Lipstick Buying Guide:

Perhaps the most popular type of makeup in stores is lipstick. Almost all women that go to work everyday wear some type of lipstick and school age girls (junior and high school) have on lip-gloss or lip balm products. Lipsticks have become more complicated to buy with long lasting, matte, high shine, and wet looks. Which type of lipstick is right for you? There are literally dozens of colors to choose from with shades of red being the top sellers, but the maude or gothic dressed crowd wears black lipstick. In recent years women have become obsessed with lip-liners that enhance the look of lipsticks and some have even gone as far as getting those lines permanently tattoed on their lips. We say the best way to go for now is to buy a lip pencil from Yves Saint Laurent or L'Oreal and do it yourself. In any event, lip liners are easy to use and will help define your lipstick and help keep the lip color from bleeding outside of the area on your lips.

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The top lipstick products are made by MAC Cosmetics, Revlon, L'Oreal, Maybelline, Clinique, Cover Girl, Chanel, Estee Lauder, Lancome, Mary Kay, Max Factor, Urban Decay, Bourjois, Elizabeth Arden, Gale Hayman, and Almay. The biggest issue that women have with lipsticks are that they smudge and come off over time whether you are eating or drinking throughout the day. Long lasting lipsticks have done a great job and many work well over 8 hours without showing signs of coming off. Long lasting lipsticks tend to have a matte appearance and aren't as wet or juicy looking as the more inviting glossy lipsticks. The secret to great looking lips has been the duo or two step lipstick products. Now you can buy a long-lasting lipstick and put a clear gloss over the top of that. The color stays put throughout the day and night while you keep re-applying the glossy finish for a great look. Max Factor's Lipfinity is a popular seller in this category and is packaged as two separate wands. Covergirl also makes comparable products that will do the same thing. We went online to find some reviews done by actual consumers to see which lipsticks are the most popular based on surveys and research. The best sites that cater to women are iVillage and About.com's section on cosmetics and makeup. The best lipsticks per customer feedback and consumer opinions were Cover Girl Outlast All-Day Lip Color, Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey, Max Factor Lipfinity, M.A.C. Lipstick, Avon Beyond Color Triple Benefit Lipstick, and Mary Kay Intensity Controller Lipstick. Other brands worth mentioning are Chanel Hydrabase Creme Lipstick and Estee Lauder Go Pout Lipstick. A good tube of lipstick will cost you between $15 and $40. Lip gloss will cost about the same. You can shop online at Sephora.com or Makeup.com and in department stores.

Lip-Gloss:

Lip-gloss was popular in the early 80's when I grew up, and just recently it got trendy again. Lip-gloss comes in 2 varieties with the first being the kind you apply with an applicator wand and it goes on just like lipstick. The effect is a high shine and glossy appearance that shines well. They stay on fairly long and only need an occasional reapplication. Some top selling titles are Bourjois 3 Effet D and Pop Chic or the Maybelline Wet Shine and Water Shine series. Another kind of lipgloss are those that really only add shine or gloss to your natural lip color or over lipstick. Lancome's Juicy Tubes are very popular and cost more than the competition. The Maybelline Fruit Jelly line is very similar but will cost considerably less. A common rule of thumb amongst cosmetic professionals is that women who already have full lips should not use much lipgloss (if at all).

Long Lasting Lipstick:

This type of lipstick is often called kiss proof lipstick or non transfer lipstick. Long lasting lipsticks are meant to stay on all day long. You won't find lipstick marks on your teeth, food, or cups with long lasting lipsticks. Experts say there is one drawback to wearing long lasting lipstick, the matte finish leaves your lips feeling dry. Look for Max Factor Stay Put or L'Oreal Invincible Kiss Proof in your local stores or online at Folica.com or Makeup.com. Smudge resistant lipsticks are long overdue in my books. I remember getting kissed from my grandmother every year around the holidays and immediately having to go and wash off the lipstick that she transferred to my face.

Putting on Lipstick:

Applying lipstick is not as easy as it looks as proven by many older women and young girls first wearing lipstick. There is a certain technique to putting on lipstick so that it looks even and actually makes your lips look better and not worse. You can find dozens of sites that have written explanations of how to apply lipstick, but we found a great site with video footage on how to put on lipstick properly. It literally walks you through the process of selecting the right lipstick for your skin color and clearly shows you the process of applying lipstick to your lips. Go HERE to watch the video and learn how to apply lipstick. There are also videos available on "how to apply lip liner" and "how to make your lips look bigger".

Do you have a quality site or product that belongs in this guide? We are always happy to evaluate or review new products and websites. Feel free to contact us at the email address below and let us know about you. If you have a demo product you'd like us to look at, please contact us before sending anything. Thank you.

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