I ditched fillers for £1k lip tattoo to give me a permanent Love Island pout… but I was horrified looking in the mirror
TRAUMATISED by ‘bumpy’ fillers, Francine Mills had nearly given up on ever getting the perfect pout.
But when the 29-year-old read an article about lip blushing – also known as a ‘lip tattoo’ or ‘permanent lipstick’ – she thought she had found the perfect solution.
However, after shelling out £1,000 for the procedure, the Love Island fan says she was left looking like a “clown” and now regrets ever getting it done.
“I was blotchy. The procedure left me with supersized bright red clown lips. I was horrified and shocked,” Francine tells The Sun.
“It was awful. I have to warn other people not to try the procedure. I don’t want people suffering like I did.”
Lip blushing has become increasingly popular as an alternative to dermal fillers, promising a plump pout without having to apply make-up.
The cosmetic procedure uses a facial tattooing machine to implant colour pigment into lips, with the results estimated to last between one and three years.
Francine, who works as a counsellor in London, always felt she had thin lips and as a “fan of shows like Love Island” was desperate to look more like her favourite reality stars.
In Dubai for work, she had 2mls of lip filler injected to give her a plumper look – only to be devastated by the results.
“The first round of filler left my lips feeling hard and bumpy,” she says.
“I had them dissolved. It was a painful procedure which involved injections and massaging the filler away.”
Determined to try again, Francine then flew out to Dubai in 2022 on vacation and visited a different clinician, but was again left disappointed.
“I had another 2ml injected and after a week the right side of my top lip looked noticeably larger and was horribly bumpy,” she says.
“I tried massaging the filler to make it spread more evenly across the lips, but the lump stayed put. It was agony.
Francine attempted to cover the painful filler lump with lipstick and concealer, but admits “nothing worked”.
She adds: “I’d spent over £1,200 on filler and dissolving, and I felt terrible.”
In May 2022 Francine thought she had found a solution when she read about lip blushing.
The treatment has soared in popularity over recent years, with Yelp’s 2022 Beauty Trend Forecast revealing searches for it were up 130 per cent.
Francine swotted up on the procedure and decided to give it a go, spending £1,000 for a 90-minute session at a clinic in Istanbul, Turkey.
“I did my homework. I felt it would be a less dangerous procedure than filler injections,” she explains.
“I chose a red pigment because I love red lipstick.
“I wanted value for money, and I knew the colour was one of my favourites.
“The consultant applied topical numbing cream and then drew my new lip line, before tattooing it to give me more lip area.”
Francine admits she expected some swelling, but says she was left horrified when she looked in the mirror later back home a day later.
“My lips had ballooned up. But even when the swelling went down my lips were super-sized and clown-like. The red was so bright and didn’t fade in the first two weeks afterwards like I’d been told.
“The procedure had been botched. It was such a new procedure I’d been assured the consultant was the leading expert in lip blushing. I cried for days.
“My lips weren’t subtle. They were oversized, painful and zapped my confidence.”
Instead of never needing lipstick, Francine now found herself needing more than ever to cover up the botched job.
“If I wanted to go out, I’d have to apply concealer and base on my lips and draw a smaller lip line and colour it in. Even when I did that, I felt foolish,” she says.
“It affected my self-esteem. I was given the wrong advice on colour and size. I should have asked for smaller lips and a softer colour, and had it done again if I liked it.
“I only had one session. If I’d had two sessions I would have been stuck with the look for three years.”
Thankfully, over the past twelve months the lip colour has slowly faded away.
Francine says she is now speaking out to help others understand what can go wrong – and urges those considering the treatment to think twice.
“You see people raving about the procedures on TikTok or Instagram,” she says.
“My lips have been botched three times and that’s enough. I’m going natural now.
“I don’t want other women or men going through what I went through.”