Wavy Lips

In 2017, a viral trend swept the internet – ‘wavy brows’. In fact, I wrote about it back then. We witnessed beauty influencers and fans of the trend drawing on their eyebrows in a wavy pattern – often created with a little help from Face tune. Three years on, there’s a brand-new Instagram trend to match.

Though its origins are unknown, it’s believed to have been started by a Russian plastic surgeon (as many of the strangest beauty trends do, dare I say it). Coined ‘devil lips’, or ‘octopus’ lips’, the procedure is said to involve inserting filler in the outer lip to create a wave effect across both the lips.

On IG, you can easily stumble across different women sporting the lip look, usually to a “mixed” reaction from followers and other viewers. Some have compared them to blisters, others have called the trend ‘bizarre’ and ‘stupid’ or “an exotic form of herpes”. Others call it “oddly aesthetically pleasing.”

Since the trend first took off, others have followed suit, creating their own versions of ‘devil lips’ with make-up or by using Photoshop. Many believe that the latter is the only way that the people who have allegedly had lip fillers could create them.

A leading cosmetic surgeon commented: “You cannot change the anatomical shape of the lips like this. You can sharpen and contour by enhancing the vermillion border, but these ‘devil lips’ are unnatural.” She continued to explain the damage you could cause if you tried to create this look with fillers. “Filler injected inappropriately could end up in a blood vessel, causing blockages and leading to necrosis (death) of the tissue..”

So, while the trend is not easily physically do-able (for now), in an age of photoshop, face tune and face filters – as well as face-changing make-up – you too can join the devilish fun and post it on your socials without any adverse health effects.