How to get lip filler that looks natural

In most faces the lower lip is somewhat fuller than the upper — roughly one to one and a half in vertical height, though it varies with ethnicity and with individual anatomy and should never be applied as a formula. Lips that read as obviously treated have very often had that ratio inverted, with an upper lip built taller than the lower.

Width matters as much as height. A lip that has been given volume without regard for how far it extends toward the corners looks like a shape sitting on a face rather than part of one. Where the corners have dropped with age, addressing that does more for how the mouth reads than adding height ever will.

Projection is the third dimension, and the one most often ignored. Looking at a lip from the side tells you more than looking at it straight on, and a good injector will assess you in profile. Volume added without projection is what produces the flat, pushed-forward look people describe as duck lips.

A lost cupid's bow. The double curve at the centre of the upper lip is one of the most identifiable features of a mouth, and filling straight across it flattens it into a single arc. Restoring it afterwards is harder than preserving it.

A hard, over-defined border. A crisp line where the lip meets the skin can look striking in a photograph and artificial in person, because a real lip border is a gradient rather than an edge.

Loss of movement. Lips that stay the same shape whether you are smiling, talking or at rest have too much product in them for the tissue. This is the one people notice without being able to name, and it is a volume problem that no amount of skilful placement fixes.

The most reliable route to a natural result is a small first treatment, a full assessment at two to four weeks once the swelling has entirely gone, and a decision about more only then. Half a millilitre placed well and reviewed beats a full millilitre placed hopefully.

Swelling is the reason. Lips swell more than any other area of the face and they swell unevenly, so what you see in the first week is not the result. Deciding you need more on day three is deciding based on information you do not have yet.

Build across appointments rather than within one. Lips that have been developed gradually over a year look like lips; lips that were changed substantially in one sitting usually look changed, and the tissue has had no time to accommodate.

Bring photographs of your own lips from a few years ago rather than photographs of someone else's. Your lips at twenty-five are an achievable target and someone else's are not, because the tissue, the dental support and the surrounding face are all different.

Say what bothers you rather than what you want done. “My top lip disappears when I smile” is a brief an injector can work to; “I want 1ml” is a request for a quantity, and quantity is our decision to make together after the assessment, not the starting point.

Ask what they will not do. A practitioner who has clear limits — who will decline to keep adding, who will refuse a shape that will not suit you — is generally the one whose results look natural.

If your concern is that your top lip vanishes when you smile, and there is reasonable volume there at rest, a small amount of muscle relaxing to roll the lip outward may serve you better than adding product. It adds nothing and it is not permanent.

If the corners of your mouth turn down, or the lines around the mouth are the real issue, treating the lip body alone will not address it and can make the surrounding area look more tired by comparison.

And if you have had filler before and are unhappy with how it has settled, the honest first step is usually dissolving and starting again rather than adding on top of a result that is not working. Building on a poor foundation is how small problems become large ones.