What Types of Lips There Are and How to Make Them Alluring
Lips come in different shapes and sizes — they’re unique, just like your fingerprints and other facial features. Your genes are what determine their shape. Whether you have full or thin, round or thick lips, by applying the right makeup and care, you can enhance your expressions and smile.
5-Minute Crafts has prepared a guide to help you identify which type of lips you have, and we’re sharing some makeup tips to make them stand out.
The anatomy of the lips
Your lips don’t contain any bones, hair follicles, or sweat glands, but they’re made of muscle, mucosa, and skin. To define your lip shape, the terms ’’Cupid’s bow’’ and ’’philtrum’’ play essential roles. When you look under your nose in the mirror, you’ll see a double-curved part, almost like an M shape, and this is the Cupid’s bow. The philtrum is the grooved space between the nose and the mouth.
1. Heart-shaped lips
How to identify: Lips with a well-defined Cupid’s bow and a sharp hollow spot in the middle fall into this category. While some heart-shaped lips have fuller lower lips, others may have a bow-shaped or peaked Cupid’s bow.
Makeup tips: Focus on enhancing the appearance of the Cupid’s bow using a single color. You can use creamy nude lipstick for a fuller look, but feel free to opt for darker shades for both the top and bottom lips.
2. Top-heavy lips
How to identify: If you have a heavier or fuller upper lip than the bottom lip, with a Cupid’s bow that lacks a distinctive dip, then your pout belongs in this category.
Makeup tips: Using a lip liner, you can border your lips going a bit beyond your lower lip. Then apply a brighter shade of lipstick on your lower lip and a darker shade on your upper lip for an even look.
3. Bottom-heavy lips
How to identify: These lips are characterized by a visible imbalance between the top and the bottom. You may want to give them the balance they lack. One way to do this is to make the top lip appear fuller.
Makeup tips: Outline your upper lip a bit outside its natural line to add some fullness. If you want to make your lips narrower, apply a lip liner inside the edges of your lower lip. You can also opt for lipsticks that are darker than your skin tone.
4. Full (pouty) lips
How to identify: These lips have the most balanced and even proportion of full upper and lower lips. Full lips get easily noticed for their thickness. The actress, Angelina Jolie, has these types of lips.
Makeup tips: Highlight other features of your face by using nude lip colors or subtle colors that blend in easily with your complexion. If you want to draw attention to your lips, use a darker shade of lipstick in a matte texture.
5. Thin and thick lips
How to identify: While thin lips have less volume on both the upper and lower lips, thick lips have full volume on the top and the bottom. Contrary to the full lips, thick lips are thicker, fuller, and proportional, making the mouth look bulky.
Makeup tips: If you have thin lips, consider overlining them with a lip pencil or liquid lip color, then use a darker shade on the bottom lip. If you want to distract the attention away from your thick lips, highlight your cheeks and choose brighter colors for your eye makeup.
6. Wide lips
How to identify: You can determine your lip shape by your smile. Although the lips’ thickness may vary, if your smile is wide and broad, then you have wide lips. The actress, Julia Roberts, is famous for her wide lips and smile.
Makeup tips: To add weight to your lips, consider overlining only the bottom (lower) lip. If you want to distract the attention away from your lips, focus on other parts of your face, highlight your cheeks, and experiment with smokey-eye makeup, for example. Using a nude or light shade of lipstick is an option, too.
7. Round, small lips
How to identify: If your lips have almost the same width and height, with round edges and not much of a Cupid’s bow, then you may fall into the round lips category. Small lips, a.k.a. doll lips, on the other hand, aren’t wide but full and protruding.
Makeup tips: To enhance the shape of your round lips, trace the contours going a bit outside your natural lip line. You can apply glossy, soft shades or matte lipstick formulas to make your small lips appear thicker and fuller. Avoid lipsticks with dark shades, as they may make your lips appear smaller.