Tips For The Perfect Holiday Smile
Say "cheese"!
The holidays are packed with family snapping pictures for posterity, and we all have a few photos that we would like to forget. Do you have a good "picture smile"? We took a peek at some celebrity red carpet posing, from Jessica Biel to Dita Von Teese, and picked up some great tricks. These tips can make your teeth look whiter, your lips full, and your neck double-chin free. Now, we can all enjoy celebrity-style red carpet smiles without all the surgery...and the expensive whitening treatments.
It's so easy to be a celebrity dressing up for the red carpet. You've got handlers, you've got people to cart you off to the dentist or the surgeon, and you've got pro makeup artists working on you, too. Since we have none of that in our day-to-day, here's what we can do to get our mouth and lips in tip-top shape.
It all starts with hygiene, sorry to say. It's boring, but it's true: white teeth can be the product of lucky genetics, but if your teeth are naturally off-white, that doesn't mean you are screwed. Switch off with several different whitening toothpastes to attack stains with several formulas, and if your teeth are naturally less white than others, stick to clear drinks like herbal tea and sparkling water so that they don't get any darker.
If whitening strips are too expensive for your regular budget, I would start scanning eBay to buy strips in bulk. I recently got the dentist-quality pack of strips from Crest for about $20... for 100 strips or so! If you keep your teeth super clean, any irregularities in your bite will become less noticeable.
Exfoliate your lips regularly to keep them smooth, which will help your lipstick glide on and not be spotty or irregular. Do not pick at chapped lips, even if they get bad, because your lips will take a long time to get smooth again. Since some lipsticks make your teeth look whiter, experiment with a camera and find the perfect shade to brighten your teeth. Berry tones and red lipsticks with blue undertones are perfect!
When you finally get in front of the camera for real, try pressing your tongue against the back of your front teeth/roof of your mouth, which will make your neck and chin look skinnier, and you lips look more natural and full.
Do you have any posing secrets to get your lips looking hot?
