7 reasons your lipstick is flaking and bleeding

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7 reasons your lipstick is flaking and bleeding

Is there a better feeling than walking into a room wearing a flawless matte, red lipstick? It’s an instant confidence booster. But this confidence can be quickly taken away when you look in the mirror and find that your lipstick has been bleeding into those fine lines around your lips. Day immediately ruined! There’s nothing worse than discovering that your lipstick is bleeding or flaking. But if you find that your lipstick is bleeding regularly, it might be because you haven’t quite mastered your lipstick routine.

So, if you want to know how to have perfect lipstick that lasts all day long, here are seven reasons why your lipstick is flaking and bleeding.

RELATED: This is how to wear lipstick with chapped lips

RELATED: 5 of the best all-natural lipstick brands

1. You’re not exfoliating first

For flawless lips, your routine starts well before you apply your lipstick. First, it’s so important to prep your lips by using a lip exfoliator. This will help to smooth over any dry patches and take away any flaky areas, creating a perfect canvas for your lipstick. Honestly, if you do this twice a week, chapped lips will be a thing of the past

2. You forgot that lip balm is crucial

You should always start with a lip balm and this should be a crucial part of your skin care routine. Even if your lips don’t feel particularly dry, it’s important to apply some every morning and night to keep your lips soft and prevent them from drying out.

3. You’re not using a lip primer

But before you reach for your lipstick, if you really want your lip colour to last for hours, you can’t go past a lip primer. This will create a barrier between your lips and the product, and give the lipstick something to hold on to, so it won’t budge. Just make sure your lips are clean and dry when you apply this – and then you’re ready for your lip colour!

4. You haven’t tried an invisible lip liner

Lip liner can be scary, and sometimes we can end up looking like a 90s disaster with really dark lines around the edge of our mouth. We’ve ALL been there. So this is where my little secret weapon for flawless lips comes in. It’s the invisible lip liner! This product is your new best friend –  It’s a translucent lip liner and you apply it around the outside of your natural lip line, and what it does is create an invisible shield around your lips so that it’s impossible for your lipstick to move outside of your lips.

5. You’re using far too much product

One of the main reasons that our lipstick bleeds is because we have applied too much product. So when you’re choosing a lipstick, you should always look for one that’s very highly pigmented, so that you can use much less product. The less layers, the better. And with enough pigment you should only need one coat. I prefer to use a liquid lipstick as these products tend to be the most pigmented.

6. You didn’t fill in your lips with liner first

Lip kits have a bit of a bad reputation thanks to Instagram but they are actually amazing for giving you a perfect, matte lip look. They always come with a liquid lipstick and a matching lip liner, which allows you to start creating your lip shape with the liner and slightly fill in your lips before applying your lipstick. This means you can apply even less of the lip product since you’ve already got a base colour.

7. Your lip products have expired

Did you know that lipstick, lip liner and lip gloss only last about a year? Well, you do now. When you start to notice that your lip products have started to dry out or have changed in texture, chances are they are past their expiration date. And if your lipstick has expired, flaking and bleeding are the least of your worries.

Here are some of our favourite products for flawless lips…


The Body Shop

The Body Shop Lip Scuff

e.l.f cosmetics

e.l.f. cosmetics Studio Lip Exfoliator

Paula’s Choice

Paula’s Choice LIP & BODY Treatment Balm

La Mer

La Mer The Lip Balm

M.A.C

M.A.C Prep + Prime Lip

INNOXA

INNOXA Invisible Lip Shaper

Designer Brands

Designer Brands Invisible Lip Liner

Garbo & Kelly

Garbo & Kelly Rock Matte Lip Couture Kit

Did you find the tips in this article helpful? What are your best tips for flawless, long-lasting lips?

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