A set of celebrities in the mid -2000s had their top lips divided into surgery that turned the flesh back to the Cupid bow. So a well -informed friend told me. It was heard like a movie Slasher: a knife that pierces the skin and filling it with a play-doh-esque, a body-horror body resulting in a doll-like doll that I know now is a lip lift. Such a brutal thing I have to do for such a delicate difference, I thought. I will never do it. I was happy with my lips. The bow of the Full Cupid, just quite fleshy, no work is required.
Nor did I influence the influx of lip filling procedures over the next decade. If I were for a while, I would like to remember the faces of the beautiful icons I had encountered in the flesh. The faces are filled only with magnetic smiles like those of Jane Birkin, then almost 60. An average life of Christy Turlington burns with myriad natural lines that have not erased any of her beauty. Or Charlotte Rampling, she still fascinates in the 1970s.
Even in the giant eruption of today’s lips-with Hailey Bieber’s Rhode-Show in the city-I was strong. Until recently, that is. I had overcome the Pouty Power products that blew up in Tiktok and a lip olives and shines from Saie, Gisou and Dior. But one day my geriatric millennial mouth fell. Now, in the early 1940s, I realized that if it really looked like I could see a shift. My line on the lips had lost the definition and volume.
So I made a reservation for a needle at Nejati clinic in Belgravia, London. Plus me in time for the summer, I say! But – and this is the main difference – it’s just acupuncture needles. “Unlike cosmetic fillers or surgical options, acupuncture provides a natural way of strengthening your lips without the risk of significant side effects,” explains the holistic expert and acupuncture Sarah Braddenits founder Bradden method. As we know, ancient Chinese practice includes the introduction of very fine needles into specific parts of the body. “Using specialized techniques. You can achieve more, softer and more hydrated lips by enhancing blood circulation and moisture levels.”
This is important because the structure, color, composition and physiology of the lips change as we grow older. Our internal youth factories have been frozen in collagen production. They stop doing so much elastin, the second of these miraculous proteins that keep our lips full. (Dehydration and sun exposure do not help here.)
Enter acupuncture needle. “Cosmetic acupuncture stimulates collagen production by introducing specialized needles to specific points on the face, neck and head to promote circulation and increase elastin volume,” Bradden says. “Like botox and fillers, it aims to minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, but it also deals with the underlying causes of these face concerns.” Studies have shown that as we get older, the Philtrum – the groove on the upper lip running on the nose – elongates and the width of the lip is widening, so that the bow of the cup falls flat and the border is less determined as fine rotary lines and grooves.
Bradden immediately faces this strategic needle placement in the lip area to enhance traffic. “Increased blood flow will give your lips a more fuller and more vibrant appearance and will provide natural hydration. Promoting the production of natural humidity, your lips will appear and feel softer.” Although there is no doubt that it hurts – quite, very momentary, as the lips have over a million nerve endings and no protective membrane – I am sure it is nothing like the pain of the lip filling where the cream is needed. And, I look like a pincushion, I really start to relax when the needles are in my ears, my cheeks and my jaw. I am also pierced in my ankles, “for ground”, and the crown of my head.
