How to make your lips look fuller

Apart from the lucky few who have perfectly pouty, full, sexy lips, we all want to make our lips look fuller, plumper. As we get older, our lips get thinner and a little wrinkly too, they loose that nicely rounded, kissable look they had when we were 20. One sure way to look youger is to make your lips plump. It's not even difficult if you know some basic rules.

One great rule of makeup (and arts, fashion, etc) is the rule of light and shade. I think I will write more extensively on this, but for now, just remember: dark colours and matte finnish make things look smaller and more distant while light colours and shiny finnishes make things 'come closer' and appear bigger. Let's see what this means in terms of your lips. I have taken some pictures to help you see the difference.

Now in this one my lips are completely bare. My lower lips are OK I think but my upper lips are much thinner and also asymmetric (/sighs/). 

When I put a dark shade of lipstick on, you can see my lips instantly appeared smaller. I didn't use a matte lipstick (I don't really have one as I don't find them very flattering really, plus they can make your lips go dry and because mine are almost constantly chipped... well, you understand) but that would have made them look even thinner. Another thing dark lipsticks do is, they command attention. This can be a good or a bad thing, it depends. If your lips are really thin or not very nicely formed, putting a dark lipstick on them will jut emphasize what they lack, so try very neutral lips instead. But if your lips are really pretty, why not draw attention to them? I also have read an article once that said that if you have a strong colour on your lips, it will draw the eye and so people will be looking at your mouth, a really good thing if you are giving a presentation for example, as this way people will pay more attention to what you are saying.

A lighter shade of lipstick will make your lips appear bigger, which you can further emphasize by highlighting the cupid's bow and the middle of your lower lip with a white pencil. A little added shine of a lipgloss just in the middle of the lips and there you go: fuller, plumper, rounder. These kind of lips will nicely complement a neutral eye for a barely there makeup look, or will be perfect with a drammatic eye makeup.


Don't go over the top with lightness, though! Anything too light will just make you look sick and you don't want that. Anything the same shade or lighter than your skin you want to avoid. Apart from making you look sick it also looks like you do not have any lips at all. Definitely not pretty.







If you like dark lipsticks but you also want the plumpness, you can play around a little bit more. Do the highlighting with the white pencil and put the dark lipstick just in the corner of your lips and on the edges. (See first picture below, it looks crazy at this point) Then add a light shade of lipstick in the middle, blend them together and apply a bit of shiny lipgloss just where you put the lighter shade. Instant plumpness :)











I hope you find this usefull, any questions, let me know, plus comments are very welcome :)

Oh, and don't forget to have fun with it! :D