Lip Blushing: What You Should Know

Pros

• Lip blushing can enhance the natural shape and tone of the lips, giving people with thin, pale, or ill-defined lips a look of greater fullness and contour.  It can also temporarily correct asymmetries. 
• The organic tattoo ink creates a your-lips-but-better stain that obviates the need for everyday lip color. (Bonus: no smudging, reapplying, or lipstick on your teeth!) 
• The procedure can create a variety of effects. For instance, an ombre lip blush saturates the outer edges of the lips the most, with a more gradual and transparent color towards the center. "Aquarelle" lips are more saturated in pigment in the center than the outer part.
• By not creating a sharp lip line, the effect is soft and natural-looking. 
• If you dislike the results of lip blushing, it can be covered with regular makeup. The pigments in a lip tattoo can also be removed with a laser treatment over a course of several sessions. 

Cons

• Lip blushing doesn’t deliver extreme shapes or dramatic colors, so the effect can be subtle. 
• The appearance of added volume is only an illusion: lip blushing cannot actually make your lips larger in size. However, the final result lasts longer than injectable lip fillers (2 to 5 years versus 3 to 12 months). 
• Results fade over time, requiring touch-ups every few years to keep the color fresh. 
• Even with topical anesthesia, lip blushing can be painful. Though one reviewer on RealSelf felt comfortable through the entire procedure, another reviewer reported the opposite experience. "I have a pretty high pain tolerance, especially if it's something I know will pay off in the end. But this hurts," she says. As a result of the pain, she didn't think she'd return for a follow-up appointment.
• While there’s no real downtime, tattooed lips can take up to 10 days to heal, so you’ll need to carefully schedule your lip blushing around important events.  
• Though they're rare, side effects are possible and may include an allergic reaction to the pigment, infection, scarring (especially if you're prone to keloids), and unsatisfactory results. A patch test can help reveal any pigment allergies.

• Average Cost:
• $309

• Range:
• $200 - $500

The price you pay will depend on the expertise of your provider, their location, and a few other key factors.

See our complete guide to lip blushing costs

To prevent bruising, you’ll want to avoid blood thinners like ibuprofen, aspirin, alcohol, fish oil, and vitamin E for several days leading up to your appointment.

If you have a history of cold sores caused by the herpes simplex virus, your aesthetician will prescribe an antiviral medication, like Valtrex or Zovirax, for you to take in the days before and after your procedure.

You may also want to pop a Tylenol (acetaminophen) an hour or so before go time, to lessen discomfort.

If you regularly get lip injections, schedule your lip blushing around your lip fillers. Some providers advise against getting lip injections four weeks before and after lip tattooing.

Lips will be swollen and tender for 24–48 hours or more after getting a lip blush tattoo, so plan on intermittent icing—10 minutes on, 10 minutes off—until symptoms subside. 

You'll want to plan on some social downtime: One reviewer on RealSelf said she initially looked like a circus clown.  

During the lip blush healing process, your lips will scab, flake, and feel extremely dry. That being said, lip blush aftercare is fairly straightforward—keep lips constantly coated in an occlusive lip balm or ointment, like Vaseline or Aquaphor, to ease dryness, and allow scabs to fall off naturally and in their own time, to ensure that the color takes evenly. 

Over this 3 to 10 days of scabbing and sloughing, your new lip color will reveal itself.

Your provider will give you a list of specific things to avoid during healing. Many recommend taking two weeks off from sweat-inducing workouts.

You can wash your face after lip blushing, but try to keep cleansers off tattooed lips for a week following your treatment. 

Providers sometimes suggest coming back for a touch-up 6 to 12 weeks later, to tweak the color or shape of your lips and blend away any imperfections, but it’s not always necessary.