Alice’s ‘Less Is More’ Lip Filler

So…I had my lips done!! Big news, for me at least. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know I’ve been fretting about my lips for a while, and now I’ve had a touch of filler in and around them. In short, I’m thrilled with the result. You can see the details of the treatment in the video below, including the what and the why.

Why did I want filler in my lips?

Frankly, my lips were showing their age, and since I last had a fraction of filler in them in mid 2021, they’ve become flatter and lost volume. Without smoothing balms, they look dry and wrinkly, like dessicated earthworms. They were turning in a bit rather than out.  (What do I mean? That old-lady pursed-mouth look!)

Also, the philtrum, (the bit between my nose and upper lip that ought to look like a groove between two raised columns above the peaks of the cupid’s bow), has lengthened and flattened with age, so my upper lip drops down over my upper teeth. All perfectly normal and natural but I don’t like it, and it makes those little ‘barcode’ lip lines, the ones along my top lip, all the more visible. Whenever I’m chatting with practitioners, I can’t help noticing their eyes roving around my face, taking in all the details, and they often come to rest on my upper lip and say, “You know, I could really help you there…”

What took me so long?

But I’ve held off, unsure about whether to start by trying a ‘lip flip’ – that’s a bit of toxin to relax the muscles around the upper lip, so that it turns slightly up-and-out rather than inward. Or, whether to experiment with a lip laser treatment (which is said to build collagen in the lips, but I’m not convinced).

The one thing I know that works well is filler, but it would need to be sensitively done, by expert hands because a) overdone lips look ridiculous on an older face, b) you’ll all give me grief about it if it all looks wrong and c) I’ve been told by one expert injector that with my already-lengthened upper lip, filler will just make it stick forward which won’t be the result I want…

So what DID I want for my lips?

“I just want them to look better!” I said, explaining all the above to Dr Kuldeep Minocha. He runs the L’Art clinic in South Kensington, London, teaches other practitioners globally, and is well known for his subtle, less-is-more approach to using filler. “Maybe more hydration than volume? And something to tilt up my upper lip a fraction. But nothing too much.”

Dr Minocha agreed that filler would help to make my lips look more hydrated. He suggested balancing out the asymmetric bits, then using filler to support the marionette lines that run down from the corners of my mouth, and, also to rebuild my philtral columns above the upper lip. That would make that area look a tad shorter, and also turn my upper lip out a fraction.

Was I worried about having filler in my lips?

No, because I was in excellent hands. I know there’s a huge amount of anxiety around fillers at the moment and I know I’ve contributed to this when I wrote about having an MRI of my face in 2021, which showed loads of filler left from a treatment almost four years before. But I also know that appropriately treatment with filler is the only thing that’s going to give my lips the boost I was after.

Did it hurt?

No, because I’d had numbing cream.

Am I pleased with the result?

Yes, I’m ridiculously pleased with the results every time I catch a glimpse of my face in a mirror. My lips look miles better – better shaped, better balanced, less dry – and the whole area around them, what injectors call the perioral area, looks better too.

That’s thanks to a) restoring those ‘philtral columns’ that run down from my nose, and b) strategic placement of filler in my marionette lines. It looks subtle and natural and appropriate, completely in keeping with the rest of my face. Plus, having the product in my lips has made them look a bit pinker, thanks to the hydration.

Which lip filler did I have?

Dr Minocha used Restylane Kysse, which is soft, pliable and stretchy and specially designed for the lips. For the bits above and below my mouth where he needed to add a touch more structure, he used Restylane Classic, which is a bit firmer.

How much filler did I have in my lips?

Dr Minocha used just less than 1ml  – for all of this. Almost 0.5ml of Restylane Kysse in my lips, and 0.5ml of Restylane Classic to make those philtral columns and to prop up my marionette lines.

What does it feel like?

My lips just feel normal. I can’t feel the filler unless I prod about in my lip tissue for it and I was careful not to do that for the first week while it settled – though it’s very hard not to keep stroking those philtral columns, just to check they’re still there…

How long will it last?

The product should last for the best part of a year. It depends how fast it breaks down. You might think, because that MRI scan I had in 2021 showed a lot of filler left in my face from a treatment almost four years before that, that my body tends to hang onto filler, but it doesn’t tend to hang around that long in my lips.

What does this cost?

A consultation with Dr Minocha is £275. Lip filler costs from £550. Treating the lips and the perioral area, as he did here, costs £950.

This article is written in partnership with Galderma