improve vs put lipstick on a pig

improve

verb
  • To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something). 

  • To become better. 

put lipstick on a pig

verb
  • To superficially alter something in the hope of making it seem more appealing than it is in actuality. 

How often have the words improve and put lipstick on a pig occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )