Lip Blush Tattoos: I Tried the Semipermanent Style

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been constantly wearing lip color: to the grocery store, to school, to the gym — everywhere. The only time of day I didn’t was when I was sleeping. With my extremely pale skin and light features, without a brush of color on my lips I felt like a corpse whenever I looked in the mirror. So in an effort to look, um, alive, lipstick became my daily sidekick.

Things finally changed one day when I was scrolling Instagram and came across an unbelievable before and after of “lip blushing,” a form of semipermanent makeup that transforms your lips by enhancing your natural color and providing more shape and definition. (You’ve also probably seen those viral TikTok videos circulating lately, in which an influencer travels abroad for the treatment.) As for me, I knew about semipermanent cosmetic tattooing, but the first time I heard the phrase “lip blushing tattoo,” I imagined an awkward, badly drawn lip liner tattoo. This new procedure was far from that; after falling down a rabbit hole of #LipBlushing photos on Instagram, I realized this form of semipermanent makeup was basically just a beautifully enhanced version of your natural lips, so I decided to take the plunge and try it out myself.

A few weeks later, I made an appointment with Savannah Kondratyev at First Class Cosmetics in New York City. Now, it’s been a year since my lip blushing experience, and I’ll never go back. I’m completely hooked — every time I look in the mirror, I still can’t believe that I’m not wearing lipstick. If you’re wondering what lip blushing is all about, read on for my experience and before and after photos.