Lips come in all shapes and sizes, but aside from a few notable exceptions like the Victorian era, when smaller, more “demure” looking lips were considered preferable, full lips have long been considered popular due to their associations with youthfulness, vitality and femininity
In more recent years, the full lip trend has given rise to a number of questionable “tips” such as suctioning lips into shot glasses, which can create the risk of bruising, injury, and even permanent damage to the lips and teeth. If you want to give your lips a boost, there’s several options you can try that are far safer.
Overline your Lips
Beauty should be all about celebrating and accentuating what you have, so if you do choose to overline, don’t go overboard (unless that’s the look you’re going for, of course!) Here’s how to achieve a subtle, overlined look:
- Exfoliate your lips gently, using a warm washcloth or a gentle sugar scrub.
- Hydrated lips appear plumper, so moisturize using your favorite lip oil or balm. Follow with a lip primer and blot any excess.
- You can overline with any color, but for beginners, a neutral look is best. Keep the shade of your lipstick and lipliner as close to your natural lip color as possible.
- Select a liner in a similar color to your lipstick, and lightly line the outer corners, staying within a couple of millimeters of the natural line.
- Next, sketch an X at the cupid’s bow to ensure an even look. Some tutorials recommend lining over your cupid’s bow, but on some people this can look unnatural, so honor your natural lip line instead.
- Lightly fill in your lips using the liner, blot and soften the outline using a Q-tip.
- Finish with your lipstick and blot.
For additional dimension and shine, you can add lipgloss as an extra step. Another popular method is to use lip contouring, which plays with the illusion of light and shadow using lip color and highlighter to make the lips appear more pronounced.
Lip Plumpers: What Works and What Doesn’t
Lip plumping glosses, oils and treatments can help you temporarily achieve a fuller pout, but not all are created equal. Products designed to purposefully irritate the delicate skin of the lips using capsicum (chili) or even bee venom may give impressive results at first glance, but in the long run they can leave your lips feeling dry and irritated.
Other lip plumpers may claim to boost collagen production, but beware of buzzwords. Collagen as a topical ingredient has little effect on the skin, while collagen-boosting ingredients like palmitoyl tripeptide are considered to be more effective.
Lip Augmentation
If you’re looking for more lasting effect, lip (or dermal) fillers may offer the solution.
The most common ingredient used in lip fillers today is hyaluronic acid (HA), a hydrating, plumping substance found naturally in the body that is capable of holding up to 1000 times its weight in water.
In contrast to older styles of lip filler, HA fillers are non-permanent (dissolvable), with a more controlled level of volume and reduced risk of allergic reactions or bruising. If you feel ready for dermal fillers, the experienced team at The Luxe Room offer a range of cosmetic treatments including natural-looking hyaluronic acid fillers that last anywhere from 12 to 24 months.
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