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It never hurts to dress up your lips, especially if you're sharing Valentine's Day with that special someone. Make sure your pout is pucker-ready by following these four simple steps.
Buff. Exfoliate your lips one to three times a week, or as needed. Many companies sell a lip buffer or exfoliator , but that expenditure is totally unnecessary (they sometimes are priced at over $30). I'll let you in on a little secret: the main ingredient in nearly all lip exfoliators is sugar cane. Take a sugar cube or open a sugar packet and rub lightly over lips. This will take care of all the dead skin on the surface. Wash, pat dry, and apply a moisturizing lip balm.
Smooth. If you've ever wondered why your lips dry out more often than the rest of your skin it's because the vermillion (another name for the thin, pink part of your lips) has no sweat glands, which means they are prone to drying and cracking, especially in colder weather and dry conditions. This is another good reason to stay hydrated and keep your lips buffed and moisturized with the most nourishing ingredients. Buyer Beware: petroleum jelly has often been promoted as a "heal-all" and a lip moisturizer—but it is scientifically unproven to have any nutritive properties and does not allow skin to breathe. Look for naturally derived oils instead, such as those derived from sunflower seed, aloe vera, beeswax, coconut, jojoba, hemp seed, shea butter, avocado, and Vitamin E, which mimic your skin's natural oils. Some favorites to check out include: Pangea Pyrenees Lavender Lip Balm; Dr. Bronner Peppermint Organic Lip Balm; Eco Tints Mocha Velvet
Line. One of the super-simple tricks of the trade to make your lips look bigger, brighter and more luscious is to outline your lips. The first step is to take a concealer that matches your skin tone and blend around your lips. Next take a lip liner that matches your lipstick and outline your lips, paying close attention to the corners and the cupid's bow (the dip in the center of your top lip.) You can trace slightly around the outside of the lip line to make your lips appear bigger, then fill in the entire area of the lip to give it some base color.
Shine. Choosing a lipstick can be one of the hardest parts of a green beauty routine because of the controversy surrounding lead in lipsticks. Two recent studies conducted by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) reveal that lead, a known neurotoxin, is commonly found in our lipsticks. Out of 33 popular brands tested in the CSC's 2007 study, 61 percent were found to contain detectable limits of lead from 0.03 parts per million (ppm) to 0.65 ppm. The 2009 FDA follow-up report, recorded in the Journal of Cosmetics Science, revealed lead levels ranging from 0.09 ppm to 3.06 ppm in all products—more than four times higher than the highest lead level reported in the CSC study.
But it's difficult to determine which of our lipsticks contain lead. The levels are different for every type of product, and the FDA has not set limits that for each type of lip product. So, I suggest sticking to some good old-fashioned natural lip balm for pucker-ready perfection or some lead-free, ravishing red shades, such as Tarte Lipstick or Body Shop Lip Color (Garnet).
Kiss-and-tell some of your lip secrets if I didn't include them here.
