Faking Bigger Lips A La Kylie Jenner (Minus The Craziness)

Kylie Jenner (and her lips) really have been making headlines over the past few months or so. First she started uploading selfies on Instagram with noticeably larger lips than she'd seemingly possessed before, then the rumour mill went into overdrive over just how this had all come to happen. Before we know it numerous How To's were being uploaded onto blogs and YouTube and then of course only recently we had the #KylieJennerChallenge (which I of course do not encourage nor promote). Among all this craziness, however, there are some actual useful tips out there on a few of the safe ways you can perform a little makeup trickery to give the illusion of a fuller pout, minus any need for cosmetic surgery or sucking ferociously on a bottle cap. So, with the past month being one in which I've myself got more into the whole lip thang and purchased perhaps few too many pinky-brown nude lip liners, I thought I'd impart my own new-found knowledge in today's post for ya'll. Ready? Let's do this thing...

 

1. First things first you want to MOISTURISE. Apply a lip balm of your choice all over your pout - this will help everything you apply on top do so much nicer and help you achieve that natural effect. If you feel your lips still don't have the finish you want them do, 
2. You may also want to SCRUB them for a little bit with either a lip scrub or even your toothbrush to even out their texture.
3. Once you're happy with the result, MATTIFY the lips with either a tissue or a light dusting of transparent powder to blot out that shine and leave you with a good matte base to start off with.
4. Then comes the fun part - actually doing your lips a la Kylie. I'm going to show you how to achieve her classic 'pinky-brown nude' lip today, so for this you will need three shades of lip pencil. Of course you could do another colour - but the premise stays the same - one lighter shade (1), a slightly darker one (2) and then a deeper colour (3). Take your darker shade (3) and LINE THE OUTER CORNERS of your lips, keeping the line exactly to your natural lip outline. You don't want to over-line just yet. Then fill in these lines, again keeping your shading only on the very outer corner, leaving the rest so far untouched.
5. Next, take your middle shade (2) and continue the outlining you created with shade 3. However, this time you can start to VERY SIGHTLY OVER-LINE your lips - and I mean very slightly. Starting where you finished with shade 3, begin to line upwards towards your cupid's bow and the further you go - the more you over-line. By the time your line has reached the top of your lips you want to have over-lined you lips as much or as little as you want to. Repeat this process on your bottom lip - with this time the very bottom of your lip being where the line is most 'over-lined'.
6. Then, take your middle shade (2) and FILL IN THE REST OF THE OUTER SECTION of your lips (you only want to leave the very centre untouched). Make sure you take particular care at the point at which you stopped the filling-in with your darkest colour (3) - you really want to blend the two shades together here.
7. Once you're happy with that, you want to take your very lightest shade (1) and SHADE IN THE CENTRE - the final area left untouched. By using a light shade, this will really create that 'plumped up' effect by creating the contrast between that and the darkness at the corners.
8. Next, you want to carry out a few final steps to really add to that makeup trickery. As so far all products have been used so as to achieve a matte look, you still want to APPLY SOME GLOSS in the centre to again create that contrast between the matte outer edges and make your pout look fuller. I'd suggest either one that matches the colour of the shade 1 you're using or even simply a clear one. Whatever shade you choose, I'd definitely recommend one with shimmer - this catches the light and so adds even more so to the 'plumping' effect. If you're less bothered about this step and want the lips to be more completely matte, you could just apply a light layer of clear lip balm to the centre to achieve a less-glossy-but-still-more-shiny-in-the-middle finish.
9. Then (don't worry - you're nearly there!), you want to move away from your actual lips and instead focus more on the area round them. APPLY A MATTE BRONZER underneath the very bottom of your bottom lip to enhance any natural shadows and so make them look more 'pushed-away' from your chin area. Then, APPLY A SHIMMERY HIGHLIGHTER, preferably in powder form, to your cupid's bow to again enhance your lips natural 'high points', making them appear to stand away more and so look fuller and bigger.
10. Finally you want to APPLY A LIGHTER CONCEALER (only a little amount) all the way round your lips and the lip-line that you've created. This will really 'clean up' your work and the use of one in a shade a little lighter than your natural skin-tone will again help to make your lips stand out more.

 

And you're done! See, it really is that simple (and equally effective) to achieve that Kylie look without any need for any crazy trends that others fall victim to. Now all you need is to get yo' selfie game on and show off that new fuller pout for all it's worth - you are basically the real deal now, right?