Lisa Jes­samy

Lips are a very im­por­tant part of a woman's face. How­ev­er, like any part of the body, lips need spe­cial at­ten­tion to keep that pout beau­ti­ful all day long. Here are a few help­ful tips to try.

Con­di­tion and Clean.

Af­ter you wash your lips, ap­ply al­mond milk, al­mond oil, or cream made from milk, and let it stay on your lips for at least one hour.

Treat.

Us­ing a mix­ture of lime juice, hon­ey, and glyc­er­ine, ap­plied reg­u­lar­ly, could help light­en dark lips.

Mois­turise.

At night, ap­ply nat­ur­al lip soft­en­ers like clar­i­fied but­ter or over-the-counter prod­ucts like Vase­line to help con­di­tion your lips to help mois­turise and pro­tect them dur­ing the day.

Lemon Mask.

Lemon juice is well known for its skin-light­en­ing abil­i­ties. You can make a paste of equal parts lemon juice, gra­ham flour, yo­gurt, and hon­ey, and rub it on­to your lips. Leave the paste on your lips for a half hour, then wash it off. Pro­tect. Use sun­screen to pro­tect your lips - the sun can in­crease the amount of pig­ment in your lips, mak­ing them even dark­er.

Ex­per­i­ment.

Not all lip­sticks will agree with your lips. Ex­per­i­ment with ones that you feel most com­fort­able with and dis­con­tin­ue us­ing the ones that may dark­en and dis­colour your nat­ur­al lip colour. Some ex­perts sug­gest beet­root, pome­gran­ate, or co­rian­der juice to light­en lips.

Lim­it.

Cig­a­rettes, cof­fee, and tea do more than stain teeth; they can al­so dark­en lips. Last­ing Lip Colour While you can find many lip­sticks that stay on longer, there is al­ways that per­fect shade of lip­stick that doesn't and comes off by the mid­dle of the day.

• Clean your lips. If you are look­ing for a smooth fin­ish, you should clean your lips with a mask or cleanser at least twice a week. Rub gen­tly by ap­ply­ing warm wa­ter with a wash cloth/cot­ton to re­move any dead or dry skin.

• Use Lip Lin­er. When us­ing a lin­er make sure to choose one that is at least two shades dark­er than your lip­stick. Trace your nat­ur­al lip line and pay at­ten­tion to your Cu­pid's Bow (the "V" part of your top lip). Once you have lined your lips, colour in the re­main­der of the lip with the lin­er as well.

• Add lip­stick. Gen­tly ap­ply a first coat, us­ing a lint-free tis­sue, blot lips by plac­ing the tis­sue be­tween your low­er and up­per lips. Press down. Ap­ply sec­ond coat of lip­stick. Place the tis­sue gen­tly over lips and dab with loose pow­der.

• Gloss, high­light and plump. Place a small dab of a shim­mery or light-grab­bing gloss in the cen­tre of your bot­tom lip will plump up your pout in an in­stant. This adds di­men­sion and a shot of light to your lips, draw­ing at­ten­tion right where you want it.

• Com­plete the look. Place your in­dex fin­ger be­tween your lips and puck­er up. See the lip­stick left on your skin?

Have some fun by chang­ing up the colours that suit your moods and your style.