For years, I looked for a lipstick that would stay on all day and still look fresh. There are plenty “long wearing lip colors” around, but even though they stay on, I found they would start to look really funky long about lunchtime; they had a way of spreading into the skin around my lips before the day is done. Plus, those long wearing brands are so incredibly drying.

I prefer the feel of a moist lipstick, but those were always gone by noon and I would have to find a spot to reapply.

Then I discovered the lipliner/lipgloss trick. Here’s what I do.

I take a neutral color lipliner — one that is a couple shades darker than my lips. I like bareMinerals 100% Natural Lip Liner in Natural.

With the lipliner, I line my lips. A bonus with this method is you can reshape your lips to be as thin or as thick as you like. I always try to make mine a bit fuller than they are naturally.

Then I fill them in with the lipliner. That’s right, I take the lipliner, and I fill in my entire lip area. This is what stays on all day.

You could leave them like this; sometimes I do. And it really stays looking pretty good all day. But because I prefer my lips to feel moist, I usually take my favorite colored lipgloss and go back over lipliner to make them moist and shiny. This I may reapply later in the day if I feel like it. But if I don’t, they look just fine.

Right now my favorite lipgloss is Chanel Levres Scintillantes. I absolutely adore this stuff. It has a nice color to it, and it feels moist but not sticky. I have two shades — a cherry red for going out at night, and a medium pink shade for daytime.

With this method, I no longer have to worry about my lipstick being rubbed off every time I grab a cup of coffee. It even still looks decent after lunch.

When I go out in the evening, I often apply more lipliner to darken it up, but I don’t have to start over again.

If you try this, let me know how it works for you!