Barcode Lip Lines

Are barcode lip lines the same as lipstick lines?

Yes, barcode lines are often known as ‘lipstick lines’ because lipstick has a tendency to ‘bleed’ into these little lines, which is really annoying and not a good look

What causes barcode lip lines?

In a nutshell: age and abuse.

You start to notice barcode lip lines as the skin ages, the collagen degrades, and the levels of elastin in the skin drop, so that the patch of skin above the upper lip — which is always being stretched when we open our mouths or smile — becomes less able to spring back into shape and starts to collapse into tiny wrinkles.

Barcode lines tend to be much more obvious in smokers because smoking is appallingly bad for directly ageing the skin. Smoking will affect the skin all over your body, but these lines are some of the first to show up on the face, which is why they’re often thought of as smoker’s lines.

Another reason that barcode lines are more visible in smokers is that pursing the lips around a cigarette or holder puts extra stress on the skin of the lips. So do other pursed-lip activities, such as drinking through a straw, whistling, or taking duck-face selfies.

Barcode lines also show up more as lip volume decreases, because the body of the lip is no longer holding the skin taut, so it sags a little. For that reason, lip enhancement of any sort in the upper lip usually softens the look of these tiny vertical lines.

Can I use retinol to treat upper lip lines?

Yes, retinol can help to treat upper lip lines by stimulating cell renewal and collagen production. Prescription-strength products, such as tretinoin (Retin-A), will have a greater effect. Consult your go-to aesthetic practitioner for advice about which product to use and how frequently to apply it.

How much filler should I use for smoker’s lines?

I’d leave that for your practitioner to decide. How much filler you’ll need to treat smoker’s lines depends on how deep the lines are and how your practitioner is treating them.

There are two main ways of treating smoker’s lines with filler. The first way is to inject small amounts of filler very precisely along the lines and along the lip border, but not plump up the lips themselves. The trouble with this is that it has to be done with a very lightweight filler, so that it doesn’t make the area look lumpy, and it won’t last very long.

The second way is to plump up the lips with filler, which stretches the skin and so reduces the lip lines. This approach uses more filler than injecting just the lines and the lip border. Some practitioners combine both approaches.

What is the best treatment for upper lip lines?

There is a variety of ways to treat the upper lip lines. Here are two of the most popular and effective:

• Profhilo, and other injectable moisturer treatments, can hydrate the skin from within. They also encourage the skin to regenerate from within and produce more of its own collagen (which gives it firmness) and elastin (which gives it springiness) and even tighten the skin a little, all of “https://thetweakmentsguide.com/tweakments/profhilowhich is great news for reducing the appearance of lip lines.
• Skin tightening treatments, such as radiofrequency, or a heat treatment, such as Tixel, have a direct effect on the skin. The heat generated in the skin by these treatments makes the collagen contract — so you get a small shrink-wrapping effect — then, over time, the treated area produces more of its own collagen, which will strengthen the skin and makes those annoying barcode lip lines less apparent.

What other ways can you treat barcode lip lines?

There’s no single answer to this question, because it depends how bad the upper lip lines are and how you want your lips and face to look.

Usually, the best place to start is with skincare and see how much difference it makes for you. Skincare is especially important if your upper lip lines haven’t yet appeared and your goal is to delay their appearance as much as possible.

Follow these three essential skincare steps:

1. Keep your skin hydrated. This will help to minimise upper lip lines once they’ve appeared and to keep them at bay if they haven’t yet appeared.
2. Apply a moisturiser once or twice every day. If you decide to apply moisturiser only once per day, apply it in the morning so that it can give your skin the most protection against the rigours of the day.
3. Protect your skin, including your lips, with high-factor SPF.

If skincare gets you the results you need with your lip lines – great, and keep up the good work! If not, you can escalate with a wide variety of treatments, including the following:

• • toxins injections to relax the muscles that purse the lips.
  • Microneedling to stimulate collagen production.
  • Laser resurfacing to promote new skin growth.
  • Dermal fillers to plump your lip borders, your lips, or both.

Read the rest of this page for more information on toxins, filler, and laser treatment.

Can I use toxins to help upper lip lines?

Yes, toxins can help to reduce upper lip lines. As you may already know, injecting toxins into muscles has the effect of temporarily weakening or even paralysing them. So, toxins injected into the muscles around your mouth can relax the muscles somewhat, which reduces the lip lines that the muscles produce. toxins may also help prevent the lip lines from becoming deeper.

Your practitioner will use only a minimal dose of toxins to relax the muscles that produce the lip lines. Too much toxins, and you might be mumbling for months, as well as unable to purse your lips.

This is also the treatment that practitioners do to create a ‘lip flip’ effect, because weakening the orbicularis oris, the muscle around the mouth, encourages the border of the top lip to roll upwards a little, which makes it look larger and can help to disguise the barcode lip lines.

Does laser work with upper lip lines?

Yes, laser resurfacing can help reduce upper lip lines and wrinkles around the mouth. Fractional lasering fires the laser beam through a grid to create micro-channels of skin damage, which stimulate the growth of new skin.

Many practitioners use Erbium lasers for this type of resurfacing, as Erbium lasers produce fewer side effects than CO2 lasers.

What does it mean to have lines on my lips?

To be frank, lines on your lips indicate that time is catching up with your skin. As you likely know, your body’s collagen production declines with age, particularly after 30, so by the time you reach 40 your skin is getting much less collagen to keep it firm, smooth, and elastic. The elasticity aspect matters because your lips are so often in motion, talking, eating, stretching and contracting all the time. Your skin also produces less oil as it ages, so it gets drier. The effects of less collagen and less oil are compounded by ‘photoageing’ caused by sun exposure if you don’t protect your lips with SPF all the time.

So, sooner or later, lines are likely to appear on your lips. You might want to take any of several messages from this unwanted phenomenon:

• • • It’s time to improve your skincare regime.
    • You may want to augment your skincare regime with aesthetic treatments, such as toxins, fillers, or laser resurfacing.
    • If you smoke, this would be a really good time to stop.
    • If you have other habits that involve pursing your lips frequently – like using a straw for every drink or whistling all the time – and this is a big concern for you, then you can make a change to your behaviour.

What is the best lipstick for lip lines?

Liquid lipstick is usually better at staying in place than regular, stick-type lipstick. Experiment with different types of liquid lipstick to find one that works for you and doesn’t melt or bleed.

Make sure you give your lipstick time to dry fully. That means not eating or drinking anything for ten minutes after applying the lipstick.

How can I stop lipstick spreading into lip lines?

One of the problems with having vertical lip lines is that your lipstick will look messy if it spreads into them. To avoid your lipstick bleeding like this, try the following moves:

• • • Moisturise your lips.
    • Exfoliate your lips and apply lip balm to them to seal in the moisture.
    • Apply lip liner around your lips. I find I need to do this with my mouth half-open, to get a smooth line all the way around the edge.
    • Apply the lipstick. As I mentioned in the previous section, you may want to try liquid lipstick. If you need to apply a second coat of lipstick, blot your lips with a tissue before applying the second coat.
    • Give the lipstick time to dry and settle into place.

If the above doesn’t stop lipstick spreading into your lip lines, you can add one other move: try using a clear lip liner to draw a line around the outside edge of your lips. This won’t show under make-up, but will act as a barrier to keep the lipstick on the lips and prevent it creeping upwards into the lip lines.

What can I do at home to reduce or remove upper lip lines?

Apart from practising good skincare – wash, exfoliate, hydrate, moisturise, use sunscreen – you can use various moves at home to reduce your upper lip lines. Here are four suggestions:

• • • Try a home-use device such as the NuFace Fix, a small pen-shaped device which puts small electrical microcurrents through the area it is working on. These improve the circulation in the area and, used with a hydrating serum, can soften the appearance of lip lines, though only temporarily.
    • Using a home-use LED light mask will soften the appearance of wrinkles, including lip lines, if you use it regularly enough. The CurrentBody Skin mask claims a substantial reduction in wrinkle depth if used regularly over the course of four weeks.
    • Increase your intake of antioxidants. Don’t go head-over-heels for the latest superfood claims, but do eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, including as full a rainbow of colours as possible. These help your skin to work and repair itself to its best ability.
    • Relax. Stress does nothing to smooth your skin.