By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
August 30, 2005
Everyone wants a fat lip these days. At a time when some women are extreme dieting and exercising to achieve a waif-er thin aesthetic, they’re doing everything they can to create puffy, full lips glamorized by Hollywood stars.
Some 500,000 women received hyaluronic acid gel injections last year to try to get lips like Angelina Jolie’s. But a growing number of women are opting for lip plumpers — over the counter products that promise to fatten up thin lips.
“A full lip will always be considered beautiful,” says Emily Dougherty, the beauty and fitness director at Elle magazine. “Angelina has those amazing lips and so do Jennifer Garner and Scarlett Johansson. Lip plumpers are so popular now because it takes what you have and enhances it slightly.”
Adds fashion trend analyst Tom Julian of Fallon Worldwide, “I put lip plumpers in the Wonderbra category. This is an elective, non-invasive beauty effort that offers immediate gratification to those concerned [about thin lips].”
It’s also fattened up sales of lip products. During the first five months in 2005, sales of all lip products reached $25 million. That’s quite a jump from last year, when lip products accounted for $19 million the entire year, according to NPD Beauty, a market research firm. Women are buying not only plumpers, but also liners, lipsticks and lip gloss.
Some of the popular brands include Rimmel London’s Volume Boost, a lipstick that promises 40 percent bigger lips, for which model Kate Moss is doing commercials (about $5 at Wal-Mart). DuWop’s Lip Venom ($15, www.sephora.com) promises to enhance your lips’ natural color and shape. And Sovage’s Instant Lip Plumper ($39, www.sovage.com) offers a 100 percent money-back guarantee that if its product doesn’t work.
Whether lip plumpers actually work depends on who you ask.
“We have actually tested some of these products where our chemist measured the volume increase in our subjects’ lips over a period of a month,” says Holly Crawford, beauty editor for Good Housekeeping. “Some of the women would say they didn’t see or feel any different. But when we measured their lip size, there was a small measure of difference. So technically, they can work. But it’s one of those things where you’ll see a cumulative result and when you stop using the product, you’ll have your old lips back again.”
Sometimes they may have a placebo affect. A woman who believes it’s supposed to make her lips appear fuller may be more aware of her lips and pursing them more, which could have the psychological effect of making them more noticeable to her.
The plumper that started the bee-stung lip trend six years ago is DuWop’s Lip Venom, which produces a tingly sensation when applied to the lips. DuWop co-founders, Cristina Bartolucci, a former makeup artist, and hairstylist Laura DeLuisa, stumbled onto the idea of deliberately trying to irritate women’s lips after they noticed their actresses always looked sexier after kissing scenes.
“I would notice that on days where my girls had love scenes, they’d come back from rehearsals and their lips would be amazing,” Bartolucci says. “Their lips looked like what women are always complaining they can’t get.”
Before they came upon their combination of essential oils, cinnamon, wintergreen and ginger (plus a few secret ingredients), they tried spreading a variety of irritants such as crushed mustard seeds and dried chili peppers on their own lips to achieve the coveted swollen lip look.
Most of us have unintentionally plumped our lips when we accidentally bit them or come into contact with a spicy condiment such as Tabasco sauce. Lip plumpers work in a similar way. They deliberately cause irritation so lips will swell and blush. Some lip plumpers use caffeine, peppermint and cinnamon to achieve this effect. Others add a touch of cayenne pepper or even niacin, which might cause inflammation. As a result, a lip product designed to plump lips almost always will cause the user’s lips to tingle.
If you’re concerned all this stuff could be harmful to your lips, don’t worry too much.
“I wouldn’t tell patients not to use plumpers, but I would say to be careful with it,” says Dr. Roberta Lucas, a dermatologist with Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group and the Tiffani Kim Institute. “They can be a little irritating and cause a little stinging. And as with any other product, be careful you don’t touch the product and then rub your eyes.”
After all, you don’t want to draw attention away from your beautiful lips to swollen eyes.
To plump or not to plump…
If you want to see what lip plumpers can do for you, heed the advice of Dr. Roberta Lucas, a dermatologist with Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group. She suggests you test it on a part of your body that isn’t as sensitive as your face. “No one I’ve seen has come in with a rash, but these products can be a little irritating.”
Scared? Don’t be. There are alternatives to lip plumpers that give the illusion of fuller lips. Elle magazine’s beauty and fitness director, Emily Dougherty, suggests something most women already have in their cosmetic bags to make their mouth appear fuller: lip gloss. “It comes in all different shades and there are a lot of very affordable brands.” DuWop makeup artists recommend applying a neutral colored lip pencil before the gloss to make lips pop even more.
A little attitude can go a long way. And for some fans of lip plumpers such as Devon Homes, 22, of Chicago, the product is more of a reminder than a “cure.” “I don’t have bee-stung lips like Jennifer Garner or Angelina Jolie, but when I feel the tingling on my lips, it makes me more aware of my lips and I think I pout a little more and just feel sexier. So my lips do appear larger, but I’m not sure it’s the plumper as much as it is me doing the work.”
