Gym Lips?

Every generation believes they invented sex. And now, every generation thinks they invented using nude lip pencil under lip balm.

Old beauty tricks have found new life on Instagram and TikTok for the next generation and I am trying not to roll my eyes too hard, because once you get past the clickbait-y names, it’s good to be reminded of these moves.

Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk pencil with By Terry Baume de Rose is another excellent pairing.

• Gym lips is the evocative new name for outlining and filling in your lips with a pinky-nude pencil topped off with a bit of lip balm. A classic no-makeup makeup ruse (that could easily go undetected at the gym, ergo the name) it’s a great way to sharpen a fading lip line and boost natural colour. And the name is clever, so why does it make me churlish?

Nota Bene: when you are past 50, it’s best is to select a pencil that is a touch more berry toned, to return some colour to your fading, bloodless lips. Sephora Collection lip pencil in Rosewood, regularly $8, is such a ‘universally wearable” shade and right now, everything Sephora Collection line is 30% off until November 7th, so the pencil is a mere $5.60. Top it with a dot of non-shiny balm like Lip Wrap Reviving Balm from Ilia, $32, (also at Sephora) and done!

• Skin Cycling is what TikTokers call the sensible practise of not attacking your delicate skin every night with strong, active-heavy skincare. Alternate using retinol or vitamin C with nights of just moisturizing to prevent your face from becoming an inflamed, peeling, angry mess. It’s that simple.

• Liquid Hair (as seen on Dakota Johnson in this Vogue story) is what the rest of us call really shiny hair (usually thanks to luck-of-the-draw genes and an assist from a silicone-forward hair serum). Silicone needs to be used sparingly - three drops are usually enough. But if you overdo it with your anti-frizz hair serum and end up looking like you haven’t washed your hair in weeks, just remember that you didn’t make a mistake, you just now have ‘liquid hair’.

This is actually a good rule for any mistakes you make in life. Just re-name them and say they were intentional.

Return to Me, Vanishing Lip-Line: A Quick, Two-Product Fix

The Quickest of quick fixes is lip balm and a bit of pencil.

My lip-line vanished. What was once a crisp line, poetically called “the vermillion border”, is now blurry and threatening to disappear altogether. Mother Nature pulled a fast one and I am exasperated and ragey (futile I know). She’s already taken the colour from my hair, brows, eyes and cheeks so I permanently appear cadaverous and like a third-generation photocopy of my former self.

I do miss having a visibly defined mouth, even now while stuck at home. (You never know when you might catch your reflection in the tea kettle.) Sure, full-on red lipstick solves the problem, but most days I don’t want to haul out the whole makeup kit.

Retracing the still-faint lip line with a pinky-nude (or nudy-pink) pencil and then applying lip balm on top is the quickest of quick fixes and the effect is subtle, but sharpens everything. Because there is nothing funnier than when a man says “I like how you look with no makeup.”

(Products)

Lip pencils, from top: Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk ($27 CAN.) The ultimate YLBB (your lips but better) colour. It also comes in two darker shades: Pillow Talk Medium and Pillow Talk Intense so everyone can play. 19/99 Beauty Precision Colour Pencil in Neutra ($26 CAN). This new Canadian beauty line is spare and fantastic. More on them really soon. And finally, a quality drugstore find: NYX Extreme Colour Lip Liner in Bedrose ($10 CAN), the perfect almost-plum pink.

Balm: Burts Bees Moisturizing Lip Balm in Pomegranate ($6 CAN). It’s barely red, but just red enough and is a necessity in each pocket and beside each chair in the house. (And in each purse. Remember purses?)