There are so many new beauty releases being pushed to us it can be hard to figure out what product actually works and what’s worth spending the coins on. I’ve been on the hunt for quality lip care products, from lip care to makeup. I was determined to build a lip collection that nourishes, enhances, and looks good on my lips.
When it comes to lip care, your best lips start with a simple but effective routine in place. Our lip care isn’t synonymous with our skincare routine. If you think about it, our lips are exposed to just as much if not more, and have the thinnest layer of skin, requiring a little extra attention. A good foundation is important with anything, and I find that the better you treat and care for your lips, the better your glosses and lipsticks look.
Some of us underestimate the importance of healthy smooth lips or just don’t know what products to use to achieve it. Don’t worry, though, we got you! We created this list of products with everything from lip scrubs to lip glosses to help build a lip care routine that will keep your lips hydrated, smooth, and beautiful. Here are eight lip care products you need to try now:
Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask Intense Hydration with Vitamin C
If you’re in need of an intense lip moisturizing treatment, an overnight mask may do the trick. One of the biggest benefits of overnight treatments is that it allows you to dedicate uninterrupted time to restore moisture and hydration back into your lips. Studies also show that our skin cells rebalance during the night, making moisture retention more ideal. Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask works and does just that by transforming dry or cracked lips while you sleep.
The overnight treatment is packed with antioxidants, berry fruit complex, murumuru seed, and shea butter to create smoother, softer lips. You simply just apply at night before bed and wipe off the excess in the morning. How often you should use it depends on you; it can be a consistent part of your nighttime beauty routine or something to do once in a while when your lips need a little extra TLC.
La Mer The Lip Polish
La Mer
If you’re looking for a two-in-one scrub, La Mer's Lip Polish is exactly what you need. The scrub act as both a moisturizer and exfoliator with a balm-like feel. It comes with a two-sided applicator: one smooth end to apply to your lips and the other to massage and increase circulation. La Mer’s Lip Polish helps remove dead skin, soften lip texture, and hydrate. It’s free of parabens and sulfates and uses its signature miracle broth which is a blend of sea kelp and various vitamins and minerals to nourish your lips.
Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil
Lip oils are a great bonus product for smooth and hydrated lips. They are designed to not only add shine but also nourish, soften, and protect your lips from dehydration. Rare Beauty makes a great collection of tinted lip oils that combine skincare and makeup. With up to eight different shades, all you need is the tinted oil and liner, and you’re good to go!
Ami Colé Lip Treatment Oil
Ami Colé
This is another great lip oil if you don’t want the vibrancy of the Rare Beauty oil. If you’re more of a gloss girl but still want to get into lip oils, Ami Colé is the way to go. Each oil is made with baobab seed oil and camellia oil to nourish lips and add lasting shine without any stickiness. As far as shade options, Ami Colé offers five different lip shades – Excellence, Reflection, Smitten, Bliss, and 5/17.
Although each oil shade has its own tint, it still incorporates a sheer and natural gloss-like finish to fit every skin tone. I think a good way to use lip oils is to layer it on top of your chapstick or lip ointment for double hydration and long-lasting moisture.
Aquaphor Lip Repair
Aquaphor
Finding the right lip balm can be a job in itself. I’ve tried almost every stick, balm, and ointment there is, and the only one I seemed to be satisfied with is the Aquaphor Lip Repair. It treats, shines, and adds long-lasting moisture to dry lips. It’s free of harmful preservatives and fragrances and made for those who are more on the sensitive side. You can also get this same ointment with SPF 30, so you can protect your lips from sun damage and signs of aging.
Fenty Beauty Fenty Icon Velvet Liquid Lipstick
Fenty Beauty
I don’t know about y’all, but one of my favorite moments of the 2023 Super Bowl was that red lip – it was bold, pigmented, and stunning, so you know we had to add it to the list. Fenty’s Velvet Liquid Lipstick is a creamy lip color with long-lasting wear. The velvet finish is a great option if you’re not necessarily a matte or glossy kind of girl. The Fenty Icon comes in five different shades – H.B.I.C., Bread Winn'r, C-Suite'Heart, RiRi, and The MVP. For $29, it will give you a bold, comfortable, and long-lasting wear.
Juvia's Place The Coffee Shop Luxe Lipliners
Juvia's Place
Juvia’s Place products are known for their rich and pigmented colors, especially for dark skin. I’ve personally had a hard time finding a bold brown lipliner that doesn’t blend in. If you’re having the same issue, I highly recommend grabbing one of these. For one, it comes in three different brown shades – Cocoa Latte, Coffee Bean, and Espresso. The liners are just $10 for a smooth application that adds both pigment and definition to your lips. For the price, it’s definitely a steal.
Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer
Fenty Beauty
I really wanted to give y’all a range of products and brands without repeating brands on this list, but Fenty Beauty really came into the game killing it. It would be a disservice to leave their collection of glosses off the list. The Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer is a must-have for your gloss collection. I’m personally a fan of the Fenty Glow, but it has six other shades – FU$Y, Diamond Milk, Glass Slipper, $weetmouth, Hot Chocolit, and Riri.
In my opinion, because it conditions so well, you can use this as a lip oil too. Now I know Fenty sells lip oils too, but if you’ve tried both already, it basically has the same feel and effects in a bigger bottle.
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Again, the answer never changes because, if there is one thing that Shellie Reneé Warren is gonna get, it’s 6-8 (sometimes nine) hours of sleep. However, since my chronotype (check out “Ever Wonder What Personality Traits Make Someone A 'Morning Person'?”) means that I like/prefer to write in the wee hours of the morning, sometimes I will sleep for the night for five hours and take a nap in the day. And y’all, that is just fine with me because I am well aware of the fact that napping does everything from give me more energy, heighten my alertness and even make me more creative to decrease stress levels, strengthen immunity, and reduce my chances of experiencing a heart attack or stroke.
My problem is I will oftentimes go “overboard” with my daytime zzz’s. What I mean by that is, in order to get the most out of a nap, they say thatyou shouldn’t sleep for longer than 25 minutes or so; otherwise, you could wake up feeling sluggish (I don’t but…). Also, it can make resting, soundly, at night a bit of a struggle.
So, what are you saying, Shellie? We should get quickies in? Yeah. And it’s funny that the word “quickie” would come up because just like a sex quickie can do wonders for you (and it can — check out “12 Super Solid Reasons To Have A Quickie Every Single Day”), it’s a full-circle moment when I say that something that can improve the quality of your sex life is to have a power nap (a nap that lasts between 10-30 minutes).
Wanna know how the two things correlate? Honestly, it’s no secret that sleep and sex work together to optimize both (check out “6 Fascinating Ways Sex And Sleep Definitely Go Hand In Hand”). Today, though, we’re going to tap into how a nap, specifically, can have you partaking in some of the best sex that you’ve experienced in a minute. I’ll explain.
Naps Reduce Stress
GiphyIf you’re feeling super stressed out right now, you are not alone. There is plenty of data out here that says that most of us are stressed for at least a couple of reasons at a time — and that can impact your sexual health on a few levels. For one thing, it can bring about feelings of depression and/or anxiety. Stress can also throw your hormone levels off (including your cycle) which can weaken your libido. Stress can make you want to put distance between you and your partner (yes, literally).
Stress can also make it challenging to get aroused or to have an orgasm. And just what can help to decrease stress? Taking a nap. Since sleep has a way of helping you to “get off of the clock” and relax a bit, that can lower your stress levels and “reset” your body so that you are calmer — and that, in turn, can do wonders for your sex drive and ultimately your sex life.
Naps Improve Your Mood
GiphyThere is one person in my life, and fairly 80 percent of the time, she’s in a super good mood. Oh, but let that girl go without sleep, and…who is this woman? LOL. There’s research behind why this happens. When a person is sleep-deprived, it messes with their brain chemicals, and that can amplify emotions like anger, restlessness and sadness. In fact, one study revealed that people who had their sleep disrupted throughout the night, they ended up having their positive outlook on life reduced by about 30 percent.
And geeze, who wants to have sex when they’re not feeling very good? Anyway, since serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps to regulate your moods, your sleep patterns, and your libido and sleep is what helps to keep it in balance — by taking a nap, not only can it help you to feel better, it can also increase your desire for sex (it can also build up your endurance which is also…sexually beneficial).
Naps Increase Your Focus and Concentration
GiphySomething that some of my clients bring up is how, when it comes to having sex, sometimes the flesh is willing while the spirit is weak because, although the desire for intimacy is there, so much is going on that they aren’t able to get still enough to focus on experiencing copulation with their partner. This also tracks because, when you don’t have enough rest, your brain finds itself not working in harmony and that can make it hard to do everything from approaching life with a sense of flexibility to making necessary decisions.
Certain data also reveal that a lack of rest can cause you to have a really poor attention span and not process things in context (the more you know). So, if you really want to get some yet it’s hard for you to focus long enough to make it happen, ask your bae to lie down with you and take a nap. Between the sleep and the snuggling (check out “Fall's Coming: 8 Wonderful Health Benefits Of Cuddling”) — you may wake up with your mind and body totally on the same page. #wink
Naps Can Make You Feel Better About Your Body
GiphyEven if, overall, you feel really good about your body, I think that we all have moments when we feel less attractive than others — and who wants to have sex when they don’t really feel…very sexy? Well, something else that sleep, in general, can do is increase your confidence in your body.
For one thing, if you want to lose a few pounds, sleep can actually make that happen by helping your body metabolize the glucose (sugar) that’s in it so that you can better manage your appetite. Other studies go on to share that since sleep deprivation can impact one’s mental health and emotional stability in a negative way, of course, getting enough rest would increase body positivity.
Shoot, science even goes so far as to say that insomnia can cause people to have an elevated level of dissatisfaction when it comes to their body image. Don’t take their word for it, though. Look in the mirror before a nap. Then look in a mirror after waking up from me. Do you feel better? I’d be surprised if you don’t.
Makes Your Brain Bigger…Which Could Make Your Orgasms Better
GiphyI saved the best for last by design. Now if you’re wondering how in the world a nap can improve (and possibly increase) your orgasms — oh, there is a method to the madness…trust. For starters, the saying that your biggest sex organ is your brain? That isn’t a myth. Long story less long, the brain is what houses your central nervous system and that is what controls how men and women sexually function (yes, literally).
And since the brain also releases feel-good chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin during sex and brain activity significantly increases in women during sexual activity (especially right before she orgasms) — well, would it trip you out to know that when you take a nap, your brain actually expands? A bigger brain (that’s healthy) can potentially intensify your sexual experiences (and your climaxes) — and who doesn’t want that to go down?
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Like I said earlier, I never have to be convinced to get a nap in. However, if your sex life has been a bit stagnant lately, you’ve been feeling a little sluggish and you’re not sure what to do — I’m hoping that a nap can get you right.
There’s enough science to prove that it can. All you need to do is give it a shot.
Now where’s your pillow and sleep mask, chile?
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