I remember hearing Mariah Carey in a BBC radio interview talking about getting her makeup done while sleeping on a plane. Fully reclined, asleep, while her makeup artist did her face.

I remember thinking it was kind of iconic.

Even now, when clips of her and her glam squad pop up on TikTok, I love it. Seeing Christopher Buckle and Dior Sovoa on stage with her made me laugh. It's so diva in the best way.

Anyway, when I was 19, I had jaw surgery. Once everything settled, I got hyper aware of my lips. One side sat a little differently, and it bugged the hell out of me. Not enough for a huge change, but enough that I noticed it all the time, especially when I talked.

In my early 30s, I tried filler, and again last year. Half a syringe each time, So, about 8-ish years apart.

I liked it. It looked really natural. Zero duck lips.

But after that second round, I realized something: if you've got a strong white line above your lip (aka Double Lip Line), filler can make it look migrated even when it's not. That's just me, though. Everyone's different. This is pure personal experience, and I am not here to spark a filler debate on the internet.

So, I switched to lip flips with Botox. And you know what? I actually prefer it over filler. It doesn't last super long, but that's kind of the point. And I don't have to worry about migration or dissolving filler down the line, which sounds both emotionally exhausting and like way too much admin for my face.

Around then, I remembered something my teacher Barb said back when I was at CMU. She used to have us look at beauty campaigns upside down to check if the lips were balanced.

And honestly? She was right.

When you change your perspective, you notice things in a whole different way.

Now, I'm obviously not saying you need to lie down on the TTC or GO Train to do lip liner. But at home, before you head out? Why the hell not?

One night, I was lying in bed scrolling on my phone, slightly propped up on a pillow, and opened the camera.

I grabbed a lip liner and started lining my lips while lying on my back like an absolute weirdo, my dogs jumping onto the bed every few minutes to make sure I was still alive.

I almost always have a lipstick on my night table. I like going to bed with a dab of lipstick on, which I know sounds a little ridiculous, but whateves.

So I figured I'd try the whole lying down lip liner thing again.

And... it actually looked really good. Which surprised me because there's a very fine line between softly shaping your lips and catching a glimpse of yourself in different lighting thinking... okay, Aunt Gladys, relax.

Lying there, I'd slightly push my lips forward so they stretched out a bit flatter, and that made it way easier to see what I was doing. I'd line a bit, sit up, check, lie back down, tweak something. Honestly, I mostly focus on the cupid's bow area for balance more than anything else. (I use the Chanel lip liner and Charlotte Tilbury Iconic Nude around the cupid's bow area.) Then lipstick. A little blot. The whole thing.

I forgot how well this works. And somehow it looked softer too.

And honestly, we're not looking for perfection here. We're looking for balance. Huge difference.

When I finally stood up and looked in the mirror, my lips looked fuller and more balanced.

So yeah, I kept doing it.

Then one night, I did my whole face lying down and, aside from my iPhone falling on my face, my makeup looked pretty damn good.

There's something about seeing your face from that angle. It changes how you place things. You stop forcing symmetry and start actually following your face.

I don't know. Try it.

Not a full glam session, though. Your arm will get tired holding the mirror.

But lips? Hell yah!

I did my makeup lying down

Skin First, Ceremony Second