Young woman wearing fun sunglasses and purple lip products.

Your Complete Guide to Lip Products

The A–Z Guide to Lip Products

August 16, 2016

Lips are a huge component of every makeup look, whether you’re a no-makeup woman or love a full face. There’s a whole host of lip products out there, enough to overwhelm even the biggest makeup junkie.

Understanding the features of all the different lip products available will guide you to the right lip choice.

Chapped Lips

If you’ve ever experienced chapped lips, you’ll know how unpleasant it is. Treating chapped lips quickly and effectively will prevent them from cracking.

Make sure you find a lip balm that soothes and protects, and take it with you when you leave the house. One application per day is generally not enough, especially if you are facing elements such as wind or cold temperatures, which contribute to chapped lips.

Medicated Products

Medicated products are also available for chapped lips. Talk to a pharmacist or doctor before you decide to use these products. They’ll help ward off seriously chapped lips but can become addictive for your lips—sounds crazy, but it’s true! Make sure that you read the container so that you aren’t using too much of it each day.

Lip Gloss

When it comes time to add color to your lips, you can generally choose between lip gloss and lipstick. If you have never used products on your lips before, you might like to ease into it with a lip gloss. As the name implies, this product is generally glossier and less pigmented.

Some people associate lip gloss with teenagers and younger women only. However, you can actually find plenty of sophisticated shades to meet your needs no matter what age you are.

Lip Liner

When you want to add definition to your lips, use lip liner. You will need a steady hand to apply this product correctly, as it’s usually in a fine pencil format.

Choose a corresponding color to your lipstick so your lip liner isn’t visible on its own. Lip liner will help extend the longevity of your lipstick. It can also be used to enhance the shape of your lips, and make them look a little bigger or just more balanced.

Lipstick

Since this product comes in so many different colors and styles, you can find ones that suit you no matter what the occasion is. Lipsticks are available in a wide range of formulas, some offering intense pigment and some that are more sheer.

With some experimentation, you can find your go-to, everyday lipstick color. For some people, this might be a simple nude that matches their natural lip color. For others, more adventurous perhaps, a signature coral or red lip is part of their style.

Lipstick doesn’t need to be used on its own. It can be paired with lip liner for a long-lasting look or enhanced with a glossy top coat.

Lip Plumper

Many people want to have lips like the that ones that adorn models in magazines. Many times, these models are wearing plumping products, or have had cosmetic fillers. While fillers are a permanent solution, lip plumpers are cheap and easy to use.

Lip plumpers generally work by causing gentle irritation to your lips. Blood rushes to the area and plumps up your lips, making them look bigger.

Make sure you check out the ingredients though, and you may also want to do a small patch test. Some of these products are drying, and sometimes their ingredients are irritating to sensitive skin.

When you are ready to experiment with the world of makeup for your lips, you have an array of options to choose from. Paying careful attention to the products and your own needs helps you to select the right ones.