Jill Marie Jones is best known by her TV name, Toni Childs, who she played on the long-running show, Girlfriends. Before Hollywood came calling, Jones was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader for two years, a Dallas Mavericks Dancer for one year, and toured with the United Service Organization (USO) and United States Department of Defense to Korea, Japan, Israel, and Egypt. She has also performed on Monday Night Football and The Miss Texas Pageant. She started her career as model, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time.
“It was amazing,” Jill says referring to her time as a cheerleader. “It enabled me to travel the world at a young age, at 
18. We did a lot of work with the USO and USDD, and went all over the world—Israel, Korea, Egypt and Japan. I think I tried out with 1400 girls, so it was a huge thing! I have girlfriends to this day that I cheered with. It was a great experience.”
When asked about how she still keeps her cheerleading body, she’s not shy about telling the truth.
“The thing about living in California is there are a ton of mountains and it’s always beautiful weather! I hike, I box. And you know what? My house has literally 47 steps to get up to the front door—no joke! I feel like any day I couldn’t get to the gym, I can go up and down a couple times and feel like I’ve done some work.”
The sassy, selfish girlfriend Jones played on the hit show, always perfectly wore the correct shade for her skin tone and the color never escaped the outline of her lip. In fact, many blogs and social media sites are dedicated to her adoring lips. Here’s three tips that we’ve gathered from the lip goddess herself:
1.) Work with your tone: There are two basic categories for red lipsticks, cool and warm. Cool are blue-based shades (such as cranberry or wine) and flatter women with pink, rosier skin tones. Warm are orange-based shades (such as brick-red) and works best for women whose skin has golden, peach, or tan tones. Basically trial and error, should work, but be sure to ask if there are any refunds before purchasing.
2.) Healthy lips provide better results: Everything is magnified with a bolder color, so smooth lips are not optional. Exfoliate to rid lips of dead skin and to prevent discoloration. SPF your lips when you sunblock your face and moisturize to prevent further drying or flakiness. A raggedy red lip can be spotted from across the room.
Jill Marie Jones: 3 Tips For The Perfect Lips was originally published on blackdoctor.org
