Lipstick application tips. How to stop lipstick feathering and bleeding: Exfoliate lips, moisturize lips, prime lips, line lips, then blot lips to get younger looking lips at fifty and older. Judicious lip injections can also help remedy vertical lip wrinkles
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Bleeding Lipstick
Aren’t those tiny vertical creases that radiate out from our older lips annoying? Bleeding lipstick or feathering is an annoyance for the women of fifty and beyond. The insidious little creases are really horrendous if you happen to smoke, as pursing your lips for years around a cigarette will cause lip lines too. Too much time in the sun is also a no-no because the collagen and elastin fibers that keep your skin elastic and resilient is destroyed by years of sun exposure.
Lip Injections and Lip enhancement
The easiest way to eradicate the thin shrew like lips is to get them injected with fillers. At a price point of 300-400 dollars for around 4 months of plumped lips, you can purchase Collagen, Juvederm or Restylane lip enhancing injections. If you don’t get blinded by the lure of plush lips and over inflate them, judicious plumping can really do a number on your mouth. But you’ll be paying for it over and over since the injections don’t last.
If you really want to get fancy you can go for silicon injections (dangerous because silicon is notorious for lumping complications) or permanent lip implants such as Permalip or Artefill. Permanently plumped lips sound appealing however the implants have a way of turning your lips into fat sausages all the way across. If you lose the cupid’s bow of your natural lip shape by over stuffing the lips you end of looking freaky not pretty.
Since lip injections cost money for temporary fillers and require surgery for permanent fillers, let’s talk about some simpler home recipes for reducing the appearance of feathered lip lines.
Inexpensive home remedies to eliminate lipstick feathering
Exfoliate. The first thing to do is to exfoliate the lips and remove any dead skin. You want to encourage old cells to slough off and replace them with the smoother cells underneath. The smooth fresh skin is going to reduce the feathering appearance of your lips. You can try a glycolic acid lotion or face wash and gently use a hand towel to sluff off dead skin as you wash your face.
Moisturize. Once the dead skin cells are gone, it’s time to apply a gentle moisturizer. Choose a moisturizer that is thick and has some stick power, such as a thicker consistency body butter. If the moisturizer is too runny and watery it’s only going to help the lipstick feather. You need a moisturizer that is thick and has some stick and staying power to it. A thick consistency moisturizer can double as a primer.
Prime. After you exfoliate and moisturize you can use something called a lipstick fixative. A fixative is a special lipstick primer cosmetic product you can buy that sets a primer down to keep your lipstick in place. If your moisturizer is a thick set consistency you should not need to pay for a fixative primer as it adds another step(and cost) to the lipstick application process. But if you tend to sweat and get greasy around the mouth a fixative might work wonders. Another fixative-like product is your foundation. Foundation sets the face and if you have foundation on the face near your lips it will also work like a fixative to keep lipstick from bleeding out.
Line. Adding an outline to your lips with a lipstick pencil can be a real help to stop or diminish lipstick bleeding. The biggest trick to the pencil is the pencil itself. If you get a dull ended pencil it can actually make things worse. I recommend getting an actual lip liner pencil (rather than the twist up style lipstick liner that’s too thick to work well as an anti-feathering liner) with a very sharp quality makeup pencil sharpener. The pigment in the pencil has to be really good. If you have a problem with feathered lips it really pays to buy a more expensive lip liner pencil with good color pigment. Try Chanel or Mac. Once you get the hang of it, you can experiment with the cheaper version liners like Revlon etc. The pigment should have staying power and be in a color matching natural lips. If the liner does not look natural yet crisp, you may need to experiment with a different color shade and/or lip pencil brand.
Blot. Applying lipstick right from the tube is not a good idea if you have thin feathered lips. Get a lipstick brush and blend it in or use your fingers to blot apply the lipstick by hand. Rub lips together to blend color and make it look natural. Staying within the lines is important which is why thin lipped women need a brush or gentle finger to apply the lipstick rather than directly running the fat lipstick tube onto the lips. Blot lips by putting them together, or use a tissue for the classic lipstick blotting step. Hopefully these tips will help you fend off the feathering!