“If you’re wearing lipstick, use concealer just outside and around your lips. It’ll brighten up that area and make the lipstick pop louder.”
Another Pinterest Pin That Blows
Have you seen the one for an at-home lip scrub/exfoliator? There are a lot of different ones, but I tried the honey and sugar one. Verdict? Absolute trash. I can understand how in theory these might go together to work towards a softer lip, but not so. Once you wash it all off, you're left with really tight feeling lips, I had to put some Soft Lips on immediately.
And when there are actual good and inexpensive lip exfoliators available, there's no need for this homemade recipe at all.
BONUS TIP: Sometimes I'll try out a pin on Pinterest, hate it and then forget I tried it already and try it again in a few months (I'm not the smartest...?). One way to curb this habit is to keep a Pinterest board solely for things you've tried and hated (and if you think that's too mean, then keep it as one of your private boards so only you can see it).
You can find more pins that you should stay away from over here and here.
e.l.f. Lip Exfoliator
$3
$3
This is the best thing I've tried at e.l.f. thus far. I can definitely see why so many people are loyal to this little guy. I don't wear lipstick often, but I still use this every morning and night. I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen, but little bits of the exfoliator come off the stick and onto your lips in a way that makes it feel like it's really working and doing something. And if you use this exfoliator and then follow with some peppermint extract? You're going to feel indestructible. Please try that combination now.
And if you're into any kind of plumping lip agent/gloss/shine/whatever... you need to stop using that nonsense immediately and bring out the real, natural plump that's already in your lips. I swear to God it's there. Exfoliating them brings out that plump. Look it up.
This seems like a lot of lip maintenance, I know. But I can't tell you what a difference you'll see.
I'm not even going to dwell on the fact that this is only $3. You have no excuse to not get this.
Peppermint Extract For Lips
If you’ve ever bought any sort of product that advertises itself as a lip plumper, then please read on. If not? I don’t know, maybe go here and make your brain better or something. (Also, if you’re a woman who’s adequately happy with what her lips are doing for her? I envy you.)
I never buy any of those products anymore - mostly because the majority of them are trash. Expensive trash. I read the following tip in a “Fun Facts” section of a cookbook once, so that’s probably why I trust it.
After you put your lip balm on, dab a bit of peppermint extract on next. It pumps them up like mad. I’ve been doing this for about, oh, say six months or so and I feel like it’s been working.
(Extra tip: using hot sauce does the same thing, in very small quantities, of course. Though, I wouldn’t fully endorse that idea because then you just smell like you ate something spicy all day. Not the hottest, but I’m sure some people are into it.)
Tip - Soft Lips Lip Balm
I’ve been using this brand of lip balm for over ten years now. Maybe that’s a sad sentence to hear. Or maybe I just know when something is especially quite good. Why is this baby so good? I’ll tell you why, jerk. THEY’RE SO SLIM! Really. That’s probably my main reason. Yeah, they smell good and go on smooth, but every damn lip balm does/has that. These just glide right into my pocket and aren’t as bulky as your run-of-the-mill ChapStick. I also feel like it lasts longer than other brands, but that could just be a completely false statement.
Apparently you can buy them at Walgreens, but I haven’t seen proof of that yet so I just buy a bunch when I’m in Canada at Shoppers Drug Mart.
If you’re weird enough to purchase lip balm in bulk and/or online, you can get them here. I’ve never bought them online before, but I might now because they offer silly flavors like marshmallow ghost.
Sorry about calling you a jerk. That was rude.