Metro: Are we going to swap lip fillers for lip lifts?
Now that Kylie Jenner has let (part) of her lip fillers dissolve away, will we all give up on the plumped up look?
No, probably not.
There are still countless celebs and influencers opting for fillers and making us consider the same (just look at the impact of Love Island‘s Megan Barton-Hanson), so our obsession with increasing the size of our pout doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
What might change, however, are the methods we use to attain the look.
Kylie Jenner’s transformation has reminded us all of a simple fact: fillers aren’t forever. They dissolve, they disappear, and they need regular top-ups.
That’s perfect for people who aren’t sure if they’ll always want plumped lips, or who eventually want to change their look as Kylie did, but for those who want a permanent fix might choose to go for a lip lift instead.
A lip lift is a less popular lip-focused procedure that promises to permanently change the shape of your lips and improve the appearance of fullness.
It used to be performed only as part of a face lift, but in the past few months has increased in popularity as a standalone treatment.
It involves removing skin from just below the nose to decrease the space between your nose and upper lip, making the lip appear plumper as a result.
By removing a flap of skin and shortening the philtrum, the lip is pulled upwards.
A surgeon can customise the area of skin they remove to tweak the shape of the lip, whether the client would like their lips to be more upturned or with a more prominent cupid’s bow.
The procedure is often combined with fillers or Botox to further shape the mouth area.
The benefits of a lip lift are that the procedure is permanent, and can cause a dramatic difference to the face. Someone who’s had a lip lift wouldn’t need to worry about topping up.
The downsides are a week’s worth of recovery time (after which the stitches are removed), soreness, and, as with all surgery, a risk of infection or an allergic reaction.
Nick Milojevic, Harley Street aesthetic doctor and owner of Milo Clinic, doesn’t believe the lip lift will overtake standard lip fillers.
‘The lip lift is a surgical procedure to lift the lip, and even though it is being performed it is still a very old school procedure,’ Nick tells Metro.co.uk. ‘To be honest is quite outdated in comparison with having filler which is much safer and actually gives better results.
‘With lip lifts, it’s using a knife to add volume to the lip, meaning scars inside and outside the mouth which also increases the risk involved with this procedure.
‘It is also a permanent procedure.
‘It won’t become more popular than filler which can be obtained gradually, you can really design your own pout and if you don’t like it, you only have to wait a few months for it to dissolve.
‘With the hyaluronic acid filler, its safe, and within 5 minutes we get a lovely finish, we can choose the size of lip and design the lip much better than we ever could by doing the surgery. We can give you a designer lip.’
Nick raises a valid point: Yes, lip fillers need top-ups, but those can be a handy way to adjust your lips as your tastes and looks change. If you didn’t like how your lips looked with the first set of fillers, you can adjust placement and volume to get a different effect.
‘The lip ages over time and it changes,’ adds Nick. ‘If you do something permanent with the lip then over time it’s going to start looking unnatural.’
A lip lift also feels pricey compared to fillers (prices typically start at around £1,000), even if it is a one-off procedure.
‘Lips using filler are definitely here to stay, it might not last as long but it is cheaper and much safer,’ says Nick.
‘Surgery is expensive, it’s full of risk and once it’s done it’s done; you can’t take it back.
‘The lip lift using surgical procedure will be a fad, however increasing the lip nicely and safely with filler is definitely here to stay.’