This season, bright lips are all over the catwalks from bright coral to eye-catching fuchsia. Bright lips look great with a tan and without, so this look works on nearly ever pair of smoochers. When choosing a color, be sure to choose one that compliments your skin tone. Check out how it looks with your teeth as well. Some colors can actually make teeth appear yellow.

Often peaches and corals look great on olive or medium to dark skin, but you’re going to have to play around. Pale skin can have yellow or pink undertones. Pink undertones may not look great with melon or coral lips. The best thing to do is to try a lot of colors at the cosmetics counter.

Bright colors may be intimidating at first, but you’ll get used to it. I like See Sheer, by MAC Cosmetics. It goes so nice with my summer tan.

Another good trend for summer is tinted gloss. A little shine can go a long way! I like a sheer gloss, but be careful. Sheer gloss reflects light and this can increase your risk for sunscreen. I like Clinique’s Long Last Glosswear with SPF 15 in Sunset or Guavagold.

There are a lot of great clear balms and glosses out there with higher SPFs as well. Remember to wear these at the beach or when doing outdoor activities. Hawaiian Tropic even makes an SPF 45 lip balm.

Sunburned lips can be extremely painful and you don’t want to peel, or have very dry, unattractive smile. If your lips do get dry or peel, you can exfoliate them. Sephora carries a lot of great lip exfoliators. My favorite is philosophy’s Kiss Mee Exfoliating Lip Scrub, which is just $15. Take care of your lips to keep them perfect all summer long!

Television has made 90210 the hottest zip code around. Known for California sun-kissed beauty and couture fashion, 90210 sets the bar once again for hot trends in this second generation television series! You can get the look of 90210’s newest cast of gals, Jessica Stroup, AnnaLynne McCord, and Shenae Grimes who sport sassy makeup complete with luscious nude lips.

Wearing nude lips can be tricky. Keeping the definition of your lips is key. Follow this step-by-step guideline so you don’t get washed-out and fall flat this season!

1. Exfoliate and Moisturize Lips -First rule for ANY makeup application is to remove dry or flaky skin – even on your lips! Benefit has the best prescription for combating the driest chapped lips! Benefit Lipscription duo pack contains a tube of jojoba-enriched scrubbing beads and a tube of hydrating lip balm. Start by exfoliating to remove flaky skin, then follow-up with the lip balm for a perfectly prepped pout.
2. Define Lips - This step is probably the most over-looked of all when attempting to achieve nude lips. Why would we need to define our lips if we’re just going to make them disappear? The answer is we don’t want our lips to appear one-dimensional, especially for those paparazzi shots! Giving lips definition is the second most important step of the nude lip process. Define your lips by using a lip pencil that is a shade or two deeper than your skin tone. For light and medium skin tones try Laura Mercier’s Flawless Fix Pencil in Fair and Beige respectively, and dark skin tones try Makeup Forever’s Lip Pencil in Chocolate.  TIP: For a natural blended appearance, apply the lip pencil by using the side and not the tip. Avoid drawing a definitive line by applying with the edge of the pencil for a fuller outline.
3. Concealer - Yes folks, the rumors are true. Skip the wannabe nude lipstick shades and head straight for the concealer. Just like the lip pencil, choose a shade one or two steps darker than your skin tone. Clinique’s All About Eyes has an excellent line of liquid concealer shades that are moisturizing! Stay away from thick cream concealers which will only cake up your lips. Apply the liquid concealer with a lipbrush (Bobbi Brown’s Retractable Lip Brush is fantastic at home or on the go!) and be sure to blend with the lip liner for a clean finish.
4. Matte or Gloss Finish? -The ending is all up to you! For a matte finish, you can choose to stop after Step 3 but I would suggest to overlay the concealer with a petroleum based balm like Keihl’s Lip Balm #1 for a demi-matte finish. For a high-gloss finish, my personal favorite, try Nars Lip Gloss in Greek Holiday for light to medium skin tones and Lancome’s Juicy Tubes Smoothie in Sun Bronze for darker skin tones. Again, apply and blend with a lipbrush.

Congratulations! Your lips are ready to take on the most popular girls in Beverly Hills – 90210 style!

In all the fall collections, we’re seeing dark lips. Unlike last season’s berry looks, we’ve headed into deep chocolate browns, such as Smashbox’s Wicked Lovely Lip Gloss in Sheer Black Cherry and deep plums like Plum Berry by CK Calvin Klein. And for the more adventurous of us, Make Up For Ever has Black 223, which is described as a cream-jet black.

While most of us aren’t interested in making the black lipstick from the Fall runways work, many of the new colors out there are incredibly wearable. However, unlike many summer or lighter colors, a flawless application is key to the dark color trend.

You should apply lipstick after the rest of your makeup is done. Some will swear by a light coating of foundation on the lips, but it’s not necessary especially when you are working with very dark colors.

1. Using a lip liner that is as close to the actual color of your lipstick, line carefully both the upper and lower lips starting at the center of the upper lip and working outward.
2. Then fill in your lips with the liner, especially the center of the bottom lip. Using liner on the lips acts as a base and will help keep your lipstick on longer.
3. Next, using a firm lip brush, apply lipstick evenly to both lips, paying special attention to stay within the lines created by your liner. If you don’t feel comfortable using a brush, try the middle finger. This helps you get a “feel” for where fthe lipstick is actually going. Prefer to just use the tube? Right on - it doesn’t really matter how you get the color on there, just make sure the application is precise.
4. After the color is on, blot your lips with a square of tissue paper. No need to do more than press your lips against the tissue - you’re not looking to remove the color, just set it. If you need to tone the color down, blot two or three more times. If you’re still not comfortable with the color, it might be best to start over with a different shade.

At this point, your lips are done, or you can apply a gloss. Over this season’s dark colors, we’re seeing lots of vampy shades. The most popular being Lancome’s Color Fever Gloss in Piha Black. Another great gloss to use over a cherry red include MAC’s Tinted Lip Glass in Desire. Apply enough to get the shade or gloss you desire, and don’t blot.

Have a great vampy shade to share or tricks to that perfect application? Leave them in the comments!

Guest Contributor - Daily Dose of Coffee

Prom is here and the dresses are fabulous, the hair is flawless, but is your pout perfect? There are a few secrets that we want to share with you to help you keep your lips looking fabulous all night long.

If you are going for the smokey eye and you want a luscious nude lip, here are some tricks to keep that flesh tone glossy lip look for prom:

1. First, use a bit of primer that you use for your foundation around the outside of your lip. This will help fill in any lines and keep your gloss set.
2. Next, put some concealer around the outside of the lip and on the lip as well. This will take the pink tone out to give you a true nude.
3. Then fill in the lip with a nude pencil that matches your foundation exactly. This will allow your gloss to wear longer.
4. Finally apply your favorite nude gloss and go!

Of course keep your gloss and a small concealer with you because you will want to reapply it of course… it IS prom! Our favorites for the perfect nude pout are:

• Stila lip glaze in apricot, this is absolutely beautiful and will last!
• Bare Escentuals has a kit that will make it simple to get this look and you can find it at Sephora or sephora.com
• My absolute favorite has always been to use M.A.C. stripdown liner, Blankety Lipstick, it has incredible coverage and works amazing with Florabundance lip gloss. This is a fool proof way to get the perfect nude pout for your prom!

Remember, makeup is all about how you want to express who you are. I am a huge fan of the nude lip and if you follow these simple tips and techniques, you will look fabulous in the nude…Lip that is! Have fun!