How to Make Your Lips Look Bigger With Makeup

Lip filler who?

By
Holly Rhue
byrdie associate editorial director holly rhue head shot
Holly Rhue

Holly Rhue is the editorial director for Byrdie, covering all things beauty for the brand. She has 6 years of experience in beauty editorial and has been with Byrdie since 2019.

Byrdie's Editorial Guidelines
Updated on 10/04/23 05:28PM
Reviewed by
Dara Liotta, MD, FACS
Dr. Dara Liotta
Reviewed by Dara Liotta, MD, FACS
Dr. Dara Liotta is a dual board-certified facial plastic surgeon with offices on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Dubai.
About Byrdie's Beauty & Wellness Board
Plastic Surgeon
how to get fuller lips

Byrdie

Left and right, it seems as if everyone we know is getting in line to get bigger lips. Many of them opt to get treatments such as lip filler or lip flips, but there are ways to make your lips look bigger without stepping into a dermatologist's office. The effects are immediate, you can quickly change them, and are low commitment. Of course, we're talking about makeup.

There are more than a handful of ways to fake the appearance of fuller, bigger lips with the help of makeup products, and odds are you've seen more than your fair share of tutorials on the subject if you're reading this article. Hey, we're in the same boat—we love rocking a fuller pout on occasion and have learned expert tricks that help us achieve the look we want. All you need is a lip liner, the right technique, and a few extra details to get bigger lips in a matter of minutes.

Below, celebrity makeup artist Matin Maulawizada shares the steps they take to create fuller lips on their clients and themselves. From an important prep step and lip liner techniques to highlighter application and more, scroll down to learn how to fake a big pout like a pro.

Step One: Outline Your Lips With a Nude Lip Liner

The first step is all about creating a crisp outline to frame your lips, using a smooth lip pencil. "Use a shade that's just deeper than the shade of your lips," Maulawizada says. He likes to fill in the contours of the lips—not all the way around—coloring in the outsides by basically shading it. You may choose to slightly exceed the line where your lips meet your skin in order to create the appearance of larger lips.

Byrdie Tip

Try celebrity makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic's "lip lift" technique to give the appearance of full, uplifted lips. This involves slightly overlining the Cupid’s bow, drawing a line downward to the inner corners of your natural lip line, slightly overline the center of the bottom lip line, then extending the liner upwards toward the inside the lip line.

Step Two: Fill in Your Lips With a Light Color

In the same way we accentuated the darker outline of the lips in step one, now it's time to accentuate the lighter center of the lips (where your top and bottom lips meet). "The lighter the color lipstick you use, the plumper the lip look," says Maulawizada. "Darker lipsticks make your lips look smaller, while lighter lipsticks make them poutier." You can use a lip stain, lipstick, a lip tint, or a lip crayon for this step, whichever formula works best for you.

Step Three: Apply Gloss to the Center of Your Lips

Focusing on the center line where top and bottom lips meet, apply a high-shine lip gloss. Opt for a shade that's two or three shades lighter than the lip liner you chose. This contrast helps create the optical illusion of plump lips.

Step Four: Define Your Lip Shape with Concealer

"Just use a touch of [concealer] in the corner of the lips to really sharpen the corners," Maulawizada says. Essentially, you're trace outside of the line you created with lip liner in step one with concealer to create even more contrast and definition—the key to a 3D, pouty lip.

Step Five: Add a Touch of Highlighter

Once your lips are contoured, defined, and glossed, make sure to draw as much attention to your pout as possible by dusting on a bit of highlighter. For the best, most effective look, place it on the Cupid's bow.

Related Stories