The Kylie Jenner effect: a chic guide to creating fuller looking lips

If recent social media trends are anything to go by it appears Kim isn’t the only Kardashian with a rather famous body part. Kylie Jenner, the youngest of Kardashian clan, is giving her sister a run for her money with the recent media storm surrounding her oversized pout. The regular selfies posted by the seventeen-year-old on her Instagram account have caused the rumour mill to go into overdrive about how the star creates such huge lips.

Although lips a la Kylie Jenner maybe a step too far for most of us, natural looking voluptuous lips (much like beauty icon Cate Blanchett’s) are on most people’s beauty wish list and a sure fire way to make you look younger. Not ones for going down the surgical enhancment route, we asked Jenna Treat , a makeup artist with fifteen years experience, for help. Follow her fail-safe, age-proof method for obtaining perfectly plumped lips whilst avoiding a serious case of trout pout.

Step 1: Exfoliate

First up, for flawless lip product application preparation is key. “It is essential to start with a smooth lip surface,” Jenna told me. “While products must be layered on and blended to achieve a desired result, the last thing you want to be navigating is dead skin debris,” Jenna explained.

“If lip balm isn’t cutting it (you want moisture without slip) often a warm flannel rubbed gently over the lip, pre-product, will gently buff off any unwanted skin.”  Try Jenna’s favourite Lip Magic by Charlotte Tilbury  for a quick smoothing fix.

Step 2: Cover and Cheat

In order to create perfect full lips Jenna suggests imagining you are trying to create “your own lips as larger versions of themselves”. The key therefore is to find a lip liner as close to your natural lip colour as possible. Jenna waxes lyrical about both Hourglass’ Femme Nude Lip Stylo  and Charlotte Tilbury’s Lip Cheat . If neither of these match your lips both MAC  and Bobbi Brown  have a big colour offering when it comes to lip liners.

Jenna explains that the aim here is to give the illusion that the lip borders have been extended. Use your lip liner of choice to “firstly line and then cover the whole lip”. “Cheating lip borders this way allows for a larger range of coverage without overdoing it or making your lips look too ‘done’,” explained Jenna. This is the moment when you want to think Cate not Kylie.

Step 3: Shade

For naturally full looking lips Jenna suggests following the lip liner with a similar shade of lipstick to enhance the work you’ve already done. If you want to go for a different colour Jenna recommends warm nudes, peaches and pinks (her current obsession is Mac’s Peach Blossom ) and to avoid at all costs deep purple or ashy brown shades. Jenna tells me that “nothing shrinks your lips faster” than these kind of colours.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Step 4: Gloss

Although many of us are afraid of gloss, Jenna rates it as essential in creating fuller looking lips. “Lip gloss adds fullness and dimension, full stop,” she says. An easy way to settle this is by dabbing some lipstick on the back of your hand with gloss of your choice beside it. “You can then see how much more the gloss option pops every time,” Jenna notes.

If you're stuck on which gloss to go for, Jenna recommends Delilah Cosmetics Ultimate Shine Lipgloss  which “moisturises your lips while taking them to the third dimension in a few easy strokes”.

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