Dr. Angela’s Valentine message centers around the Lips and how to ensure that we keep a beautiful smooch for our loved ones
Shot by Cupid’s Bow
Dr. Angela Sturm here with Valentine’s Day upon us, not only do we want to find that perfect valentine, but to have an irresistible pucker for them, beyond just Valentine’s day, too! We have a number of ways to enhance your naturally beautiful lips.
Lip “Plumpers”
You can find a number of products on the market in every price range that claim to plump the lips. You can expect subtle volumizing of the entire lip. These work by using ingredients like cinnamon, ginger mint, wintergreen, or capsicum to irritate the skin of the lips and cause a small amount of swelling. This swelling results in the lips looking plumper for a few hours. Often, you can feel the tingling from the ingredients. These frequently are combined with a lip gloss, so the shine will make the lips look larger. The Laura Mercier lip plumper has a nice short term effect and appearance on the lips.
There are also 2 step preparations, that use peptides, collagen or growth factors to have a longer term effect. These include the Skin Medica Lip Plump system, which uses growth factors. This product does have scientific studies to back its plumping abilities. Personally, I can see a subtle, but present plumping effect while I have it on.
Also on the market is the Cynthia Rowland vacuum device, which is about $50. This uses suction to draw blood flow into the lips. This is a noninvasive way to make the lips look larger temporarily. So, you can avoid injections or appointments. The company says that the results can be longer term with repeated use, but I didn’t see any studies to back that up. Also, repeatedly making an area of the body swell doesn’t stimulate collagen or change the inherent structure. It can work temporarily, but be careful because you can have bruises from suctioning on the lips!
Need a little more “Va Va Voom”?
If you want a little more enhancement and tailoring of your volumizing, your plastic surgeon on dermatologist can help you out! By using soft tissue fillers, like Restylane or Juvederm, your injector can artistically accentuate the best parts of your lips. For example, the Cupid’s Bow is created by fibrous attachments in the lip itself. Over time, these relax with time, making it less defined. By adding a small amount of accurately placed filler, this definition can be restored giving your lips and overall face a more youthful look. We can place a small amount of filler along the border of the lip to restore or enhance the definition of the lips or in the red lip itself to give you a more pouty lip. The beauty of and trick to injecting lips is the approach. Less is more and we are enhancing your beauty, not coloring outside the lines. The goal, with any cosmetic procedure but particularly the lips, is to look naturally beautiful and not have anyone suspect that you have had anything done.
There are options for everyone’s needs to get that perfect pucker.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Editor’s Note: We at MRG were leary of lip procedures as the results are often not visually desirable. That is why we went to Dr. Angela, as someone we trust, that does not do extreme fillers or implants that alter a woman’s appearance to extremes. We trust her recommendations and found that we were exactly on the same page!