The secret factors that contribute to defining human beauty.
Juvedérm is a hyaluronic acid that is injected into the lip to make it fuller. It is also used in deep “1” lines in between the eyebrows and sometimes in the cheeks and naso-labial folds. It’s a sugar your body naturally produces. You don’t need allergy testing with this product.
There are two techniques for augmenting the natural lip. A lot of women want/need volume. As you age, your lip naturally beings to thin out. Physical Facial Changes That Occur As We Age. In order to restore the volume, the product must be placed in the wet/dry border (where your lip goes from wet to dry).
* The Black Dashes represent where product is put. The Red X’s represent needle insertion points. They are a representation. You might have more insertions if you have asymmetry, or less if you are trying to achieve several changes at the same insertion point. **Remember when looking at the pictures I’m not a graphic designer. I’m a nurse. And I’m pretty proud of my skills in the program Paint and my Pout. God, I love alliteration!The full length of the needle is inserted into the border of the lip. Yes. It sounds like it hurts, but a topical numbing cream should be applied 15-30 minutes prior to the procedure. A lot of places will cheap out on this. The stuff is expensive. Trust me you want it. Even if the product being used has a numbing agent in it (like Juvéderm XC – the XC stands for xylocaine, which is in the lidocaine family). Plan on being numb from 1-4 hours.
If you have a low pain tolerance, request having a dental block. This the procedure you have before you have dental work done. The nerves are blocked with a pain killer, and you don’t feel anyyyyything. Don’t drink or eat for 4 hours after a block. I rarely do blocks, because I’m so good with a needle. But natural redheads and light blondes are usually more sensitive to pain. I usually recommend them for these Fitzpatrick I and II’s!
I like my lips ducky. Other people who like the duck look: models, 21 year-old’s, bartenders, strippers… you get the point. People who need to look sexy. (You can WANT to look sexy and any age and any profession though!!!) This look is achieved by inserting the length of the needle into the lip line, otherwise known as the vermillion border. The volume there curls up the line. Again, it should be numb so it won’t hurt as much.
Gravity turns down the corners of your mouth making you look a little frown-y as you age. By inserting the needle at the lower lip and curving it around the lip’s corner, the lip turns more upward, getting rid of that frown. A nice smile is attractive. A frown is not. This can be a little painful even with numbing cream, because of the location of nerve endings.
The Philtrum Columns are the two lines that come from your nose to your cupids bow. They flatten as you age, so by recreating them, you look YEARS younger. It pulls up the “Cupid’s Bow” area, which also becomes flatter as you age. I’m not going to lie. This hurts. A lot. There are a ton of nerve endings that come out of your nose and it’s very difficult to block them. Expect there to be tears. In this case, the tears are worth it though. It lasts a good year or more. And although I haven’t gone through child birth, it can’t possibly be as painful.
I am fully aware not everyone likes the Trout Pout (a term my friend Lauren gave me – http://www.shapeupwithLauren.com). It’s another look I really like though. Depending on how your natural lip is pre-injection, the product is deposited along the wet/dry border and/or the vermillion border. I usually like to do both to make it extra pouty.
Proportion: The Rule of Thirds and Fifths and what should it be when it comes to your lips? The natural lip is 1/3 volume top lip and 2/3 volume bottom lip. I see this isn’t necessarily true with darker Fitzpatrick types (V and VI).
Many women who have larger noses and big eyes don’t need a nose job. We need balance. I naturally have huge eyes and a large nose. By augmenting my lips, I’ve found some peace with my face. I look proportional and balanced. I have tons of clients who feel this way. Lip Aug is way cheaper than a nose job!
You can use lip augmentation to fix a-symmetry. Don’t expect it to be PERFECT though. We all have a little a-symmetry with our face. If you look at my lips, they aren’t perfectly symmetrical. But, if you had your lips done, and your friends point stuff out without you telling them, go back to the practitioner. If it’s real bad, they should fix it free of cost. If it’s not noticeable, they’ll re-assure you that you’re crazy and you might have Body Dysmorphic Disorder. It takes about 2 weeks for swelling to go down completely (even if you don’t see it, the inflammatory process is still in gear), therefore, wait two weeks before going back.
It’s ok to be sexy! This isn’t 1820. The Feminist Movement doesn’t restrict you to Intellectual Sexiness. You can be pretty AND smart. I am (and modest)! Let’s face it ladies… men like tits and ass. But they also like what I’ll refer to as DSL (Damn Sexy Lips… or if you want to be crass—D*ck Sucking Lips). More importantly, it will make YOU feel sexy. In case you don’t remember why I love my lip augmentation, you can read about it in The Halo Effect. You want your husband/boyfriend to pay for this? You mention this part. “Imagine the Possibilities.”
People always request pictures of how I looked before. I have a few of my photo’s from when I was in my early 20’s (that don’t have Pabst Blue Ribbon in them). As you can see I had a nice lip line to begin with. Symmetrical. Nice Shape. Full. 21 (ish). The top is pretty flat, and thins a lot when I smile. To me, my face looks out of proportion: big eyes, big nose… small lips… over tweezed eyebrows (hey, I didn’t always have such perfect style!) I’d like to thank my dog, Nila, for posing. Pitbull Love.
From Girl-Next-Door to Diva. See how my nose looks more balanced?
A LESSON IN ART
When composing a sketch of the human face, artists follow a guideline referred to as “The Rule of Thirds and Fifths.” Remember, naturally no face has perfect proportions, and the following is a mere guideline.
The Rule of Thirds
The face can be horizontally divided into thirds. From the hairline to the glabellar line (eyebrows) is 1/3, the brow to the base of the nose 1/3, and the base of the nose to the chin one-third.
The Rule of Fifths
By using the width of the eye from corner to corner as a point of measurement, the face can be vertically divided into fifths. Starting from the very outside edge of one ear to the other the face ideally would be 5 eye widths apart. The width of the base of the would be a fifth.
Subdividing the Rules
Unless you are an artist, it really isn’t necessary to know the rest of the ideal facial proportions. But each feature has an ideal mathematical relationship to the rest. If you want more info, check out this post: Beautiful Proportions of the Face.
What makes a person beautiful?
It is a combination of inner beauty (psychological factors) and outer beauty (physical attractiveness). Beauty is defined with individual, cultural and universal standards which every single person desires to achieve.
Universally Beautiful
Throughout time and across cultures, there are several characteristics of physical attractiveness. Boston or not, beauty is:
Boston Culture
Although we are ranked as one of the countries most intelligent cities, we don’t fare so well in the areas of physical attractiveness (or friendliness for that matter!). It’s 2011 Boston! You can be both smart AND beautiful.
Individual Ideals
We look in the mirror over 30 times a day focusing on “flaws” that do not fit our individual standard of beauty. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks – not your best friend, not your husband, not your mother – if something bothers you, it is significant. Our conservative culture makes it difficult to attain our individual goals in beauty. We have questions, but don’t know where to seek answers. So, we rely on our best feature – our intelligence – and go on the internet, or read magazines.
The Beauty Industry
We spend half our paychecks trying to look good, we invest so much hope and money in the “next best thing” to fix our appearance, and continuously feel let down. Companies and products capitalizing off a basic human need is a 14.5 billion dollar industry, and as a nurse, reminds me of our healthcare system! The best of contemporary science and medicine offers the ability for us to achieve outer beauty. As a provider of both healthcare and aesthetics, and as a woman who idolizes Barbie (not just because she’s blonde) it is my individual goal to help educate about aesthetics in a way our culture Boston culture understands – through science!