And fun fact: Funny Facebook videos aren't causing them.
The irony of laugh lines,
aka nasolabial folds or marionette lines, is that they're not actually
caused by years of laughter or smiling. According to Arash Akhavan, MD,
founder of The Dermatology & Laser Group, these things don't even
play a role in the deep folds in the skin, which occur from mid-cheek to
chin and form parentheses around our lips.
"For
some people they are a genetic characteristic — my 9-year-old daughter
has laugh lines!" Dr. Akhavan explains. "But for many, they can appear
as we lose elasticity and fat in the mid face."
Whether
you're looking to treat existing laugh lines or just want to take
preventative measures, here are five things you can do.
1.
Don't sleep on your side.
Don't sleep on your side.
[post_ads]"If you sleep on your side or face down, pressure on the face literally causes the skin to wrinkle," explains
London-based plastic surgeon Alex Karidis, MD. "This is particularly
true of the nasal-labial fold, which is the line that runs from the nose
to the mouth. Laughter lines can also form from sleeping this way as
the skin around the eyes is particularly thin."
If you're a diehard side sleeper, there is
a strategic way to do so without exacerbating your wrinkles. Allow
celebrity esthetician Renée Rouleau to demonstrate: "I'm a side sleeper
for the most part, and I use a firm pillow and strategically position my
head so the lower half of my face never touches it," she says.
2.
Wear SPF and don't smoke.
As any anti-aging enthusiast knows, excess sun exposure and smoking
contributes to loss of collagen and skin elasticity. These are among the
primary causes of marionette lines as we get older, so wear SPF every
day and remember — it's counterintuitive to anti-age the laugh line area
when smoking directly contributes to wrinkles there!
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3.
Apply eye cream to the outer lip area.
Just
as it does for the under-eye area, eye cream can plump up laugh lines
and seal in moisture so these creases are less pronounced. Apply it
morning and night as you would to your dark circles. It's also worth
using moisturizers and night creams that regenerate the skin at several
levels while you sleep. Take, for example, La Prairie's Line Interception Power Duo,
which works to stimulate the production of collagen, elastin, and
hyaluronic acid to strengthen the extracellular matrix and visibly
reduce all kinds of wrinkles, including those that are vertical.
Another trick we love? Placing eye gels on the corners of our lips as such before we apply makeup.
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4.
Try fillers.
At Dr. Akhavan's office, the go-to treatment for laugh lines is using fillers such as Juvederm,
which contains hyaluronic acid to lift these lines back up. "Done
correctly, the results look completely natural and the procedure
typically takes no more than 10-15 minutes to complete," he says. As
with most fillers, they're injected into the skin using a tiny needle,
and there's typically no downtime.
5.
Conceal them.
You
can't exactly mask deep vertical "gravity" lines, but you can diffuse
them. To do so, prep the area with a smooth "clouding" primer, like Milk Makeup's Blur Stick,
and pay extra attention when you're applying your
precisely-color-matched concealer and foundation that doesn't settle
into lines.
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