The Life-Changing Hack For Making Lips Look More Full Over 40

While you may already be aware that fuller, healthy-looking and softer lips can be achieved with ample hydration and nourishment, the right makeup products can also amp up your look for the better! We reached out to a professional makeup artist for one timeless, go-to lip-filling hack that can emphasize your pout at any age (and is especially helpful for anyone looking for an anti-aging lip technique over 40!) Read on for step-by-step tips from Kerrin Jackson, 4-time Emmy-nominated makeup artist and creator of The Makeup Refinery.

Essential Pro Lip Hack— Highlight, Line, and Fill

Jackson says that her favorite hack to make a mature lip look more pouty is “very simple, but it must be done with some care, a little patience, and most importantly, a light touch.” Otherwise, she warns, you “can end up looking like an Instagram filter gone wrong.” To avoid this, she says her main advice to follow centers around creating a “very subtle highlight around the lips,” as seen in many TikTok beauty videos.

This way, she adds, you can “not only define the shape you want your lips to be, but the size as well.” Before getting into the steps, she advises to grab your favorite “foundation or a concealer” that is a “shade or two lighter than your base tone.” The other main suggestion is to “keep it soft, well-blended and only use a little product, not a lot.”

Step #1— Define Your Lips with Concealer

On a clean face, Jackson says to “begin to define your lips by using a concealer brush with your highlight or foundation color” to create your desired lip shape “around the outside of your mouth.” The flat side of the brush, she stresses, should be “against your skin to blend out the foundation as you apply it.”

2. Blend Your Foundation

With a clean brush, she then says to “blend the foundation you have placed around  your lips out and away from your lips.” This, she notes, will “soften the product used, yet still leave enough there to create the illusion of not only definition but also a soft highlight.” This is the illusion, she points out, that helps “make your lips appear larger.”

3. Add Translucent Powder

Once you are happy with the shape and the “level of subtlety of your highlighted lip shape,” Jackson says to use a powder puff and some translucent powder and “lightly dust it over your closed mouth.” This will set the foundation highlight and also help your lipstick apply well, she explains.

4. Draw Your Lip Line with a Lip Pencil

Next, Jackson says to use your favorite lip pencil and “define your lip line just inside the shape you created with your highlight color” in the previous three steps.

5. Fill In Your Lips with Nude Lipstick

Lastly, Jackson recommends filling in your lips with your favorite nude lipstick. “Stay away from any shade too dark or cool in tone,” she says, as these will “instantly make your lips appear thinner, and undo your beautiful makeup illusions created already.”

Ultimately, Jackson concudes, this is her “favorite makeup hack to help your lips look full” since  you can do “without even using lipstick.” If you want to forgo lipstick altogether, Jackson assures that you can still make your lips look full “with some lip balm or even a pretty tinted gloss for a day look, too.”