Full lips have been a beauty standard for a while now. Every day there’s a new trick that’s supposed to make them bigger – from silly TikTok trends to lip-plumping products.
But what if you want something a bit more permanent? Is there an alternative to fillers?
Lately, lip blush has been deemed a very favorable solution for those that desire the look of visually fuller, plumper lips. This procedure enhances lips by defining them while keeping them looking natural.
But does lip blush make your lips bigger permanently? Let’s discuss.
How Does Lip Blush Make Your Lips Bigger?
There are a few ways getting lip blushing can trick the eye into thinking that lips are bigger than they actually are. Think optical illusion.
Color
Lip blush is used to restore or enhance the color of your lips, and since their tone will be more even and defined, the lips will look larger than they actually are. This is the same effect you get when you put on lipstick and fill in the unevenness.
Getting a lip tattoo is a great option when it comes to correcting uneven, asymmetrical lips. The lip shape is corrected and symmetry also attributes to the appearance of visually bigger lips.
Image source: Instagram @buonabeauty
Shape
When doing a lip tattoo, the focus is on the 3D shape of the lip instead of just the colored part.
Some people’s 3D shape doesn’t match their actual lips – the pink part. This means the part of the lips that protrudes when you look at them sideways includes a stretch of skin that looks like regular skin, but is actually the skin of the lips.
That outline of paler skin around where your lips and skin meet is called the vermilion border. The transition belongs to the lips, but looks like facial skin.
And because it’s a part of your lips and shares the properties of the pink skin, it can also be tattooed. This will give you the same effect as lip liner – it’ll visually make your lips a bit bigger but it’ll be a subtle difference.
But this doesn’t mean lip tattoos can be overlined the same way makeup can! Regular skin is different from the skin of lips, so the pigments won’t behave in the same way on both types of tissue.
This can lead to patchiness and uneven fading. The skin retains color longer than the lips do so it’ll end up looking messy at some point, even though it may look good initially.
Plus, because the pigments are formulated for the lips, they can end up changing color when applied to facial skin. It can lead to cold undertones overpowering the warmer pigments and causing discoloration.
Image source: Instagram @beauty.by.lucky
Why Do Freshly Tattooed Lips in Before & After Pics Look So Full?
You might come across before and after pics where the immediate results look like fillers, but this is just temporary swelling.
Lip tattooing is a form of cosmetic tattooing and as such, it involves breaking open the skin on your lips and implementing the pigment inside it. The machine’s needles create tiny punctures so in that sense it can work similarly to microneedling lips.
When lip skin is repeatedly broken, the body starts sending lymphatic fluid to the area as a protective mechanism. This cushions the trauma to prevent the needle from going too deep into the tissue and causing damage.
But it also makes lips look bigger – they can sometimes double in size. But the enlargement is only temporary, until the body registers that there is no more threat.
The swelling should wear off within 48 hours. If it doesn’t it may be a sign of something going wrong – contact your artists as soon as possible.
Then, the body starts rebuilding the damaged skin.
This triggers collagen production and white blood cells start flooding the area in order to repair the damage which also helps plump up the lips a bit. This, again, makes the lips appear bigger but there’s no major change and it’s not forever.
Image source: Instagram @anastasialashes_eyebrows
How Does Lip Blush Compare to Lip Filler?
If you’re trying to achieve more permanent 3D lip volume the only option is lip augmentation. You can choose to go for lip filler or cosmetic surgery.
Although the results of lip filler are more dramatic, they’re quite high maintenance as they require frequent touch-ups.
Lip blush lasts longer than dermal fillers. The results can last up to 3 years, but if you get touch-ups the effects can be prolonged even more. Lip blush is also less invasive and it’s less likely to go wrong.
But if you’re still adamant about wanting 3D fullness along with visually making them big it’s advisable to do the lip tattoo first.
Not only will it serve as a perfect stencil but when you do it the other way around there’s some chance that fillers might migrate from the trauma caused by the tattooing.
Read more on how lip tattoos and lip fillers compare here.
How Soon After Fillers Can I Get Lip Blush?
This doesn’t mean getting a lip tattoo after fillers isn’t an option anymore. Just make sure to allow enough time to pass between these two procedures (several weeks). This goes for whichever order you do them in.
Most artists advise waiting at least 6 weeks to get a lip tattoo after you’ve done filler as it allows them to settle. However, some advise waiting up to 6 months. But that depends on the filler you get and how slowly it dissolves.
If you’re getting a lip tattoo first, you should wait at least 4 weeks to get fillers, so your skin has time to recover from the tattooing, and for the final shape of your lip blush tattoo to emerge so your filler tech can see what they’re working with.
To Sum It Up
We can’t really give a straight answer to does lip blush make your lips bigger. It sort of, does, and doesn’t.
This treatment does lead to the optical illusion of plumper lips, however, they’re not actually bigger than they were.
Manipulating the shape and color of your lips makes the lips more defined, and that can make them appear fuller and hence bigger.
If you’re seeking to make them actually bigger more permanently, look into fillers or surgical augmentation.
Cover image source: Freepik
