Perfect lips, or How to create perfect lips

Olga Kravenskaya , methodologist of the European Beauty Business School "Cosmotrade", master of permanent make-up, member of the International Public Organization "Association of Permanent Makeup Professionals" (IPO APPM), participant in the educational and game show on permanent make - up "Battle of Styles" (2016), speaker at scientific and practical conferences on permanent makeup at the InterCHARM exhibition, author of articles in Permanent magazine, participant of The Permanent Make-Up World Conference 2017 (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

How many women - so many opinions. How many clients - so many desires, including those regarding permanent makeup. Let's take a look at how lip fashion has evolved over the years to see just how different their shape can be.

So, lips!.. If the eyes are called the mirror of the soul, the eyebrows are the gates of heaven (as Michelangelo said), then how to “call” the lips? You can come up with dozens of poetic and not very epithets and comparisons, but it's hard to argue with the fact that lips are one of the lines that determine the overall aesthetics. And this line has also been subjected to changes more than once by fashion trends.

Beauty yesterday

As we know, the Greeks considered order and symmetry to be a symbol of beauty. A person was considered ideally beautiful, in whom all parts of the body and facial features were in a harmonious combination. A face that could be divided into several equal parts was perceived as beautiful. If we fast forward to the times of Ancient Greece, then a small mouth with full, bulging lips was considered beautiful. Particular attention was paid to the upper lip, which resembled an onion (one of the dividing lines ran along the border of the upper lip). Hence the name "Cupid's bow" (god of love).

The absolute opposite is the Middle Ages, where lips actually disappear from the face, as they are associated with unacceptable carnal attraction and sin. The ideal is an elongated oval face, huge eyes and a small mouth.

The Renaissance is manifested in the return of femininity. After the prohibition of the omnipotent church in the Middle Ages to apply makeup, the representatives of the weaker sex begin to paint their eyes (eyelashes and eyebrows), lips and nails again. A rather original and completely non-standard formula of female beauty of one of the chroniclers of the 16th century, a multiple of three, is known. In his opinion, a beautiful woman should have: three whites - skin, teeth, hands; three black ones - eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes; three red ones - lips, cheeks, nails.

As you know, fashion (including makeup) does not live by itself. It is largely a response to certain phenomena that set trends. Fast forward many, many years ahead - to the 20s of the last century. Then such a phenomenon turned out to be cinema! The main idea of makeup in the style of the 20s, which we associate with silent films, is contrast and graphics. Basically, we see pale faces with bright small lips that are stained along the inner contour or even below it. There were several names for lip makeup: "rosebud", "vampire lips" and "bitten by a bee".

In post-war times, women wanted to look especially impressive. Therefore, dark, small lips were replaced by plump and sensual, wonderful examples of this are Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot.

beauty today

Now many girls focus on the lips, resorting to injections, as well as permanent makeup. Since lips are always associated with sensuality, desire, tenderness and sexuality, then, naturally, every woman wants to draw attention to her lips to one degree or another. One girl will do it more expressively and brightly, while the other will only slightly add volume to them. Therefore, the understanding of beauty and ideal is different for everyone. And this is good! Because if we were all the same, it would be boring...

Like the fashion for the ideal of beauty at different times, the beauty industry does not stand still. Consequently, the masters of permanent makeup are in constant development, turning to new and new techniques for performing PM of the lips, delving into the details of the procedure and polishing their professionalism.

The technique of lip pigmentation, in which I work with clients, is ideal for me. Considering that clients approach permanent lip makeup for different purposes and each of the client's requests needs a special approach, this technique satisfies almost any client's wishes. Whether it is an expressive contour and denser shading from it, or the contour should be less noticeable, with a light dusting over the entire surface of the lips. The most important thing is to find out from the client what, in fact, she wants. And the number of passes and the density of strokes will depend on her preferences.

Photos provided by the author

In this technique, I mainly use a 1 R or 3 RL needle if the client prefers a more defined contour and wants a denser result. To begin with, I fix the sketch at an angle of 45–50 ° with slow reciprocating movements, if necessary, I pass along the contour a second time, after vasoconstrictive anesthesia. The next step is dense shading from the contour, going over it and compacting it a little. And the procedure is completed by light or denser spraying at an angle of 90 ° with fairly fast pendulum movements.

A more detailed description of the technique is presented in the master class on the YouTube channel .