Four ways to cheat your way to whiter teeth...with makeup!
You gals know how dedicated I am to whitening my teeth. If you don’t, I am so devoted to it - so much so that I actually do the oil pulling technique every day for 20 minutes! But until my teeth are white enough for me to make it into a toothpaste commercial, I’ll stick to a few makeup tricks that I have on my sleeve. If your smile also needs a little help like mine, read on!
Image via vogue.com
Go for a blue-based red lipstick
This is the oldest trick in the book. A red or pink lipstick with a blue undertone will cancel out the yellowness in your teeth because of their contrasting nature. It’s simple color wheel logic. It's the very reason MAC’s Ruby Woo is almost always sold out. If you want to go for a cheaper alternative however, I am floored by Pink Sugar’s HD Lipstick in Rebel!
Image via popsugar.com
Wear colorful eyeshadow
Another simple cheat is to draw away the attention from your lips to your eyes by sporting colorful eyeshadow. It could be a green, blue, purple, or even red eye look! When the eyes are the center of attention, the yellowness of the teeth fades out in the background. If you're on a budget, get our recos for great eyeshadow palettes under P500.
Image via hollywoodlife.com
Bronze up
Bronzing is a much under-appreciated makeup technique in Asian countries. Because the norm is all about whitening, most people shy away from any exercise that would bring the sun to their skin. When done right, bronzing can be absolutely gorgeous. It gives such a healthy sun-kissed glow! And what do you know? The contrast that it makes can also give you the appearance of pearly whites. Check out this five under P500 list of bronzers available in our local stores.
Highlight your lips
This trick is ridiculously easy: just pat on a bit of highlighter like the Revlon Highlighting Palette right on your cupid's bow! And if you don't have a highlighter, you can easily sub with a light-colored shimmery eyeshadow or blush.
You'll see a lot of video tutorials where gurus line the outside of their lips with a skin-tone concealer. Not only does this make their lipstick more defined, but it makes the color of their lip lacquer pop thus increasing contrast with the teeth’s natural color. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone!
I really love how makeup works to make me more confident with my smile. That’s the power of makeup right there! Are there any other tricks out there you know that I’ve missed? Do share, what is your favorite blue-based red lipstick?
Update on the oil pulling, if you must ask: I think I’m starting to plateau with the whitening. :( My progress seems to have stopped now that I'm around 70% through the bottle of oil. I think I might try out Crest strips if I get a go signal from my dentist. I’ll let you know how that works out if I do it!
