COSMETICS Women get lip service for pumped-up puckers

Lipstick, gloss and liner help women achieve popular pouty look.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Lips are a hodgepodge of muscle fibers, connective tissue, fat and glands. Blend them together and you get one of the face's most defining features. Often, they become a signature body part. Think Mick Jagger or Fantasia. Or Angelina Jolie, the reigning queen of lip.
Joseph Wilhelm, a makeup artist, says that the lips, along with the eyes, are two areas of the face that he gives the most attention when applying cosmetics to a client.
"Women are out there for the perfect guy, right? And the first kiss is the first impression," Wilhelm said. "So they want their lips to look luscious and something to make their lips look attractive so that a guy doesn't think 'Your lip isn't there.'"
Since the ancient Egyptians painted their lips with henna, women have known that a little color can make their lips look fuller and thus, more desirable.
Modern women learned to achieve this look through a combination of lipstick (for color), gloss (for shine) and liner (for definition).
But the appearance of fullness isn't enough for some women.
Highly inflated
Cosmetics companies have been rolling out glide-on products that claim to instantly inflate lips. One of the new "plumping treatments" contains ginger, cinnamon and peppermint. Most of these products cost less than $10.
Neal Goldman, a facial plastic surgeon at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, expressed doubt that such a product would inflate the lips.
"I've never used cinnamon and ginger on patients except for on food," he said.
Some women want more puff for their buck and have turned to plastic surgery. The trend is most apparent in Hollywood.
"Has everyone in Hollywood had her lips done?" read the headline of one celebrity rag. Meg Ryan, Mary-Kate Olsen, Lara Flynn Boyle and Melanie Griffith are among the most notable celebrities sporting artificially inflated lips.
Lips can be augmented by injecting filler material into them. Collagen, made from cow connective tissue, used to be the industry standard. But its effects are temporary, lasting six to eight weeks, and many people are allergic to it.
More plastic surgeons are injecting lips with Restylane, a soft-tissue filler made from substances in our body, which reduces allergic reactions. Lips will feel plumper for six to nine months, Goldman said.
To avoid repeated treatments, more people are choosing to have materials surgically implanted into their lips.
Permanent solution
Gore-Tex, the same stuff that keeps our outdoors' clothes breathable, is one of the most common materials placed in the lip as a permanent solution. Goldman said that the lip form of the material looks like a dense, foam sponge. Materials such as Gore-Tex and Advanta, which is similar to Gore-Tex, can be taken out.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 26,730 people had their lips augmented through procedures other than injection in 2004. That's a 44 percent increase from 2000. The average cost of these treatments is $1,199.
What motivates people to pump up their puckers?
Lips shrink as people age, leaving them with a mere blip of a lip.
"Some people say they want a more pouty lip," Goldman said. Other people are bothered by the vertical wrinkles above the lip that are commonly called "Smokers' lines."
Cause and affect
And there's the Jolie affect.
"Because of Angelina Jolie, there has been a big change in the way people look at lips," Goldman said. "Some people ask to have lip reductions. Since Angelina Jolie, that number has gone significantly down."
But Jolie's pout, which most experts believe is natural, would not look good on everyone.
"If everybody had lips as big as hers, it wouldn't fit their face," Goldman said. "They don't have her cheekbones, her forehead. Without the rest of the face, it doesn't always balance out."