Women have been coveting luscious, bee-stung lips for centuries. Today, the obsession with large lips is bigger than ever (pun intended!). Ever since it-girl Kylie Jenner began crediting her new plump, pillowy pout to the strategic application of her lip liner, women have been taking extreme measures to copy Kylie’s look. Although Kylie did finally admit to using injectable fillers to plump her lips, the media backlash and scrutiny that forced her to fess up has left the world looking for subtler alternatives to tell-tale lip injections.
While makeup is a great way to experiment with different trends, once you find your signature style, the constant touch-ups can get old fast. Enter lip liner tattoos: the customized lip lining ink that lasts up to 8-10 years! Lip liner tattoos are meant to enhance and emphasize the lips by defining their shape, but don’t actually add any fullness. By using lip liner to slightly overdraw and enhance your natural lip line, you can create the illusion of a full, voluptuous pout while avoiding the dreaded duck lips that often accompany lip fillers.
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How does it work? If you’ve ever watched a lip liner tutorial on YouTube or Instagram, you’ve seen how the beauty vloggers start by tracing the outline of their lips with their choice of lip pencil, and then fill in the rest of the lip with the same or similar shade and blend the colours together for a smooth, flawless finish. Lip Liner tattoos are basically done the same way. An editor at Cosmopolitan Australia recently went under the (lip-tattooing) gun at Amy Jean Eye Couture and shared her experience, proving that this procedure can actually produce natural looking results.
First, a topical anesthetic cream is applied to numb the lips, and then the liner is drawn on to form the desired shape before the tattooing begins. Once you’ve approved your outline, the tattoo artist begins, blending several shades of pink together to create a smooth, even finish on the lips.
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Unfortunately, like with all tattoos, you can expect the healing process to include swelling, bleeding, peeling and pain. Worst of all you won’t be able to get a realistic glimpse at your new lips until anywhere from two to 10 days after the initial procedure when your lips scab over and peel to reveal their new and (hopefully!) improved outline. Like with any other cosmetic procedure, you do also run the risk of ending up with uneven or unnatural looking results.
As we all know, beauty doesn’t come cheap. Lip liner tattoos run upwards of $1000 dollars, and can last up to 10 years with a few touch ups in between. Lip injections are usually a little cheaper for the initial procedure, but only last for 6-10 months. While the thought of having perfectly pink, pouty, kissable lips for the next decade does sound enticing, with beauty trends that keep changing from one minute to the next, it’s hard to say how long the latest craze will last.
Would you take the plunge and enhance your lips with a lip liner tattoo?
I love Taylor Swift’s look, but I always look so weird with brhgit red lips since I’m very pale! Any recommendations on a lighter red that isn’t too bold. I tried MAC Red, but that was way too brhgit.