Permanent make-up — lips

Permanent make-up on lips is not about a made-up mouth. It is about giving back the colour and the readable edge the lips once had — with age most lips lose pigment and the border softens, and pigmentation brings both back.

The usual technique is a full wash of colour, known as lip blush or aquarelle lips, where the shade saturates the whole lip and fades softly into the border. The outline is never drawn as a hard line — that ages badly and announces itself as pigment.

Who it is for

• Your lips are pale and merge into your face without lipstick.
• The border has softened and lipstick bleeds.
• Your lips are uneven and you want to balance them visually.
• You have a scar on or around the lip.
• You would rather not put lipstick on every day but still want colour.

Pigment does not enlarge the lip the way filler does. It can make it look a touch fuller by carrying colour right to the border, but it adds no volume.

How the appointment goes

1. Choosing the shade, against your natural lip colour and your skin's undertone. The shade shifts as it heals, so it is mixed for the result, not for how it looks on the day.
2. Drawing the outline and agreeing on it.
3. Numbing. Lips are more sensitive than brows, so the cream is topped up as we work.
4. Pigmentation, roughly two hours.
5. Aftercare instructions and a healing balm.

How lips heal

Lips heal more visibly than anywhere else. Expect swelling for the first 24 hours, then dryness and peeling for four to seven days. The colour can look patchy while that happens — it is normal, and the final shade settles after three to four weeks.

A word on cold sores. Pigmenting the lip can trigger an outbreak in anyone who has ever had one. If you are prone to them, take an antiviral for a few days beforehand as advised by your doctor — otherwise the pigment can heal unevenly in that spot and need a touch-up.

How long it lasts

Usually two to four years, depending on your skin. Lips lose pigment sooner than brows, because the mucosa renews faster. The touch-up four to six weeks later is part of the treatment.

When we cannot do the treatment

Alongside the usual reasons — pregnancy and breastfeeding, uncontrolled diabetes, isotretinoin treatment, clotting disorders, blood thinners without your doctor's approval — an active cold sore or any injury to the lip rules the appointment out. In that case we wait until it has healed.