Lip colour that lasts forever and ever

...or comes close at least!

Nothing is more annoying than putting on your lipstick, walking out of the house, grabbing a coffee  and then finding you lost half of your lip colour in transit and the other half is stuck to the side of your latte. Seriously, there should be some kind of unwritten law in which the waiter who picks up your stained wine glass at the end of a meal is forbidden to smirk. However, gone are the days of shamelessly reapplying every few hours - I've found that incorporating a few extra steps into your lip care routine will help colour stay on much longer.

So! Here are the lip products I used today;

Clockwise from top to left; YSL Golden Gloss in Simply Gold, Lipcote Lipstick Sealer, MAC Prep + Prime Lip, Angled Lip brush from Forever 21, YSL Rouge Pur Couture lipstick in Fuschia Innocent

I decided to use my lovely new YSL lipstick which I adore - it's literally like rubbing your lips in silk. Heaven. Its heavily pigmented, so you can build up colour with a brush or go all out and apply it directly from the bullet. I also should point out that certain lipstick formulas will be more long-lasting than others; I find YSL and NARS to be the most long lasting luxury brands but there are really gorgeous lipsticks from high-street brands like Rimmel and e.l.f with great longevity. MAC lipsticks I find are actually pretty hit-and-miss in their formulas, but for lengthy wear I swear by shades like Ravishing or Rebel. Here's a couple of pictures and a swatch of this little beauty worn on its own:

1. First things first; balm balm balm. Both the night before and just before I put anything on my lips I smother them in Vaseline to soften and moisturise.
2. Blot off any excess with a tissue and apply MAC Prep + Prime for lips. A lip primer might seem like the ultimate in unessential cosmetics but I've found this really smooths my lips before making them a little tacky to helps keep lipstick in place.
3. I'd usually use a lip-pencil around the edges of the lip and all over as a base next but I totally forgot today. Oopsy. I prefer using nude lip-pencils for whatever shade and usually use a MAC pencil in the shade 'Subculture'.
4. Apply your lipstick - today I used this brush from Forever 21 (Couldn't resist the cute little pattern and its actually not a bad brush, result!) then blot using more tissue and reapply. 
5. Once you're happy, apply a coat of Lipcote. Lipstick sealers are a great way of setting your lip colour but this stuff dries your lips out a little so make sure you've balmed your life away before you start.

Once that's dry, you're done! If you've followed all of those steps your lipstick should last for aeons. I put on a coat of lipgloss afterwards but that's totally up to you. Although I appreciate its pretty difficult to tell in this awful quality picture (11 days until I get home and can cast aside this Fujifilm monstrosity), this was taken 10 hours after initial application and the colour is still looking as vibrant as ever.

Other products used:

Face: MAC; Studio Fix Fluid NW25

MAC; Powder Blush in Sincere

Make Up For Ever; HD Microfinish Powder

Eyes:Urban Decay; Half Baked (All over lid), Darkhorse (In

crease) Virgin (To blend) and Sin (To highlight)

MAC; Kohl Powder Eye Pencil in Feline

Josie Maran; GOGO Argan Mascara in Pitch Black

Have you got any other steps you use to make lip colour last longer? If you have a YSL Rouge Pur Couture stick, how heavily have you fallen in love with it?

xx