The large lips craze is no doubt polarizing; some women want to have larger pouts while some find it ridiculous that the attempt to maximize lip size is even an issue. Consider that beauty trends have always been somewhat sexist and oppressive, and it may seem unhealthy to obsess on products that change who you are! I say to each their own; changing up your looks can be fun and glamorous!
I, for one, am a fan of the full pout. I have invested serious money in my lip color collection because I love the aesthetics of a bold lip. Sometimes I’ll go days without makeup, except for bright lipstick. So, why not try lip enhancement products like gloss or Kylie Jenner’s special “technique” or whatever comes my way? It’s all for fun, anyway.
I was looking through beauty posts on Instagram while falling asleep (because duh, that’s something I should be doing) when I found a lady’s video – she was sucking on some sort of red object (I swear it wasn’t sexual, you creep), and the hashtag was #fullips. I was intrigued. As she pulled the red object away from her mouth, you could see her lips getting fuller as the blood ran to the surface. The science here is pretty simple: the suction (you stick your lips into this little object) forces blood into your lips and instantly gives you a bigger pout.
I decided I wanted to try it, so a few weeks later, I was sent the Fullips product. Let me preface this by saying I am in no way being paid to say this product works! In fact, I was sure it wouldn’t. The truth is, it works, and it works really well. Almost too well.
You can buy Fullips in a variety of sizes. Since I already have fairly full lips, I bought the “Medium oval.” The cool thing is that they send you two items – the one you requested, and another. They also sent the Lip Enhancer in Large Round, so I tried both. The larger one works really well for overall volume, but I found the medium oval, as they suggest, to work for spot-enhancing. I use this one to spot-enhance my bottom or top lip, for example.
Day 1:
I had CRAZY bruising. I went to town on both items and sucked in pretty hard, which they very clearly say NOT to do, so I can’t blame them. I then used red lipstick (bad idea). My boyfriend walked into the room and said, “What happened to your mouth?!” It was…not sexy.
I gave myself serious fish lips, so I wouldn’t recommend creating a suction that hurts. Pain should not be a part of the process, so I would suggest using the product to get the desired affect, and if it starts to hurt, pull them off your mouth. I was bruised for about two days, with purple hickey-like marks under my bottom lip.
Day 2:
I decided to try the product out a bit more slowly. Here are my normal lips at the start:
I really like to focus on my top lip, because when my uber-suction fiasco happened, my bottom lip looked like I got punched in the face:
I decided to follow the instructions and start slowly. You basically wet your lips and make sure there’s enough moistness for suction. Then, if it starts to feel painful, you pull the Fullips off. I began with the large round to get the overall volume. I hold them on for 15-30 seconds and wait:
And then I moved on to the Medium oval to apply suction horizontally (spot-enhancing) across the middle of my lips:
I essentially just applied to the middle of my lips, the bottom of my top lip, and the middle of the bottom lip, rather than around the entire edge of them, which will leave me with a huge bottom lip.
My end result:
My verdict:
Pros: The lip enhancers actually work, they last about 2-3 hours and you can check as you go along to monitor desired Jolie-ness. Also, the owner, Linda, is wonderful. She responded to my inquiry emails quickly and nicely.
Cons: Bruising is a total possibility if you’re not careful, and it takes almost 20 minutes to get to my desired affect. Other than that, they work well and I have nothing bad to say about them!
Tip: Wear gloss, lip plumping lipstick, or Chapstick. Matte lipsticks tend to dry out the lips and cause a decrease in volume (which Fullips totally admits to). Fullips sells a plumping lip gloss, but I bet you could use any lip plumping gloss and have the same affect!
Have fun. Don’t bruise. And rock that crazy lipstick.