A kiss may be just a kiss, but dry lips, bad breath or bad chemistry can suck the fun right out of a make-out session.
Experts in the art of cosmetics and canoodling say paying a little attention to your pucker can help keep the kissing fun and paying a little attention to your partner can make the smooching sublime.
Sweet breath is at the heart of a memorable mash. This means a regular regimen of brushing and flossing, and maybe the occasional swish with a shot of mouthwash.
Beyond the breath, the basics of good kissing begin with smooth, soft lips.
“There’s nothing worse than kissing someone with dry, cracked lips,” says Patti Shyne, a Denver-based makeup artist and appearance coach who often works with television broadcasters.
Smooth your pucker by exfoliating, says Shyne. Here’s how: After you brush your teeth, rinse the brush and run it lightly over your lips to remove dead skin.
Follow up with a lip balm, like Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm, which has a subtle minty flavor but no color. She says men and women alike should try this.
For women, it’s OK to wear bright lipstick when you go on a date, but be aware that it can be intimidating. “It’s the number one lipstick men always remember,” Shyne says. “Red lips are making a comeback, but don’t overdo it. Less is more.”
Her advice is to start your date with perfectly made up lips — use liner, color, gloss, whatever gives you a perfect pucker.
Then, through the course of an evening, “You eat, you drink, you talk, and your lipstick will be 75 percent gone,” Shyne says, the perfect time for a kiss.
Cathy Reinking, who spent a fair amount of her career casting beautiful women for Kelsey Grammar’s “Frasier” character to kiss — or try to kiss — says the characteristics of a good smooch are surprisingly similar to good acting.
“Good acting is revealing who you are to everyone you meet,” she says. “It’s about going to brave places, where most are afraid to go emotionally.
“The same attributes make for good kissing.”
Reinking, once NBC’s casting manager, now lives in Denver and works as an acting teacher and charisma coach. She says the best kisses are selfless acts.
“It’s not about you trying to be hot, or worrying about whether you are a good kisser or not,” she says. “It’s not about being self-conscious, desperate or needy. It’s about connecting with the other person because you care about them.”
Reinking admits that the advice sounds cliche, but she says the best kissers are well-rounded, comfortable with who they are and OK with even their flaws.
She reminds kissers that they need to follow the lead of the person they plan to plant one on. Pay attention to your instincts — if your partner doesn’t seem ready for a tongue tango, a pleasant peck might get things warmed up.
“Do not put your own needs first,” Reinking says. “If they’re a good kisser, they’re going to be taking your lead. If you’re both good kissers, you’ll be open to each other’s desires.”
Doing that, she says, requires listening as much to your head as your gut. “A well-rounded person is a good kisser — they’re intellectual and physical, and operating from the gut and from the head.
“It’s a matter of balance and self-knowledge — that’s all good drama is really about,” she says.
For lips that need help
Some lips need a little help to be pucker-perfect, and there are tons of tubes, tubs and balms to help.
Moisturize: Aquaphor Healing Ointment is a petroleum-based back-to-basics option for dry, cracked skin and lips. It’s fragrance-free, preservative-free, non-irritating and available at mass-market grocers and drugstores; 1.7-ounce tube, $6.29.
Plump: Juice Beauty’s lip plumper has a base made of organic orange juice, with such other ingredients as organic honey and cinnamon, to increase circulation and give lips a full feeling, says Helen Joffe, herbalist and store manager at Boulder’s Table Mesa Pharmaca store; half-ounce tube, $14 at Pharmaca, Nordstrom and Sephora stores.
Exfoliate: Scrubs remove dead skin and can taste good, too. Philosophy’s Kiss Me Exfoliating Lip Scrub is mint-flavored and made with natural butters and oils; half-ounce tube, $15 at Sephora and Macy’s.
‘s offerings include Smith’s Rosebud Salve in Stawberry, $14.99 for a two- pack of tins.
Flavor + sunscreen: Here are a couple to stick in the pocket of your ski parka for those quick kisses on the lift — Apple Tini SPF 30 Lip and Tattoo Balm, $2; and Camphor Ice Medicated Lip Balm with SPF 15, $2.95; both at .
Personalize your pucker: If you’re not on a recession budget, premium lip glosses, balms and sticks test the limits with price and creativity. Ballmania, a vanilla-flavored balm with SPF 20, comes packaged in a variety styles, from garden-inspired swirls to sports balls. Six balls, $30-35 at ballmania .
Sweeten your breath: Penguin mints are pumped with caffeine and such flavors as peppermint, cinnamon and chocolate, $3 per tin online at . And then there’s a classic, Binaca. Sugar-free and in such flavors as peppermint and cinnamon, a flip-top half-ounce non-aerosol container promises 300 sprays, $2 at drugstores and grocers.
By Erica Prather, Special to The Denver Post
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it gave incorrect purchasing information for Penguin caffeinated mints. They are available online at
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