(PRWEB) January 18, 2010

The Sloane Clinic identifies five golden rules to creating youthful, natural looking lips.

Across most cultures since the beginning of recorded history, full lips have been associated with female youth, beauty and voluptuousness.

“While the eyes and nose defines our upper face, the lips are the central feature of our lower face. The perfect lip must portray youth, health, attractiveness and sexuality,” says Dr Chua Han Boon, medical consultant from The Sloane Clinic, a medical aesthetic institution specializing in both invasive and non-invasive aesthetic medicine.

In a recent study by Unilever scientist David Gunn, it was shown that ladies with fuller lips tend to look younger than their actual age. The study conducted at seven universities included 102 pairs of Dutch female twins ages 59 to 81 years and 162 individual British white women ages 45 to 75 years.

“When we identified people who looked young for their age, we were struck by the difference in their lips,” said researcher David Gunn.

The volume of lips in both men and women reach full thickness in the 20s and start shrinking between 30 and 40 years of age. Because this age is also the time when wrinkles and gray hairs appear, it makes the woman look older than she actually is, Gunn said.* The study adds to evidence that women prefer full and pouting lips like that of Hollywood actresses Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson not just because they look beautiful, but also because it enhances ones youth.

However, the properties of the lips change with age, resulting in thinning of the upper lip and the upper lip vermillion (border) gradually losing volume and becoming less pouty. Genetics, intrinsic aging, sun exposure, smoking, and repetitive pursing of the lips produce lipstick bleed lines. Gravity and bone loss due to age and further soft tissue volume loss at the edges of the mouth cause the lip edges to turn downward in a perpetual frown, which are commonly called marionette lines. In addition to the volume loss in lips, the lip margin itself may become blunted and look less defined. The Cupids bow which forms the centre of the top of the upper lip will also lose its iconic (and sexy) projection and flatten out.

At The Sloane Clinic, the doctors have identified the five golden rules to creating youthful yet natural looking lips:

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