour and brings out the original colour of the lipstick. However, this step requires a strong lip balm underneath or the foundation will settle into the fine lines and you can forget all about billboard-worthy lips. This step is also crucial in making sure the lippie stays on for longer.
- Step 5. Line your lips with a shade closest to that of your chosen lipstick.
- Step 6. Fill in with the lipstick but be very precise with the application. Follow the contour of your lips carefully, whether you are overdrawing or underdrawing. (This is the one step in my makeup routine that has started to give me the most anxiety, especially as I approach the Cupid’s bow on my lips.)
Image 1 (at the start of this post) is me with fresh makeup. Images 2 and 3 are me after a few hours during which I had a very flaky and crisp veg puff with a cup of piping hot masala chai, the kind of stuff that affects most lipsticks. While the base makeup did not hold well (it is, after all, extremely humid), the lipstick and the eye makeup did. (The last two photos were taken with a different phone so there’s a difference in colour scheme.)
How long the lipstick ends up staying depends on:
- What exactly have you been doing with the lipstick – If you have the habit of eating your lipstick it will eventually go away.
- The formula of the lipstick – Matte ones stay on for longer than those with a creamy finish. Also, not all matte lipsticks are made equal. The lipstick used in the images here by L’oreal Paris Signature Matte Liquid Lipstick in the shade I Am Worth It is a real long-lasting one. It can withstand coffee dates and lunch dates and can only be removed with an oil-based cleanser. It fades leaving behind a very pretty red stain.
How do you do your lip base? Please comment below or connect with me on Instagram to share your thoughts on this.
