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The Secret to Long Lasting Lipstick: Pam’s Tips


My friend Pam always looks amazing. She’ll be running around the hospital (she works in the pediatric heme/onc department at my hospital) and I’ve never seen her look frazzled or be without perfect lipstick.

Lipstick is Pam’s signature. She favors the darker shades like berry and red, that are big this season. How does she get it to look perfect all the time?

Lip liner.

Yes, unfortunately that is the secret. As a lipgloss girl, this seems so… fussy to me. Almost like wearing panty hose. (Though, that’s coming back thanks to Kate Middleton.) But, it turns out that the secret to great lipstick truly is what you wear underneath it.

“I wear any lip liner, it doesn’t matter what brand. The cheap stuff works just as great.” Pam says that she picks a shade of liner as close to her lipstick as possible. She has liners from MAC, L’Oreal and even Wet’n’Wild. A dark red liner goes with red and dark red lipstick. Berry liner with berry lips and she even has a bright pink liner (that’s the Wet’n’Wild) that works great with any pink lipstick.

Pam lines around the inside of her lips and then fills them in completely with the liner. Apply lipstick over this and it will last all day! Pam does prefer “good lipstick”, her faves include MAC and Estée Lauder. I’ve never seen her without that day’s lippie in her pocket for quick touchups as well.

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About Me

I’m a doctor, a mommy and a bit of a beauty addict. If you let me, I can take 2 hours to get ready in the morning. Really. I'm on a quest for faster beauty that works!

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6 Comments

  1. 9.17.11
    EINz said:

    thanks for the tip. I'll try this one =)

  2. 9.18.11
    Jess said:
  3. 9.18.11
    kia said:

    great post! To my my lipstick last longer i seal it with some lipcote! xx

  4. 9.19.11
    mariam said:

    I do the same with MAC lipsticks, I even use a MAC lip primer, and within an hour the color has already faded. I am still on the lookout for a good long wearing lipstick.

  5. 9.19.11
    donah said:

    This is an awesome tip. I been using L'Oreal but it is my problem how to make this lasts. I've read your post and I am thinking trying this out. Hope it will also lasts whole day long.

  6. 9.20.11

    I'm a lipgloss girl too and I've found that this trick works just as well under pigmented glosses. You get a lot more wear time and it's not too much extra work.