PUFF PIECE
With plumping gloss making a comeback, new fillers being launched and Kylie Jenner leading the charge, full lips are blowing up. By WENDY SCHMID
WHEN IT COMES TO LIPS, THERE’S
been a groundswell of sorts. You could say it started when Kylie Jenner suddenly morphed from freshfaced teen to sultry bombshell with a suspiciously plumped pout. She offered an explanation: makeup. But her frenzied Insta-flock took to a different method—by way of a lip challenge. The mission: Suck your lips into a shot glass and behold the beestung results. Some recorded their successes; others, the damaging consequences (profuse swelling and bruising). Under relentless scrutiny, Kylie eventually admitted that her new lips were not, in fact, the result of makeup but actually injections of filler. Regardless, the message was clear: Lips are big right now. “We seem to have this obsession with full lips,” says Manhattan dermatologist Dr. Francesca Fusco. “A fuller lip relative to the rest of the face does somehow register as beauty and youthfulness.” Gillian Okopny, Nars national lead stylist, agrees. “Women always want a fuller lip, and we’re definitely getting how-to requests at department store and Sephora events. We’ve had a lot of girls ask for the ‘Kylie lip.’ When pictures of her first came out, it was easily five girls a day and they’re still asking for it now.” Kylie’s look can’t be achieved with makeup alone—though she recently revealed that a Kylie Lip Kit is in the works—but you can cheat the lip line to make lips look fuller, Okopny says. “The key is to draw just outside of the border but not too much.” So many people asked makeup artist Lora Arellano about Kylie’s lips that she posted a step-by-step photo with lipstick and liner, using her own pout. “It took off on social media and is still floating around Pinterest,” says the LA-based pro, who works with Rihanna and Bar Refaeli.
Arellano’s technique, known as an ombré lip, is the best way to paint on plumpness. “You apply lipstick all over and then line with a liner that’s about two shades darker than your lip tone,” she says. “Next, blend really well with a lip brush so the effect remains subtly lighter in the centre of the mouth, creating depth.” Nude shades are easiest to work with because you won’t see mistakes; Arellano just launched two, Sext and Nood, as part of her Melt Cosmetics line. Okopny flips the liner/lipstick application order but also reaches for nudes with rosy pink tones so the result isn’t drab. “Dabbing a bit of shine like Nars Lip Gloss in Chelsea Girls, a pinky nude, at the centre of your lips will heighten the illusion of volume,” Okopny adds. So will using a lip brush with short, angled bristles to precisely define the Cupid’s bow. “You’re creating fullness by tricking the eye,” says Arellano. “It’s like getting that Angelina Jolie look without any cosmetic surgery.”
Of course, true lip augmentation is also on the upswing. Companies like Allergan and Galderma have launched injectable fillers specifically for the lips, and doctors are seeing the effects of the Kylie phenomenon. “She’s done us doctors a real favour,” says Toronto plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Lista. “Her lips look balanced and natural. If you didn’t know what she looked like before, you’d think those were her lips.” Lista is seeing more young women in their 20s »