I’m not sure that there’s ever been a time in history when people have paid so much attention to their lips.
Brows had their moment in the ’90s and made a comeback within the last few years—from ultra-thin and overplucked to bushy “boy brows”—and skin has undergone eons of extreme beauty trends, from historical nobility coating their faces in lead-laced white powders to today’s glass skin. Now, I’m no beauty historian, but I think it’s safe to say that lips finally got their moment in the limelight when Kylie Jenner rang in her King Kylie era circa 2016 with a drastically fuller pout. Suddenly, everyone and their mothers were clamoring for a Kylie Lip Kit, a shot glass (let us never resurrect that lip-sucking trend), or a filler appointment.
While there was and still is a demand for lip filler, makeup artists have become craftier at faking a fuller pout with the right makeup products and tools—no needles necessary. Because, let’s face it, filler can be expensive, painful, and more maintenance-heavy than lip contouring, the latest lip-enhancing trick in the book.
What Is Lip Contouring?
“Lip contouring is a lip-lining technique that creates the illusion of larger, fuller lips using a cool-toned liner,” says celebrity makeup artist Kasey Spickard, the talent behind Ciara Miller’s and Tayshia Adams’s glossy, full pouts. “It uses the same principles as face contouring, mimicking the natural shadows of a fuller lip.”
Why cool tones, you may ask? Well, it’s no different than contouring your cheekbones or jawline with face makeup, which often has a cooler disposition in order to mimic a shadow. When you use a slightly cool, your-skin-but-deeper lip liner (or your go-to contour product with a small brush) to emphasize where a natural shadow would fall on fuller lips, your pout will immediately look more pronounced.
Is Lip Contour the Same as Lip Liner?
There are thousands of TikTok tutorials that can teach you how to overline your lips, but contour is not to be confused with excessive lip liner. While lip liner is a product that you use to define and enhance the shape of your lips, lip contouring is a technique, and it often does involve lip liner—just not the pink, red, or colorful kinds that you’d use to match your lipstick.
“Contour for the lip is not the same as a liner, but you can achieve lip contouring with lip liner,” explains celebrity makeup artist and brand founder Katie Jane Hughes. “Typically, lip contouring is done with face contour products at the mouth to increase the look of volume,” she adds. The artist behind so many of Dua Lipa’s and Hailey Bieber’s luscious lip looks, the MUA has a few tricks up her sleeve when it comes to makeup optical illusions.
The idea is to place your cool-toned lip liner or contour product where shadows would normally be cast—above the Cupid’s bow and below the fullest point of your bottom lip, underneath the center, where your lip juts out above your chin. However, you don’t want the defined lines that standard lip liners impart. Instead, these shadows should be thoroughly blended so that they offer the slightest bit of definition in a diffused, natural-looking way.
Below, we asked Hughes and Spickard to walk us through what the lip-contouring process would look like on our own.
How to Contour Your Lips
1. Prep Your Base
The first order of business will always be to hydrate your lips, which can be done with a balm or oil—though I prefer to apply a lip mask (Laneige’s Lip Sleeping Mask is my years-long favorite) approximately an hour before doing my makeup to let the product absorb. Just remember to blot off your lips before starting to contour, or the product might slip right off.
“I like to start by applying whatever residual foundation or concealer [is] on my beauty sponge onto the lips and then apply a light layer of powder,” says Spickard. “This way, the lip products have something to grip onto.”
By forming a base, you are essentially creating the canvas that your contouring medium of choice can stick onto—like your favorite contour stick holding onto your go-to foundation.
2. Carve Your Shape
“Then, using a cool/gray-toned lip liner, I focus on overlining at the top of the Cupid's bow and below the center bottom lip and then buffing [it] out with my finger or a dense eye shadow brush,” Spickard explains. “You want to focus the lip contouring in these areas and not anywhere through the remainder of the lip line, or you'll look clownish.” E.g., keep it to the center of the lips—above and below—but do not extend it to the outer lines of the lip.
3. Add Dimension
Now that your upper and lower lips are starting to look extra pouty, it’s time to bring the rest of your lips into the look. “I blend this overlining downward onto the lip to create depth and the illusion of a ‘bigger shadow,’ which is going to look like fuller lips,” says Spickard, describing the downward blend of the product versus outward.
Hughes then recommends staying within your lip line but deepening the dimension of the corners of your lips. “Adding little shadows on the pigmented part of your mouth at the corners also can add to the volume effect,” she states.
4. Apply Your Lip
Your lips have officially been contoured—now it’s time to add your lip liner, lipstick, and/or gloss like usual, “blending it lightly into the lip contour” to give it a natural effect, à la Spickard.
Tips and Tricks
While this technique is certainly less painful (and expensive) than lip filler, it’s definitely not as long-lasting. To prevent too many touchups throughout the day, the pros have a few words of wisdom for all-day wear.
- Use a sealant: “To ensure super-long wear, I will take a light layer of Duraline over the top of my lip contour before my lipstick and gloss,” says Spickard. Duraline, a clear liquid that can be mixed into or applied directly on top of makeup products, acts as a sealant and can be layered atop your contour for all-day, no-smudge wear.
- Apply sparingly: Hughes advises you to not overdo it on the contour, no matter how tempting it may seem. “Make sure not to go too dark using your contour or bronzer,” she chides.
- Powder, powder powder: “If you're using a cream product, make sure to set it with a face powder,” she advises. Though adding a powder to your lips may sound drying, it’s a pro MUA-approved hack that will keep your lip products locked in place all day long.
Shop the Technique
“I absolutely love MAC Stone for lip contouring,” says Spickard.
For deeper tones, try this umber shade that has cool undertones.
Hughes recommends this Aussie brand for its Power Lips that offer a realistic-looking blur.
“Milk Makeup’s contour sticks are amazing too,” says Hughes.
Our editors couldn’t be more obsessed with Hailey Bieber’s newest blurred-lines lippies that are perfect for subtle contouring.
Also huge fans of this top-tier contour stick.
Is it just us, or is this contour stick perfectly shaped for lips?
Toasted is a great shade for fair skin, and But First, Coffee is a must-have for deep skin tones.
If you don’t want to splurge on the Victoria Beckham stick, this $6 dual-ended contour and highlight stick is a great alternative.
Blend with precision with this small, dense eye shadow brush.
Who's Who
- Katie Jane Hughes is a celebrity makeup artist and founder of the beauty brand KJH.Brand in New York. Her clients include Dua Lipa, Hailey Bieber, and more.
- Kasey Spickard is a New York–based celebrity makeup artist who regularly works with Bravo and The Bachelorette stars, including Ciara Miller and Tayshia Adams.
