9 Different Types of Lip Shape + How To Find Yours
Discover the 9 different types of lips and learn how to identify, line and define your lip shape for a perfect pout.
- 23rd February 2024
- By Charlotte Tilbury
8 minute read
Discover the 9 different types of lips and learn how to identify, line and define your lip shape for a perfect pout.
8 minute read
Darlings, everyone’s facial features are different and unique! One of the most defining features of your face is your lips – you use them to smile, to laugh, to kiss, and coat in pout-perfecting lip products! Knowing your lip shape can help you to learn lip makeup techniques that will help you to perfect your lipstick look. Discover the 9 common types of lip shape, then use my easy tips and tricks to discover which one is pouting back at you in the mirror!
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When lips are large and wide set, they are known as full lips. Full lips are the biggest and most prominent lip shape you can have. They tend to have a plump, pouty appearance and are equally full on the top and bottom.
If you have naturally full lips, you can accentuate their fullness by lining your natural lip shape with a darker shade of lip liner, then applying a lighter shade of lipstick to the centre of your lips and blotting it out with your ring finger. Even though full lips are naturally voluptuous, you can still overline them to exaggerate their appearance further; just take your lip liner slightly outside the line of your lips for an even fuller-looking effect.
Unlike round lips, wide lips are characterised by the contrast between their length and width. Look at the distance between the corners of your mouth, then compare it to the distance between the tip of your Cupid’s bow and the underside of your bottom lip – if your lips are significantly wider, this is called having wide lips.
If you want to create a more balanced, full lip shape, take your Lip Cheat lip liner and softly overline your Cupid’s bow and bottom lip, focusing on the centre to create a fuller-looking pout.
The smallest lip shape of them all is thin lips. Thin lips are characterised by slim top and bottom lips that are much less apparent on the face, sometimes with a less-defined lip line.
It can be challenging to apply lipstick onto thin lips as there is less surface area for your lipstick to swipe onto. I recommend using my Lip Brush to apply your favourite shade of lipstick – it’s a square-tipped brush that allows for a more precise application. If you want your thin lips to look bigger, reach for my Lip Cheat to overdraw them, skimming slightly outside the natural line of your lips with lip liner will help to cheat the appearance of fuller, wider-looking lips!
Downturned lips are characterised by a slanted appearance at the corners of the mouth. A downturned lip shape can be genetic but can also sometimes be a result of overactive facial movements such as frowning. This lip shape also becomes more prevalent with age as the skin naturally loses its elasticity and begins to droop.
You can give downturned lips a lift effect using concealer, darlings. Take Charlotte’s Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer and swipe in diagonal, upward motions at the corners of the mouth – this will help to lift and brighten the look of your face. Use my Hollywood Complexion Brush to blend out your concealer, then apply lip liner and lipstick.
Tilbury Tip: Make sure your lip liner angles upwards at the corners of your bottom lip to create a lifted-looking lip shape. You can achieve this by stopping your lip liner before you reach the true corner of your mouth to create the illusion of a lip lift.
The defining feature of heart-shaped lips is a prominent V-shaped Cupid’s bow that resembles the cushiony tip of a love heart. Heart-shaped lips look naturally pursed and often are fuller than they are wide.
When applying lipstick to heart-shaped lips, be careful not to blur your heart-shaped lip line with a messy application. I suggest using a lip liner to follow the natural, sweetheart shape of your upper lip, then gliding on your lipstick to complete your love-heart lip look.
Bow-shaped lips take their name from Cupid’s bow and arrow. When the top lip resembles an archer’s bow with a delicate, U-shaped ridge in the centre, it is referred to as bow shaped. Bow-shaped lips are generally fuller in the middle than they are at the sides and are coveted for their defined-looking Cupid’s bow.
Darlings, bow-shaped lips are one of the rarest lip shapes you can have! Always embrace your nature-blessed lip shape, using lip liner and lipstick to enhance your natural lip line. If you’d like to make your bow-shaped lips look fuller, try softly overlining at the outer corners with my Lip Cheat to help them appear less narrow.
To decide whether you have round lips, think of a perfect circle. If your lips are an equal distance apart both sideways and lengthways and create an ‘O’ shape then you are likely to have round lips. Round lips can be smaller or larger but will always have a full, circular look to them that makes them unique.
Round lips have a distinctive shape but can sometimes lack dimension, so you can use makeup to cheat this, darling! When applying lip liner and lipstick to round lips, use a darker shade of lip liner in the corners of the mouth to softly contour the look of your lips. Another way to give your round lips a more dimensional look is to create a more exaggerated-looking Cupid’s bow that helps to add definition to their naturally rounded appearance.
It’s very common for your top or bottom lip to be fuller than the other, darlings. If your upper lip is slightly fuller than your lower lip, this is called having a heavy upper lip. A fuller upper lip is more prominent on the face, with the centre and Cupid’s bow being the fullest portion of the lips.
If your lips are top-heavy, I recommend using my Lip Cheat lip liner to accentuate the shape of your Cupid’s bow. Then, if you would like to achieve a more balanced lip shape, slightly overdraw your bottom lip to create a fuller-looking shape while being careful not to transfer any lip product onto your chin.
Conversely to the fuller upper lip shape, you can also have a fuller lower lip shape. Having a fuller lower lip means that your bottom lip looks larger than your top lip. A fuller lower lip often has a pouty appearance while the top lip is thinner and less prominent.
A heavy lower lip looks fabulous with a slick of mirror-shine lip gloss like my Collagen Lip Bath! If you want to achieve a more balanced lip look, I suggest slightly overlining your upper lip with my Lip Cheat lip liner to define the look of your Cupid’s bow and create greater symmetry between your top and bottom lip.
The best place to start when finding your lip shape is to decide whether your lips are full or thin. If your lips are on the larger side then you have full lips, and if they are on the narrow side then you have thin lips. If you feel that your lips are somewhere in between, consider the questions below.
If your top and bottom lip are not equal in shape, then you have a top or bottom-heavy lip shape. Look at your lips and decide whether your top lip is notably bigger than your bottom lip, or vice versa. A larger top lip means you have a heavy upper lip, and a larger bottom lip means you have a heavy lower lip.
Fullness refers to the dimension of your top and bottom lips, whereas wideness refers to the distance between the corners of your mouth. If your lips are wider than they are full then you have wide lips, and if your lips are equally full and wide like a circle, you have round lips.
Your Cupid’s bow is the section at the centre of your top lip. Looking at your Cupid’s bow, you’ll be able to assess whether you have a heart-shaped or bow-shaped lip shape. Heart-shaped lips have a definitive V shape at the centre of the top lip, and bow-shaped lips have a wave-like shape that resembles an archer’s bow.
It’s easy to tell if your lips are downturned; look into the mirror with a natural expression and observe the corners of your mouth – if they point downwards then you have a downturned lip shape. It’s important not to smile when doing this so that you get an accurate view of your lips.
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Darlings, every type of lip shape is beautiful and will look even more gorgeous with a slick of lipstick! Now that you’ve discovered the different lip shapes and how to find yours, put my tips and tricks into practice to perfectly line your lips for your lip shape!
With over 30 years experience, Charlotte Tilbury MBE is the world's number 1 makeup artist and British beauty entrepreneur. Charlotte established Charlotte Tilbury Beauty in 2013, which is now a record-breaking beauty brand that has won over 400 awards.
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