Let's face it, when it comes to lips, We love Matte Lipsticks!

No wonder the beauty experts paid attention (good for them since our continued fascination with makeup bankrolls the industry!) and as a result they've rocked our lip world with matte options of all kinds. Mattes in classic bullet format graduated to the supremely pigmented liquid matte lipsticks, moisturising matte crayons, powder mattes and whatnot. Well, the game was kicked up a notch by also making long lasting matte lipsticks, so you don't end up leaving lip prints (well, you'll still leave your DNA!) on coffee mugs and boyfriend(s) 😉

Liquid matte lipsticks in particular are everyone's hot favourites and the carnival of pop colours that we get to choose from blows our mind every time we have to restock our matte supplies, it's like being a kid at the candy shop who wants it all! The formulation is designed to be long lasting and every brand worth their dime hustles to scream out loud on our gram timelines, 4,6,8,10,16 hours stay and more.

But what everyone refuses to acknowledge is the perennial problem faced by us matte addicts. Raise your hand if your lips dry out after using matte lipsticks ✋ 😪

While researching for this article, I read a make-up artist's observation about how in hot, tropical weather (like ours for instance 😥), most matte formulations feel even drier, eventually further drying out the lips.

Here's a 2 step ritual to keep your lips healthy and hydrated before indulging in matte lips:

Step 1. Gently (and i mean "gently", after all they're your lips only!) exfoliate the lips using a homemade (brown sugar granules + honey are great + a drop of olive oil) lip scrub OR the lazy ones can just buy one off the shelf. Wipe off!

Step 2. Rub in some nourishing lip balm, really rub it in like you mean it coz even mild dryness gets magnified by mattes, and you sure don't want that.

Wipe off excess lip balm before applying your favourite Matte lipstick and wire me a dollar every time you take a poutie without your lips feeling stiff 😜

Matte lipsticks tend to be very unforgiving on lips that aren't prepared to handle all that gorgeousness. A lip balm moisturises and acts as a barrier to keep your lips safe, supple, even surfaced and hence matte-ready so the lipstick doesn't end up settling in the cracks and crevices of the lips.

Also, applying a creamy lip liner will help elevate your matte look even further, not to mention make it more long lasting as well.

Lastly, if you need to re-apply matte lipstick, make sure you clean up remnants of lipstick to avoid the cardinal sin of messed-up lipstick as it just won't sit right, period.

Dare I say take a day's break and wear tinted lips 🙊 (plenty of tinted lip balm options out there 😍), trust me your lips will thank you for the break before returning to your steady-mate, matte of course!