For most people, their facial appearance is key to their self-confidence. Therefore, if your lips look too large for their face, or if they’re just too big for your own personal taste, your self-esteem can decrease.
However, there are some small changes which can be made that make the lips look naturally smaller. These alterations can give you back your confidence and make you feel attractive once more.
If you have naturally large lips that make you feel self-conscious, you are probably wondering how to make lips small. While it isn’t possible to permanently reduce the size of your lips without surgery, rest assured there are a number of ways in which you can make your lips appear smaller. Read on to discover some of our top tips.
Try These Tips to Make Your Lips Appear Smaller
If you want to make your lips look smaller, give these tips a try.
Stay Hydrated
It’s important to drink lots of water every day. If your body becomes dehydrated, it will hold onto water. This causes parts of your body to visibly retain water. It is this that can make your lips appear larger.
If you consume enough fluids, you’ll stay well-hydrated, and this will help prevent water retention.
Avoid Wearing Lip Gloss
When applying your make-up in the morning, make sure to forgo the lip gloss. Although it can give your lips a wonderful sheen, it also makes your lips look larger and fuller. If your lips are full already, this is a problem.
Rather, you should use lipstick with a matte color that is similar to your own skin tone. Remember that lipstick won’t plump up your lips, and if you choose a color which is very like that of your skin, your lips will be far less noticeable.
Wear Dark Lipstick
Alternatively, you can choose darker colors of lipstick. Avoid bright shades which make your lips look larger and find dark colors which work well with your natural skin color. A salon consultant will be able to offer you advice in this regard.
If one lip is naturally thinner than the other, apply a dark color to the lip you wish to look smaller and then use a brighter complementary shade which draws attention to the naturally thinner lip.
Use Foundation on Your Lips
Another excellent tip is to wear foundation under your lipstick on your lips. This too creates an effect of much smaller lips without requiring much effort. Try applying concealer in a shade close to your skin onto the lip line using an applicator.
- Apply to the lower edge of the bottom lip and the top edge of the top lip around 1mm away from your lip.
- Using the sponge applicator, blend into the skin with an up-and-down movement so the lips’ edges look that they have blended naturally into your skin tone below and above the lip.
This makes your lips look more proportionate to your face and less full.
Try Face Exercises
You should commit to a daily workout regime for your face and lips. Exercise gets rid of any excess fat on your lips and face and this, ultimately, will help to make the lips appear smaller. One good form of exercise for lips is to enunciate tongue twisters.
Smile
Happily, smiling can help create the illusion of thinner lips. Smiling pulls the lips, making them appear thinner. Although this is a temporary solution, it’s an effective one and has the added bonus of making your look friendlier.
Protect Your Lips With Lip Balm
Dermatology experts recommend moisturizing the lips regularly with an oil-based lip balm to keep the moisture locked in and the lips in a healthy condition. This helps to protect the lips’ skin from irritation that can cause swelling.
Using a lip balm containing shea butter, olive oil, lemon, or other ingredients with a high antioxidant content is recommended. It should be applied daily or whenever the lips feel chapped and dry. It’s particularly important to keep the lips well moisturized in cold weather to keep them from the unwanted swelling that can make them appear overly full.
Remove Excess Hair
Sometimes, your lips will look larger because they are covered with excess hair. If this is the case for you, it’s possible to remove the hair quite simply by using wax or tweezers. You can use tweezers to pluck out hairs individually at the root while wax can be applied over the entire area before placing tape over the top which is peeled off, pulling out the hairs. Although waxing is quite efficient, it’s more painful and messy.
There are some other options to consider too. Electrolysis is one option, but it requires a professional to carry out this treatment. Pulsed laser treatments are another professional option which destroys the hair follicles permanently.
Consider Cosmetic Surgery
If you’ve tried non-surgical options and found that your lips are still too large for your preferences, you could consider having cosmetic treatment. It’s important to be familiar with the potential risks and complications if you’re thinking about this course of action.
Although unwanted side-effects are rare, it’s possible that an infection could set in at the treated site, or excessive internal damage or bleeding could occur. You could even suffer from nerve damage or scarring, which could necessitate more operations in the future to remove the skin that is affected.
Lip reduction surgery costs between $1500 and $4000, and it likely won’t be covered by your medical insurance, since it’s a cosmetic procedure. If you want to have a lip reduction procedure, make sure that you choose an ABPS (American Board of Plastic Surgery) certified surgeon. This will give you the best possible chance of an excellent result without any complications or problems.
Choosing the Best Course of Action for You
If you have large lips and want to find a solution to the problem to raise your self-esteem, one of the options suggested here should help you to achieve the smaller lips you desire. Whether you’re looking for a temporary or permanent way to resolve your issue, make sure you weigh up all the options first before making a final decision about which is right for you.