One thing that seems to be a recurrent trend in the world of fashion and beauty these days is that bigger is better; this holds true for things like eyelashes, asses and even lips. Big, luscious looking lips have never really been out of fashion, but in recent years, evermore lotions and potions have hit the shelves with the intention of plumping up one’s lips, by means of a variety of actions. Added to this, you can also get straight up silicone or collagen injected into your lips for a permanent trout pout, although the chances of getting things wrong and ending up looking a bit Bride of Wildenstein is too high for me to hedge my bets.
Still, a big plump pout goes really well with deep, blood red or black lipsticks, and with this in mind, I have looked into a few of the less permanent options to plump your lips, with varying degrees of success. Beauty Insider tells you more about the different types of plumping products and their downsides too, here.
Collagen lip creams
Collagen lip creams like to win their income by baffling with bullshit, so expect plenty of talk of peptides, ceramides, and “bla bla action science bullshit buy it” etc. Essentially, they are supposed to provide a plumping effect by hydrating and padding out the surface of the lips, leading to the full, luscious Angelina Jolie look of your dreams.
They do not work. Though that being said, I flat refuse to spend more than a tenner on them, and so maybe the £50 ones do work… But I won’t be finding out! Lipstick and Heels agrees with me too.
Tingle creams
These creams and lip balms basically contain some type of chilli or otherwise irritating substance in small doses, which cause your lips to swell ever so slightly as a result of contact, giving a plumping effect. At first I thought that there was nooooo way any beauty product could possibly have been invented solely to irritate your skin, but I was wrong, this is legit a thing.
It does work, kind of, but unless you apply the balm with a precision brush, your whole mouth area will look (and feel) a bit irritable too though.
Lip suckers
Another one for the “WTF” pile here. You can indeed today buy sucker-things that you attach to your lips, which produce a vacuum type effect to make your lips swell up like a duck. These are very well reviewed on some relatively high profile beauty blogs, and yet, something about the random sameness of the key points of the reviews is setting my spidey senses off a little.
I have now actually tried these myself, and can only say, don’t go there. They do make your lips swell up, but unevenly, and end up making you look as if you’ve got some kind of lumpy tumour on the front of your face. The effects go down within about half an hour, fortunately, but leave them feeling weird for a good while longer; however, much of the internet disagrees, and thinks they are awesome.
This is apparently the desired result.
Artful makeup
Really I think it has to come down to artful makeup to work a plump lipped Goth look without either wasting your money, injecting cement into your lips, or doing something else that defies all logic and science to get there. A perfect cupid’s bow will make up for a lot of evils, and lining just outside of the lip line can make your lips appear fuller, as can working a kind of ombre effect with light and dark, so in my opinion, this is the way to go.
