Over-lined Lips (aka commitment-free lip injections)

Hands up everyone who has ever wanted fuller-looking lips.  *raises both hands WAY up in the air*

Okay, now hands up if you don't actually want to commit to lip injections.  *this girl right here; there are just too many horrifying "after" pictures*

So what's a girl (or guy) to do?  Over-line your lips.  It's simple and the only thing you need is a lip pencil and a somewhat steady hand.

Over-lining can help to reshape your lips and can add some subtle volume.  It can also make your lips look unnaturally large.  It all depends on the look you're going for; as far as I'm concerned, there are no rules to makeup so you do you.

My upper lip gets a boost without any needles.  Winning!

Et voila: the final look.

Good news: this is super easy.  Basically, I use a lip pencil (for this picture I used the shade Wine from Ofra Cosmetics) and trace slightly above the nature edge of my lip.  As I have a fairly full lower lip, I don't over-line that edge.  For me, I don't add a lot of volume as I don't like the aggressively over-lined look but, again, makeup is all about personal preference.



In terms of how much to fill in, that again comes down to whatever you want.  For this look I filled in the outer edge and the outer corners.  I then applied a sheer gloss over top (shade 202 from Makeup Forever).  I find that when the center of my lips is lighter, they look slightly larger than normal.  However, when I'm lining my lips before wearing a more opaque colour, I tend to fill my entire lip in so that I don't end up with the dreaded "ring around the lips" look as the lipstick fades.

So there you have it: subtly enhanced lips without shelling out big bucks for fillers.