This 'Lip Lift' Hack Mimics Fuller Lips — and TikTok Users Are Loving It

Surgery, Botox, fillers, and tattoos can all add height to your upper lip, but every cosmetic treatment comes with its downsides. Surgical lip lifts involve recovery, injectables require follow-ups for maintenance, and all of the interventions cost a pretty penny.

If you want to avoid cosmetic procedures — or you want to enhance the effects of any that you've already had — you shouldn't overlook the impact that strategic lip liner placement can have. At least according to Mario Dedivanovic, makeup artist to Kim Kardashian and founder of Makeup By Mario, who came up with a technique for mimicking the look of a lip lift with makeup. Grab your favorite lip pencil because beauty school is in session.

What Is the 'Lip Lift' Lip Liner Hack?

Dedivanovic coined the term last month while launching the Makeup By Mario Ultra Suede Sculpting Pencil (Buy It, $22, sephora.com) in his makeup line. Since then, the hack has spread on TikTok, where users have been demonstrating the hack in their posts. (

"There's this procedure that's all the rage right now, it's actually a plastic surgery and it's called the lip lift" says Dedivanovic in an Instagram Live where he demonstrates the technique. "And what it does is it makes people look a lot more youthful because it lifts the lip and shortens the distance between the lip and the nose...But you don't have to do that in surgery you can literally just apply a pencil." The goal is to create slightly fuller, more lifted lips.

How to Apply Lip Liner with the Technique

While your instinct might be to overline the entire border of your lips, that can end up visually weighing down your lips, explains Dedivanovic in the Instagram Live. Instead, he suggests overlining only the center portion of your lips, above your cupid's bow and underneath the same region of your lower lip.

When outlining the outer edges of your lips, though, you follow the natural line of your lip with the pencil rather than drawing outside the border. (Overlining this area is what's responsible for the aforementioned downward drag, explains Dedivanovic in his video.) From there, add additional shading within the very outer corners of your lips with the pencil. Finally, using a lip brush, blend the outline you just created toward the center of the lip to soften the lines. This step "creates natural dimension," and "makes the lips look super plump," explains Dedivanovic in the IG Live. To clean up or sharpen the lines you created, you can apply foundation or concealer around the perimeter of the lip liner outline you created. (

At that point, you can pat on your favorite lipstick and you're set. Genius, no? If you've been unsatisfied with past attempts at overlining your lips, you might want to follow TikTok's lead on this one.