Hannah Betts Better...not younger How I plump up my midlife pout – no filler required
THE most pressing beauty issue for we 40- somethings is so often the ‘ midlife mouth’. My own kisser was once poutily pillowy. now, not so much — and I’m not alone. The global filler market is
put at £4.6 billion, a fair bit of it devoted to plumping pouts.
I don’t want filler — too fakelooking — and the current TikTok trends for irritating my lips bigger via toothpaste, kneading, pinching and the like, lack appeal.
But there are steps you can take to make your mouth look more ample. The first is to exfoliate any parched bits and layer on some moisture.
I like my lip scrub cheap and in stick form. My Revolution Pro version is so ancient it’s no longer on sale, however, the brand offers a Man Lip Scrub (£4, boots.com), which will do nicely. My only non-budget love has been MAC’s coloured Lip Scrubtious (£14.29), which I remember leaving a foxy, bee-stung tint.
For those who prefer a high-tech chemical exfoliation, Skinceuticals Antioxidant Lip Repair (£ 45, skinceuticals. co. uk) smoothes, hydrates and protects via gentle lactic acid and the three hydrating ingredients hydroxyethyl urea, glycerine and dimethicone.
U Beauty’s The Plasma Lip Compound (£60, £48 for subscribers, theubeauty.co.uk) caused a stir when it launched in the spring, promising to visibly plump and reshape lips in just four weeks, remodelling without injections And via the formation of new fat cells.
I can see why Tatcha The Kissu Lip Mask (£ 25, spacenk.com) is such a hit in the U.S., filling fine lines with a pillowy luminosity, although personally I prefer a swipe of my beloved Ultrasun Lip Protection SPF50 (£10, ultrasun.co.uk)
— it’s a terrific base that bestows a fetching fullness.
Once condition has been sorted, you’ll want to get lining. If you still detest lipliner after those heavy- handed 1990s horrors, seek out Kiko’s bestselling Invisible Lip Liner (£5.99, kikocosmetics. com), which prevents colour bleeding into crevices. Use it just outside your natural shape, as it holds lip colour in place rather than defines.
Because of the ever- shrinking midlife mouth, you should do this with coloured liner, too, a practice referred to as ‘overlining’. There are cheaper rivals — Barry M’s Lip Liner in Peony (£2.99,
superdrug.com) — but there’s
something magical about Charlotte Tilbury’s Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk (£19, charlottetilbury.com).
It shouldn’t even work on me — too apricot — yet somehow, nothing is as brilliant when it comes to overlining, which is presumably why one is sold every
ten seconds. I’ve found it works best a little blunted, more crayon than pencil, thus more vague when it comes to exaggerating lips.
Once it’s in place, fill in with any balm, gloss or colour, then, for a real nastassja Kinski in Tess Of The d’Urbervilles pout, blend round again with subtle white, cream or beigey-brown pencil, depending on your colouring. Then, take a brush and dab outside your lips with concealer, smudging the last couple of strokes diagonally up at each corner.
Texture-wise, matte lipsticks can prove withering. The glorious exception is Glossier’s Generation G sheer matte lipstick (£14, glossier.com), which creates a diffused, softly blotted effect. Six sensual shades, slightly different on every mouth,
and so youth-imparting I was refused a free flu jab for appearing to be in my 30s. Otherwise, shine is your friend in terms of faking
greater mass. dior offers a multitude of devious French-girl tricks in this department.
For my money, dior Addict’s best-selling Lip Glow (£30, dior. com) is so beautifully shiny it makes mouths look sufficiently sumptuous. However, the fashion house also provides an impressive Lip Maximiser Plumping Gloss (£30) in seven hues, plus a Lip Maximiser Serum (£30) that can be combined to inflate matters still further.
As for those super- stingy lip plumpers one comes across, they worry me a little. However, I have been experimenting with Barry M’s That’s Swell! XXL Fruity
Extreme Lip Plumper (£4.99, superdrug.com) and it certainly
works. Tingly with ginger extract rather than alarmingly wasp-nesty, and resolutely non-sticky, it contrives a glassy optical illusion that is pure hall of magnifying mirrors.
When you crave more oomph, these will be your weapons.