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Back in 2015, Kylie Jenner was spotted with noticeably puffed up lips and even though the Kardashian/Jenner family denied she had had anything done to her lips at first and claimed it was just an illusion created by makeup, she eventually admitted to getting fillers.
"It's just an insecurity of mine, and it's what I wanted to do," she said in an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians at the time.
They’ve now become part of her signature look (and probably the reason she’s sold so many of her Kylie lip kits). Which is why fans were shocked when Kylie recently posted an Instagram with her BFF Anastasia Karanikolaou with dramatically different lips.
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"She looks like the old Kylie here idk why," one fan wrote. Obviously referring to Kylie before she got fillers and Kylie actually replied, saying “I got rid of all my filler.”
But now the reason for Kylie getting rid of her fillers has been revealed and it's all to do with her baby daughter, Stormi.
An unnamed source told Entertainment Tonight that during her pregnancy, Kylie wasn’t getting her fillers regularly and wasn’t wearing a lot of makeup. She apparently “really fell in love with the natural look” so she decided to embrace it.The source also said that Kylie realised she was a mother first and it was a big reason for wanting to look more natural and that she plays with the more natural look when she’s at home with Stormi and the full glam look when she’s doing anything for Kylie cosmetics.
So it’s actually possible to get rid of filler?
We spoke to Dr Graham Duncombe of the Renewal Institute, which has 16 branches countrywide, about getting this procedure reversed and he, not only, says it’s possible, but it’s also very easy and safe.
“With the hyaluronic fillers, it’s completely reversible. In the old days when we used to use collagen products and more synthetic products, it wasn’t reversible. So you would inject the filler and then would have to wait until the body had broken it down naturally, which can take a really long time. Now with these fillers, they’re enzymes that your body actually makes all the time to keep your collagen balanced and when you concentrate that enzyme and inject it into a filler, it can actually break the filler down. It literally takes a few moments,” says Dr Duncombe.
So what are lip fillers exactly?
They’re a lip volumising product that you inject with a very fine needle to enhance the volume of the lips. The amount injected depends on what the patient wants: more definition, better symmetry or volume.
Dr Duncombe explains, “We normally introduce lip fillers in syringes of 1ml of filler each and these hyaluronic acid fillers behave like a sponge; they actually attract moisture from the surrounding tissue and that causes them to inflate.”
Some fillers can inflate up to double the size once they’re stabilised, which is why there are different types of fillers. The more they expand the longer they last. “Most fillers around the mouth, due to the movements of speaking and eating, can last up to 6 to 9 months, but if you volumise them further, they can last up to a year,” says Dr Duncombe.
Treatments start at around R3000 and go up to about R6000. Dr Duncombe says you don’t need a lot of filler since the lip tissue is so delicate and spongy that the volume is boosted very effectively with a small amount.
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But is it painful?
Dr Duncombe says the amount of pain you feel is like tugging a bit of skin off your lip and feeling a sharp sting. There’s some anaesthetic in the filler and some doctors give dental blockers like when you’re at the dentist so it takes about two hours to wear off during which you might feel weird and like you’re drooling, but you’re probably not.
It takes about 30 minutes to do the procedure. And there are two techniques doctors use. One is called the direct needle approach where they inject with a tiny needle into the area you want to volumise, and the other technique is where they go along the border of the lip with a long black instrument called a cannula. Both can bruise, but the needle has more potential to bruise than the cannula. Dr Duncombe says that he finds that if you’re sculpting the lips, using the needle effect gives you “a much more natural look.”
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And in case you’re still worried if the procedure is painful, Dr Duncombe assured me that they do everything they can to ensure that there’s minimal pain. “When we do the procedure, we use three numbing devices; a topical anaesthetic cream, a vibrational device that confuses the nerve impulses and a lot of ice. The ice helps with bruising prevention. So when we do that, patients are very surprised at how painless it is.”
So once all of that wears off, there’s a bit of swelling and tenderness for about 24 hours, but thereafter it feels like normal lip tissue and you won’t notice any filler, it will just feel like your lips, only more enhanced.
Dr Duncombe says they do one every few hours and that it’s not just women who have it done either. He also says that social media has a big part to play in this as many people are looking at the people they idolise on Instagram and think they want that too.
So who would he recommend has this treatment done?
“Anyone who has asymmetrical lips, and then anyone who is starting to lose their lip volume because the lips have very little protection against ultraviolet radiation from the sun or anyone who just wants to boost your lips and make them a focus feature.”
So if you’re thinking about getting lip fillers a la Kylie, then you now know it’s completely safe to do and if you’re not happy with the way it looks, it’s completely reversible.
To get more information about where you can get fillers and about Skin Renewal, visit their website here.
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