Lip Plumper Facts and How To Use
No one’s coveted fuller, juicier lips more than in the past few years, and the trend is still kicking as more cosmetic companies pump out new lip colors and glosses that might compel you to dawn a fuller pout. Thankfully, there are lip plumpers, which are made to make your lips look as full as if you’d run off to get fillers without the crazy cost! And who doesn't love that?
But like any product, it's always important to know as much as you can about it, and lip plumpers are no different. Yes, they have the power to turn your lips into Angelina Jolie-inspired fullness, but you should know what's in them and how they work so you can be sure that you're using the right lip plumpers for you. First, with so many products to choose from, you can figure out which type you might like best.
What Kinds of Lip Plumpers Are There?
Let's go over the basic types of lip plumpers that are available today.
Balms
There are often many lip plumping ingredients found in lip balms, as they’re the first thing we put on our lips that give us that so well-known tingle. These lip balms can be applied to fill out and moisturize the lips before applying a lip color or gloss. You could also wear it alone to make your lips appear smoother, as their texture is typically much more waxy than other lip products.
Glosses
Plumping products in a gloss form are also a great option if you want fuller lips with a nice shine. They can offer color, too, to give multiple effects at once. But both lip glosses and lip balms can contain the same ingredients used to properly plump your lips.
Masks
There are even some plumping lip masks out there that are best for use before applying makeup. These types usually have a collagen serum on a silicone sheet that covers the lips completely to fill out fine lines in the lips and give a fuller effect.
What Is In A Lip Plumper?
As a lip product, lip plumpers typically have the usual ingredients that other lip products do to hydrate with moisturizing ingredients, colorants, oils, and waxes so they can stay put for a while. The main ingredients you should pay attention to are the ones that actually cause your lips to plump.
That tingling sensation you feel when putting on the lip plumper is the reaction that your skin gives to being stimulated by ingredients like menthol, cinnamon, ginger, and capsaicin (found from chili peppers) that mildly irritate the skin and swell your lips. The mild reaction causes blood to rise to the surface of your skin, thus creating the plumping effect. But there’s no need to run for the hills, as these don’t produce any side effects, are all edible ingredients used in small doses, and the plumping results often fade throughout the day.
If you are allergic to any of these plumping ingredients, like peppermint, for example, be aware when shopping for lip plumpers to ensure that they don’t have any trace of ingredients that have the chance to severely irritate your skin. You can always do a patch test to see if a product reacts badly with your skin by testing it out on your arm first. Otherwise, the slight tingle is normal and is usually a sign that your lip plumper is doing its job.
Lately, you’ll see more collagen and hyaluronic acid making its way into plumping lip formulas, which can amplify lip size by smoothing out wrinkles, improving your skin’s elasticity, and pulling hydration to the surface of the skin. This is similar to blood being drawn to the surface of the skin, which will give you the desired full effect. If you’re nervous about the regular irritants in lip plumpers, you might want to look out for a hyaluronic formula instead, as it mainly works to hydrate the lips and make your lips feel and look better than before.
How Well Do They Really Work?
If you’re wondering if lip plumpers really work, the short answer is yes. But how well they work is a bit of a different story. It’s true that lip plumpers work to plump the skin, but how drastic that change depends on the brand, the product, and your own skin’s reaction. Results are usually subtle, and because they ware off after a few hours, it might not be as intense as some might think. It will, however, work to fill out fine lines in your lips that will help your lips look smoother, should you want to wear a lipstick that emphasizes texture, or just desire a flawless-looking lip.
If you were looking for drastic lip plumping results for much fuller lips, you could try to contour your lips with liner to fake the look of a more intense pout. Other than that, lip plumpers alone, unfortunately, don’t provide that sort of change that lip fillers might. But they are better if you’d like to be safer, as they won’t give you any bruises, won’t risk the reaction your skin might have with a filling inside, and there are no needles required! There’s no harm to try some out. You may find a favorite product that works wonders for you to get you better-looking lips in seconds.
Resources— Be Beautiful, NY Mag
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