If your lips are too thick, and you're considering thinning them out by changing their appearance or undergoing surgery, there are a few things you need to pay attention to. There are both medical and aesthetic reasons for lip thinning, and such procedures carry risks. Before deciding, you should first explore some cosmetic techniques and/or do a medical consultation.
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Method 1 of 3: Trying the Makeup Approach
Step 1. Choose your skin tone
You have to do this step very accurately in the early stages.
- Go to a pharmacy, shopping center, salon, or similar places that have beauty counters.
- Consult a salesperson and/or check color samples to get an idea of the skin tone around the problematic lips – find out the name of the cosmetic color you will need.
- Make sure your choice is able to keep your skin tone balanced considering you are trying to improve the appearance of your lips.
Step 2. Apply different makeup colors around your lips
Make sure you have plenty of color choices, or buy more cosmetics if needed.
- You will need an applicator, a relatively muted or darker color and/or a concealer in your cosmetic kit. This kind of product can mostly be found in pharmacies or supermarkets. If you're having trouble finding it, try asking the salon.
- You may want to consider colors like purples, browns, bronzes and other matching colors.
- You can use a makeup brush to apply these colors in the area just above your lips or under your lips so that the colors blend more with your natural skin tone.
Step 3. Apply a smudge mask to your lip line
You need an applicator for this. You can apply color or concealer around the lip line.
- Choose a blemish cam that closely matches the color of the skin around your mouth.
- Apply the smudge mask to the edges of your top and bottom lip lines – about a millimeter from your lips.
- Use an applicator stick with a sponge on the tip (or a cotton swab or your finger if you don't have an applicator stick) to blend the concealer into your skin in an up and down motion so that the edges of your lip line appear to blend naturally with the skin tone above and below. under your lips.
- If the resulting line is uneven, smooth it out by sweeping the tip of the applicator sponge along the smudging line parallel to the edge of your lips.
Step 4. Use a dark colored lipstick
This step can be done simultaneously with the step of applying makeup and blemishes, or done separately.
- When choosing lipstick, avoid lighter colors, as they will only make the lips appear thicker.
- Look for a darker shade that will suit your skin tone. Consider asking a beauty consultant at the salon.
- This tactic may work if only one part of the lip needs more attention than the other. For example, if only the upper lip needs to look thinner – use a darker color on the upper lip while you apply a slightly lighter color to draw attention to the lower lip (or vice versa).
Step 5. Evaluate the results
If makeup doesn't work or isn't the right choice for you, you may want to consider other options.
- If makeup wasn't an option for you in the first place, perhaps a more health/medical approach might be something you need to consider.
- If makeup doesn't work, you can try colors that match the colors you've tried to see if there's any improvement before you move on to other methods.
- Consult a salon or medical professional before you proceed with more extensive makeup or trying medical procedures.
Method 2 of 3: Taking Care of Your Lips
Step 1. Treat any injuries to the lips immediately
The density of the blood vessels in the lips promotes a speedy healing process for most wounds in this area, but several things can help with the process.
- Clean the cut or injured lip area thoroughly with soap and water.
- Press with a clean cloth if bleeding occurs.
- Use a cold/hot compress to reduce swelling or bruising.
- Minor puncture wounds should be treated with antiseptic and/or hydrogen peroxide. However, wounds like these usually close on their own. Larger wounds will require treatment by a medical professional – and may require stitches.
- More serious injuries should be treated by a doctor immediately.
Step 2. Moisturize lips regularly
Use a lip balm, preferably an oil-based one, to lock in the moisture and keep your lips healthy. This will prevent the skin from getting irritated and swollen.
- Highly recommended lip balm with olive oil, shea butter, lemon, and other ingredients with high antioxidant content.
- You can apply it daily and/or whenever you feel your lips are dry and chapped.
- This is very important especially during cold weather.
Step 3. Consider hair removal around the lips
If the presence of hair is the reason your lips appear thicker, you can remove the hair fairly easily.
- Use tongs or a candle. The tweezers can be used to pluck the hairs down to the roots one by one.
- wax. The wax will be applied to the desired area if there is a sufficient amount of hair, then the tape will be placed over the wax and pulled to remove the hair. Waxing is more efficient, but can be a bit messy and painful.
- Electrolysis can be an option. This method requires an expert who will use a small needle inserted into each feather to destroy the roots using an electric current.
- Pulsating laser. This method is similar to the electrolysis option, except that the specialist will use a tiny beam of very powerful light to permanently destroy the hair follicle.
- Do not shave or use cream. While shaving can trim the hair or creams can slow down hair growth, this will not permanently remove the hair around the lips.
Step 4. Confirm about other possible causes
There are other things that may be causing your lips to appear thick and that may be out of your control. If so, you may not want to rush into the lip thinning method.
- If you are wearing other equipment such as braces, you should wait until the braces are removed before deciding whether you really need to take action regarding your lip size.
- If you have other, more serious medical conditions in the lip area, such as a cleft lip or cleft palate, anything you do to the rest of the lip will cause complications and should be guided by a doctor.
Step 5. Determine if you need surgery
If none of your lip care techniques help make your lips appear thinner, you may need to consider a surgical approach.
- Review whether there are no more conventional cosmetic and wellness approaches you can use to reduce your actual lip size.
- Find out other potential causes for your large lips.
Method 3 of 3: Continuing with Cosmetic Surgery
Step 1. Learn the risks
There are a number of things that can cause cosmetic surgery to not work the way it should, and you should weigh these risks against the benefits you'll get from permanent lip thinning.
- Complications caused by anesthesia are common in surgery, ask your surgeon or anesthesiologist about this.
- There is a risk of infection in or around the area where the surgery was performed – and the lip/mouth area is a particularly high risk area.
- Excessive bleeding or internal damage that necessitates further surgery may occur.
- Nerve damage, temporary or permanent, may occur – it may require another surgical procedure, leave the affected area numb, or painful.
- Scar tissue may develop in the area where the surgery was performed, resulting in the need for another surgery to repair the affected skin.
Step 2. Learn about the lip thinning procedure itself
This procedure must be performed by a surgeon who has a Certificate of Competence. This surgeon will later evaluate if you are a candidate for this procedure.
- The surgeon will take your medical history, make a clinical assessment of your lips, discuss the problem, and explain the procedure you will undergo.
- If the surgeon recommends a surgical procedure, he will explain in detail, from costs, risks to the recovery process to you.
- During the procedure, which will take 1 hour, the surgeon will inject a local anesthetic or give an oral sedative for general anesthesia. Then they will make an incision along the lip inside the mouth, cut some of the tissue, and close the wound with stitches.
- The cost for lip thinning plastic surgery can range from IDR 10–12 million, and is usually not covered by insurance as it is considered completely cosmetic.
Step 3. Get to know the recovery procedure
Pain, stiffness, and soreness are common sensations felt after lip thinning surgery. Your surgeon may provide recovery instructions and prescribe pain medication to help relieve discomfort.
- Avoid strenuous exercise.
- Sleep with your head elevated, perhaps with a few pillows under your head.
- Avoid highly acidic/containing citric acid foods. Eat mushy, mashed foods during the recovery period.
- Gargle with an antiseptic mouthwash to prevent infection at the incision site.
- The sutures should be removed within one week – 10 days postoperatively if all goes well. Most irritation and swelling should have subsided by then.
- If you have signs of excessive pain, bleeding, or any unexpected side effects, report it to your surgeon or doctor immediately.
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