The number one makeup complaint I get is about lipstick. It doesn’t stay on. It runs. The lips don’t look big enough. It gets on my teeth. You name it I’ve heard someone complain about it. So here are a few tricks of the trade for seriously good lips.

Keep Them Healthy

For the best lips you must keep them healthy. Feel free to use a moisturizing mask over your lip area once a week, or get a specialty treatment. Bioelements makes Lip Buff which is a sugar scrub for the lips that not only tastes great, but keeps your lips free of dead skin and hydrated. If you need a chap stick be sure you use a chap stick or lip moisturizer with an SPF of 15+ and that doesn’t addict your lips to it. Most chap stick’s teach your lips to stop producing their own moisture, so use a natural moisturizer like shea butter or coconut oil or get a good chap stick like Epicuren’s SPF 15 Enzyme lip balm. Without a good base for lipstick no lips will look their best!

Changing Lip Color

So you buy a lip color and then you put it on, or the as the day wears on, it looks totally different! Well one thing is the light in the store where you purchased the color might have mislead you. Always be sure to check color in natural lighting. The second reason could be that your hormones are fluctuating and as the pH of your skin changes it can effect the pigments in the lipstick. To put this problem to a stop just apply a thin coat of your face powder or concealer onto your lips first. This will keep the color on your lips true all day long.

Lip Plumping

So you have thin lips huh? Well we can’t all be Angelina Jolie, but with a little makeup magic we can all aspire to have lips as lush as hers.

1. Outline your lips on the outer edge of the mouth starting from the corners and working inward with a nude color. For the most realistic look don’t extend the lip above the lip line, just keep the outline right on the edge of the lip.
2. With the same nude color, color in the corner of the lips so you have a nude triangle on each side of your mouth. This gives your lips a pouty appearance instead of a bigger one.
3. Blend all the lines so that everything is soft and you can’t see any lines.
4. With a lip brush mix a medium shade of lipstick with a lip plumper like Jane Iredale’s Lip Plumper. The lip plumper with help plump up the lips, add hydration, and make your lipstick glide one. A medium shade of lipstick will make the lips look fuller than a dark or light one.
5. Add some gloss just in the center of your lips. This will make your mouth appear full and kissable!

Whiter Teeth

Believe it or not lipsticks can make your teeth look whiter or dull and dingy. For a whiter smile stick to colors that have a blue base. If you worry about yellow teeth stay clear of all yellow or orange based colors. You can always be safe with a neutral.

Smudge Proof, All Day Wear

This trick is especially good for any occasion (weddings!) that you need to smooch.

For longer lasting lipstick without all the nasty chemicals used in “long lasting lipstick” try this simple trick:

1. Line the lip then fill the entire lip in with the lip liner or your blush color.
2. Blend the lip liner into the lip well. Imagine yourself pressing the liner into the lip more firmly.
3. Apply your lipstick
4. Dust your lips with a translucent powder and then apply another coat of lipstick Do not use gloss! If you want a shimmer try a gold dust powder/li>

Now your lips will stay perfect all day.

Staying in the Lines

If your color has a tendency to bleed or smudge out the edges the be sure to finish any application with concealer around the edge of your lip. Not only will this give your lips an ultra sharp appearance, but it will stop all that nasty moving. A trick I like to use with this is to apply a concealer one shade lighter than your skin. This highlights the mouth and makes lips look fuller.

Too Full

On occasion someone tells me their lips are too full. I know it sounds crazy, but to each their own. In a case like this I tell the client to love nude colors and light glosses. If you fell like your lips are too much just keep it all very low key.

I just pulled this very clever add out of my Shape magazine. I did a double take and then realized what it was advertising. Do you get it? 🙂 If not, ask a friend!

This advert made me think about people who want shapes “down there”. When people come in to see me for pubic waxing most times they have no idea what shape they want. They know they want some hair or no hair on specific areas, but otherwise they are looking for guidance. As someone who has a lot of experience with this I am happy to offer it.

You see just like the hair on your head, pubic hair needs shaping for the most flattering look because not every one’s body shape and hair type can pull off the same “look”. Most people go with three basic shapes, triangle, strip, or bare. But even these have variations. A wide strip? Thin strip? Where does the triangle sit on your pubic mound (aka mons)? Are you sure you look good bare? Do you have enough hair to pull off an unusual shape like a Christmas Tree or star? There is a lot of design a good waxer does for a client, but you can think about what you want before you go in.

Setting aside specific shapes like hearts, stars, and green clovers for a moment. My favorite client is the client who at least knows the general type of shape she wants for her wax:

Full Brazilian: Everything gone from the front of the genitals and between the butt cheeks.

Traditional Brazilian: A small strip of hair or “landing strip” on the labia’s that extends onto the mons a bit. Everything else gone from the genitals and between the butt cheeks.

Traditional Bikini: If it sticks out of your underwear and is on the pubic area then I take it off. This doesn’t include inner thigh, belly’s, butts, or other body parts.

Bikini Plus: Little to no hair left on the labia, but hair (usually a triangle) on the mons.

Even with these basic guidelines a good waxer will be the person best able to help you look your best. As long as my clients can give me basic input on the shape and how much hair they want left when we are done, then I can do the rest. But your input is essential. We need to communicate! People seem to think the awkwardness and pain associated with bikini waxing is the worst part. But as anyone who has had a bad waxing experience can attest to, a crappy shape or a botched job can leave you traumatized. This is why finding a good waxer is essential, and a good waxer is someone skilled, clean, efficient, and that you can communicate with! Let your waxer know what you want, but trust them to know what you need. Remember you can always take more off, but growing back in is a total pain.

I can’t tell you how many clients come to see me asking for a Full Brazilian, but leave with a Bikini Plus instead. You see, going totally bare can be VERY scary and often unflattering. Try to imagine having long hair and then coming out of the hairdresser with a short bob. You look different. You feel different. It can be…frightening. This is the same with losing all your pubic hair. Sometimes you just don’t think about what that hair has been covering up, or what it provides a distraction from. Have a bit of a tummy? What about jutting hip bones? A freakish mole you never noticed? Or, my all time favorite, “I look like a 2 year old!”. I know Full Brazilians are currently all the rage, but you really might want to move a bit slower. If your waxer recommends not going bare the first time listen to them. Let me repeat – you can always take more off, but growing back in is a total pain.

Let’s talk about my favorite and the most versatile shape – the Bikini Plus. I think this is the perfect shape for newbies to try out. You see once the hair is removed from your labia and all the other hair is cleaned up you are going to feel sexy, clean, and wonderfully confident about your newly groomed area. Because the Bikini Plus is such a versatile shape it’s flattering on everyone. It can be wide, tall, short, fat, think, long…it can be whatever you need. And best of all, if you want more off next time it’s a snap to do. If you hated your shape it will usually fill in by the second or third wax so you can get a shape you’d rather have.

The shape of your body and the type of hair you have plays a large role in how you should be shaped. Since the Bikini Plus is the most versatile of the wax shapes it’s the one I am going to give examples of.

Let’s say you have wider hips and thinner pubic hair. If you try and have a small triangle you are going to look wider and your hair will appear scraggly very much like a prepubescent boy trying to grow his first goatee. Instead you will look better with a wider triangle (see image below) at the top that bows in a bit on the sides before coming to a point at the bottom. This gives a softer look and gives the illusion of narrower hips. It also makes use of the hair you have.

A person with narrow hips, a long torso, and thick pubic hair would look much nicer with a longer, sharper triangle that matches her angles and gives the illusion of a longer bottom half to match the top half. She can go narrower because she has enough hair to fill in that thinner triangle.

As you can see the versatility of the Bikini Plus makes it a great place for a waxing newbie to start, but the other shapes are all wonderful for the right person. If you hate any kind of hair at all go with a Full Brazilian. Just realize that you REALLY must take the hair out from between your butt cheeks. I know it’s a weird thing to wax, but trust me everyone has hair of some sort there and once you don’t have hair anywhere else you’ll notice it BIG TIME!

Just like the Bikini Plus the other shapes can be designed to cater to your specific needs. I have many clients who get a Traditional Bikini but instead of angled sides go straight up and down. I have clients who love the shape of the Traditional Brazilian with it’s thin landing strip, but hate any hair on the labia so we knock that off leaving just a small strip on the mons. The list goes on and on.

Now and then, usually around Valentines Day and Christmas, I have people request special shapes such as hearts, moons, lighting bolts, etc. These are totally doable, but you have to plan for them. First you need a LOT of hair and it has to be on the thicker side. You can’t have someones initials designed into your bikini if you don’t have enough hair to define those letters! Also one wax might not do the job. This is design work and I usually recommend two to three waxes for a good shape. Of course if you have a wonderfully thick thatch of fur, and lots of it, we probably can get it done in one go. But most people who are walking on the waxing wild side are long time waxers and have to grow some more hair in as we go along.

Well I hope this has taken some of the mystery of of bikini waxing. Any long time waxer will tell you that shaping is the hardest part of the process. It takes a lot of communication and experience to make someone feel good about their bikini wax. This is why it’s so important that you find a good waxer and stick with them.

So I just got visited by the State Board of Cosmetology and Barbering. Can I say SCARY. I am still shaking. The adrenaline that kicked up was almost as bad as that last car accident I was in!

As an esthetician who falls under the supervision of the State Board I know that at any time I can have a surprise inspection, but usually we don’t get them. Luckily for me I passed with flying colors. And I learned a lot from the ordeal about some of the new rules and regulations. Luckily I passed all of them…thank God for making me anal-retentive about sanitation!

Picking a new product isn’t easy. In fact, it’s one of the hardest things I do. The products I use and sell need to be exceptional, but meet multiple client needs and be within a budget that my clients can afford. So how does it all happen?

Well it starts with me selecting a few products that seem interesting. I learn as much as I can about the products online and from other people in my field. Armed with that knowledge I attend any classes those products offer. If I like what I hear I go to the booth and ask questions – lots of them. Essentially I need to know as much about this product as the chemist who created it and the person who first conceived it. If I can’t get these answers I strike the product off my list. I don’t care how good a product is supposed to be. If the people peddling it can’t answer my questions or find someone who can, then it’s useless to me. I am only as good as the products I use. They are the number one tool I have. I can know what’s wrong with you and how to fix it, but if my products are mediocre then I can only get you mediocre results. And any product line that can’t answer a few important questions is merely mediocre.

Sometimes I can’t get a good sense of a product after just one show or convention. In this case I ask the company for as much literature as they will send me and then I hang out at their booth the next show or convention I am at. I listen to what current clients have to say, and what new clients are asking. I become a groupie and just take it all in. If I had more time I’d do this with every line, but this process is very time consuming – yet always rewarding.

This process usually narrows the number of products a great deal. Out of the 5 or 6 I was interested in only 1 might make the cut. Any products that make the cut I spend about a month playing with. Once I deem the product safe and understand it enough to feel comfortable with it, it goes into a “Pilot Program” where I select specific clients to try it out.

After I get their feedback I keep it and get all the training I can on it, or I dump it and put all data on it into a file. This file is important. I will revisit it when a product line changes, there is a product line spin off, or I continue to hear good buzz about a product I axed. I haven’t yet taken in a product that was axed, but the data is always a great reminder to me of why the it didn’t make the final cut. The notes I gather also help with future research by narrowing down research on new product lines that hit the market.

So there it is. Not very exciting I know, but so many people asked how I pick my products after I attended my last Vegas Convention that I figured I might as well answer you all here. 🙂