How to Make Lips Look Fuller Without Going Too Far

Like the eyebrows , the trend towards the lips is big right now . Wherever you turn – but mostly on Instagram – big lips dominate. There has been a lot of controversy about why this is happening and whether Kylie Jenner is to blame for everything, but the facts remain facts: a fashionable look is big lips.

Not everyone was born with pouty lips on Angelina Jolie, but you can get close to her without looking weird. Here’s how.

How to use makeup to redraw lips

The first trick is the one that Jenner herself vowed to use before admitting to the world the obvious fact that she received lip fillers. You can use makeup to simulate large lips, but you will have varying degrees of success. Getting it right is key. What you need, baby, is a lip liner.

Gilda Wabbitt, a professional drag queen from Louisville, Kentucky, told us how to do it: “Take your favorite color lip liner and paint the shape of your lips slightly larger than your natural lips. Then fill in this shape with a lip liner and apply your favorite lipstick on top of it. Fold your lips a few times and go! Thus, you will not only increase the size of the lips, but also change their shape. If you want to make the bow look sharper or more symmetrical in the curve of the lower lip, lip redrawing like this can provide that as well. Two birds, one lip pencil. “

Try to stick to a neutral tone whenever possible and make sure the tip of the pencil is sharp. Also, be more firm at the corners of the lips to create a volumetric contouring effect.

Make your lips plump with these products

You may remember from your youth some “puffy” glitters that are no more than a hell of a sting. Good news! Plump lip remedies are not only harmful these days, but they also work. Well, some of them do.

The two big winners in the gloss category are Buxom and Too Faced. The Too Faced Lip Injection line has been around for many years and has received consistently high reviews for all of its various forms, from color shades to “extreme” formulations. Buxom also has a puffy sheen with very good reviews. It is a staple of any cosmetic bag owned by a person with small lips who wants to be a person with large lips. Insider tip: Buxom usually has small, portable versions of its puffy sheen available near the checkout at Sephora, so you can try the cheaper option before diving into it completely.

Buxom also offers a lesser known but effective bulking pad . Don’t ask how it works, but know that it is. Buy a shade close to your own lip color to highlight your lips and thank us later.

There are also masks and creams designed for plump lips, but the reviews are much more mixed, as you can see for yourself here . They can soften, renew, or otherwise pamper your lips, but their plumpness is debatable.

Finally, we have the most special product: water! Always stay hydrated, usually, but also if you want beautiful plump lips and skin.

What you need to know about lip fillers

The old fake-until-you-done approach is cool and all, but the same can be said for the one-and-all approach. There are drawbacks to sticking to complex lip liner application procedures and trying out ever-changing gloss formulas. They are time consuming and require constant reapplication. If you are serious about making your lips look bigger, you can simply make them look bigger. Dont be upset; many of us do that.

We went back to Dr. Schwarzburg, injection specialist at Manhattan’s Skinly Aesthetics, who told us a few weeks ago about Botox to help make big, thick lips look thin. He told Lifehacker that how you are injected, what you are injected, and how your lips ultimately look depends on what you are aiming for and what qualities your lips already have. Knowing exactly what you want and how to ask for it is an important part of not getting what you don’t want, which is an over-the-top, obviously fictional appearance. “There are many brands that can be used on lips, and I use all of them,” Schwarzburg said. “I never use the cookie cutter approach and decide which filler to use based on a variety of factors, including the goal the patient is trying to achieve, the anatomy of the lips, and the intrinsic qualities of the fillers.”

He also gave advice on what technique to ask for to make the result look as natural as possible: “Russian” technique.

“A variety of techniques have been described and previously used, including the fan technique, microdroplet technique, retrograde and anterograde technique, injections at the upper and lower borders of the red border and Cupid’s bow, sequential puncture and linear threading. All of the above methods have a number of drawbacks and weaknesses that can be described as unnatural looking, ”he said, noting that they can lead to the appearance of puffy“ duck lips ”or“ top shelf ”, which happens when the red border – or the topmost part of the upper lip is worn out and protrudes, sometimes far enough to cast a slight shadow.

According to him, the Russian technique “is based on the retrograde injection of the filler into the superficial dermal / subdermal plane, which flexes and stretches the lips in a cranio-caudal direction (from inferior to superior). This is achieved by creating linear filler spacers in the plane of the surface lip, which prevents the lip from contracting and creates an upward rise instead of an outward protrusion characteristic of classic (and currently outdated) injection techniques. “

To summarize for the average person, this means that the injector will not touch your red border – thus, you will not get a “top shelf” lip. Before heading to the injector, call ahead and confirm that they know how to do this technique. Schwarzburg noted that it is “difficult” and requires some skill. It’s best not to let someone practice on your face, especially since you’re paying them a few hundred dollars to inject filler into your lips that will dissolve over the course of a few months. But yes, lip fillers are temporary.

If you are not afraid of needles, but are nervous about filler, you can try botox “lip flip”, which affects the muscles above the mouth and gradually turns the upper lip outward.

“Lip flips can be successful or absent. I think this is a great option for someone trying to enlarge their lips but don’t want to use lip fillers. It is imperative to remember that lip flipping cannot create volume, as it can only create the appearance of a taller, upward upper lip, ”Schwarzburg said, noting that many patients opt for lip flip and half filler.

Whatever you do, you are as beautiful as you are. But playing with your looks is fun, so never get discouraged about it if you want to.