Earlier this year, I was dissatisfied with my lipstick choices and thought I would research and find out if there were any hard fast rules out there that would help me.

What I discovered was very simple; you simply choose a color that is the same tone and two shades darker than your natural lip color, or makeup color. Thin lips avoid dark colors; stick with light and bright colors to give the illusion of fuller lips.

Large lips avoid dark colors you don’t want your lips to be the only thing that people see, maintain balance.

When you go in search of that perfect color you’ll need to take a mirror along to compare it to your lip color. I’m not advising that you try it on in the store! Just hold the part of the lipstick that display’s the color near your lips so you can tell if that shade will work.

Something I’ve discovered along the way is that you can use a lip liner in the correct shade along with a tinted lip balm (make sure you blend them together) it works great and feels great. I like to hold on to my money and there are times when I just can’t bring myself to throw down several dollars on a tube of lipstick, but you’ve got to have lip balm don’t you.

Quick tip; most of the big chain drugstores offer in store rebates from time to time for different lip balm’s so you can use that money towards groceries and feel good about it.