Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge?!?!

Happy Hump Day everyone! So, I'm sure you've all heard about the viral trend that is taking over Facebook, Instagram and Vine at the moment. Yes, the one that involves sucking your lips in a shot glass for a couple of minutes, and releasing them to see a waterfall of drool and a massively expanded pout. That's, right, the #kyliejennerlipchallenge.

If you've been living under a rock on Mars and don't know who Kylie Jenner is, she's the 17 year old half-sister of the Kardashians: Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe. And she's famous for her lip-alicious Instagrams, such as the one below. Now, whether or not she's had lip surgery is unclear and often a hot topic of conversation - she claims that she just overdraws her lips, which is a great tip for enhancing them and I will get to that later in the post.

Photo sourced from @kyliejenner - Instagram.com

Now, don't get me wrong - it's great to try and emulate a person's look if that's what you're trying to go for. And to have fun with it! But this is CLEARLY not what Kylie does to enhance her lips. This is a typical result:

Photo sourced from @kyliejennerlipchallenge - Instagram.com

But it can get worse. A LOT WORSE. I'm going to spare you the pictures, but I have seen plenty of instances in the past week of the skin around the lips being bruised, swollen for hours, or even cut from the glass breaking and tearing the lips in the process. In conclusion? I wouldn't recommend it.

Don't worry! There are plenty of SAFE, natural ways to enhance those babies. These are my favourite techniques:

• For the most natural look, overdraw your lips slightly with a lip pencil close to your lip colour. A safe, affordable option is the Rimmel Lasting Finish 1000 Kisses Lip Liner in 'Natural'. Fill in the rest of your lips with the same pencil and chuck some lip gloss over the top to make them appear more plump. Here's a great tutorial on how to achieve this from the lovely Lauren Curtis:

• You can do the same with any colour lip pencil and a matching lippy, but a warning: it does require more maintenance over the day. Make sure you go for something long-lasting and relatively matte.
• There is also a suction tool called 'Fullips', which kind of works like the shot glass but is a lot safer - it's plastic, comes in different sizes and you don't suck as hard or for as long. The downside is that it only lasts up to 4 hours, but it's definitely a better option!

So what's the bottom line here? Well, I think it's fab to experiment with different lip shapes and sizes - like eyebrows, they can do a lot for the face. But even though 'duck face' and big lips seem to be a 'thing' at the moment, don't get caught up in the hype if you're not into it. For me personally, I feel like I can't pull off a look unless I'm confident in it. But if you do what works for you, I promise you those suckers will be stretching into smiles more often.

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone, and stay rad :)

Amy