Can I Smoke After Lip Blushing in San Diego?

If you've recently gotten lip blushing done in San Diego, you might be wondering if it's okay to smoke during the healing process. The short answer is no - smoking after lip blushing is strongly discouraged by cosmetic professionals in San Diego and elsewhere.

Lip blushing is a semi-permanent cosmetic tattoo that enhances the color and shape of your lips, giving them a fuller, prettier look. It's an increasingly popular treatment at med spas and tattoo studios around San Diego. But like any tattoo, your lips need time to properly heal after the procedure.

Smoking can seriously compromise the healing process and negatively impact your lip blushing results in a few key ways:

Dryness and Cracking

Cigarette smoke contains thousands of chemicals that are extremely drying to the delicate skin on your lips. This can cause excessive dryness, cracking, and even bleeding as the lip blush pigment tries to heal into your lips.

Dry, cracked lips will not only be uncomfortable and unsightly, but the pigment may not properly set into the areas that have cracked and peeled. This can lead to patchiness and unevenness in the color once you've fully healed.

Slowed Healing

In addition to drying out your lips, smoking also slows down the skin's natural healing process. Cigarettes deprive your lips of oxygen and nutrients needed for healthy healing. This can cause the lip blush to take much longer to fully set and increase the risk of complications like infections or pigment unevenness.

Color Changes

The chemicals in cigarette smoke can alter the pigments used in your lip blushing, potentially causing an undesirable shift in color. What may have initially been a beautiful rosy hue could develop an ashy, dull, or even orange tint from the tar and chemicals in smoke.

To ensure beautiful, long-lasting results from your lip blushing in San Diego, cosmetic professionals strongly advise against smoking or vaping for at least 24 hours after your procedure. It's generally recommended to avoid smoking for 72 hours or more to be on the safe side.

During the key healing window right after lip blushing, your lips will be tender, swollen, dry and extra sensitive. Smoking will only make this worse and jeopardize the final look you paid for.

While it may be difficult to avoid smoking temporarily, it's well worth it to let your fresh lip blush color fully set and heal according to your practitioner's instructions. With proper aftercare and by steering clear of cigarettes, you'll be showing off luscious, vividly blushed lips in San Diego in no time.