If we were to look to some celebrities for inspiration, things can get a little confusing. Take Kylie Jenner, for example, one of the youngest ever billionaires who first rose to stardom when she had lip fillers injected at the age of 17 (okay, and also when she tried to remove Kylie Minogue from her first name rights). Sometime last year, Kylie announced that she had all her lip fillers removed, only to have them filled back again less than two months later.
HOW OUR LIPS AGE
Our lips are the most plump during our teens and start to lengthen and lose some definition as we depart from these “golden years”. The skin of the lips gradually thin out and fine lines appear over the lip borders. These are known as “smoker’s lines” but they also occur in people who do not smoke. If that doesn’t sound bad enough, here’s more. The corner of the mouth starts to turn down south, which makes a person look upset even when they are not.
If your lips are aging or thin, there are small, easy fixes you can opt for. The great thing is beauty has no rules when it comes to experimentation, and here’s what we think 2019 has in store for us, lip-wise.
PLUMP YOUR POUT WITH LIP FILLERS
Think of sexy pouts of Angelina Jolie and Scarlet Johansson, and yes, Kylie Jenner, when she first got them filled. Many women (and men) associate bee-stung lips to full-on sex appeal. If the voluminous lip highway is what you want, hyaluronic acid lip fillers last approximately six to nine months before they are dissolved naturally by your body.
According to Dr Michelle Lim of the SW1 Clinic, there are many interesting ways of injecting hyaluronic acid lip fillers. For pencil-thin lips, she can outline the vermilion border, accentuate a flattened cupid’s bow and philtrum, fill in the lips to give volume and even turn up the corners of downturned lips. The effects are instant, and side effects include swelling and bruising, although swelling seems to be more distant since she started injecting lips with Restylane Kysse, a natural hyaluronic acid filler she has come to love for augmenting the lips. Plumping your pout can radically enhance your looks, but it can also head south if too much filler is injected, warned the doctor. Instead, she advises that less is more especially when you are trying it for the first time, to avoid looking overdone.
KEEP IT SUBTLE WITH REVITALIFT LIPS
If volume is not your primary concern and you just need a subtle, luscious sheen, try Revitalift Lips. These are microinjections of an ultrafine, natural hyaluronic acid filler so you have a little more than uninspired-looking lips, yet you still look like you.
THE BOTOX LIP FLIP
This involves using minute Botox injections just above the lip border, and is not to be confused with using fillers in the lips. The toxin in very small aesthetic doses relaxed the orbicularis oris muscle around the mouth, allowing the top lip to be gently rolled out, giving the illusion of a subtle, sexy pout, minus actually adding volume. The risk is too much Botox can make puckering your lips such as kissing and drinking with a straw a challenge so definitely going for less, is more.
