The main reason that lips begin to thin and lose their natural, full shape is due to a localized depletion of collagen. As we get older, the rate at which our body produces this vital protein begins its slow harsh demise. Once men and women reach their 20s, collagen is lost at a rate of about 1%-2% per year.
With regard to the women, Caucasian lips were found to be thinnest, with the smallest upper lip height and volume. Korean women had the highest ratio of upper lip to lower lip. Chinese women had the thickest lower lip, as well as the greatest upper lip volume.
Thin Lips:
These lips usually indicate a non-social personality and someone who likes to stay in control. They are known to have a high drive to succeed and can be ruthless to get there. They have a soft side that they rarely reveal, and can tend to be closed off to letting people in.
A study of 1,000 people in 35 countries revealed that the perfect lip shape is all down to symmetry. More than 60% of respondents thought a 1:1 ratio between the upper and lower lip was the most attractive shape. A cosmetic surgeon in London said a heavily-defined cupid's bow is the most-requested lip feature.
Cupid is the rarest of all lip forms. Cupid has a powerful, youthful appearance, and is very prominent in pre-adolescent females. Due to the natural growth process in a female's lips, the fullness of the lips fill in the middle first, then the sides.
"A woman who has large lips, suggesting a strong mating potential, with average length and width ratios will always be more attractive than a woman with narrow lips and average length and width ratios," wrote the researchers.
Most people have some sort of Cupid's bow, though some are more pronounced than others. Because of corrective surgery, people born with a cleft lip may have one side of the bow look more pronounced than the other, and people who have lip fillers may not have as pronounced of a bow.
Scientists have found that the size of somebody's lips plays a key role in determining whether they are sexually attractive to other people. Basically, the bigger the better - but, in a warning to those who are thinking about opting for surgical enhancement, it is possible for somebody to have lips that are too big.
Andrea Ivanova is 24 years old and has spent most of her adult life fashioning herself into the “Balkan Barbie.” And with 26 lip injections, she boasts of having the “biggest lips in the world” — but she isn't done yet. Ivanova has spent thousands of dollars on these cosmetic body modifications.
Another new lip filler trend is Cherry Lips. This technique adds more volume to the middle areas of the lips to create a unique cherry-like shape. The added volume makes the lips resemble a pair of cherries hanging horizontally from the corners of the lips, which is where this lip filler trend gets its name.
A study of 1,000 people in 35 countries revealed that the perfect lip shape is all down to symmetry. More than 60% of respondents thought a 1:1 ratio between the upper and lower lip was the most attractive shape. A cosmetic surgeon in London said a heavily-defined cupid's bow is the most-requested lip feature.
As a normal part of aging, the upper lip thins, flattens, and can appear to fold over the teeth, leading to the appearance that the upper lip is kind of disappearing! Lips get their shape in part from collagen, and as we age, we produce less of this collagen, and the lips start to lose their plumpness.
“Do lips get thinner with age?” In a word – yes. As we age, we begin to lose bone density, which not only creates a more sunken look in the face, but it the lips are less supported as well. This bone loss causes the lips to roll inward and as a result, they appear thinner than before.
But did you know that this process also causes our lips to thin? In fact, our lips start slowly losing thickness after the age of 16! And over the next 20 or 30 years, the loss of collagen also causes the V-shape of our upper lips to flatten, while the corners of our mouths slightly turn down.
The Cupid's bow is a facial feature where the double curve of a human upper lip is said to resemble the bow of Cupid, the Roman god of erotic love. The peaks of the bow coincide with the philtral columns giving a prominent bow appearance to the lip.
Overview. The philtrum is the midline groove in the upper lip that runs from the top of the lip to the nose. The way the philtrum appears is determined genetically.
The human philtrum, bordered by ridges, also is known as the infranasal depression, but has no apparent function.
Normal, healthy lip color varies, depending on skin color and other factors, but should fall in the reddish-pink-to-brown range.
In the study, which was published in the Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, more than 60 per cent of respondents chose the 1:1 ratio between the upper and lower lip as the most attractive shape.
Lip reduction without surgery
While surgery is the only definitive way you can decrease volume in your lips, there are alternative methods to help reduce the appearance of lip size. Some possibilities include: using dermal fillers in your cheeks to add volume in the upper part of your face.