Brooke Carrero, a registered nurse specialising in aesthetic injections, has sent TikTok into a spin after opening up about the unexpected downsides of a popular cosmetic tweak. Known as the “lip flip,” the treatment involves injecting a neurotoxin like Botox into the upper lip to subtly curl it upward and give it a fuller appearance — but Carrero’s experience is showing it’s not all smooth sailing.
In a video that quickly went viral in May, Carrero shared the side effects she encountered after giving herself the treatment. While it might seem like a simple enhancement, she was refreshingly honest about just how tricky everyday tasks became afterwards. Drinking from a straw, brushing her teeth, putting on lip gloss, even pronouncing certain words properly — all suddenly became awkward challenges.
“Bs and Ps, you don’t realise how much you use them until your lip won’t cooperate,” she joked. But it didn’t stop there. The 34-year-old, who works under Becker Plastic Surgery and Dr Kirk Lozada in Philadelphia, went a step further in an interview with PEOPLE, cheekily admitting that the treatment even impacted her sex life. “You can’t blow out a candle, which means you can’t blow anything. Use your imagination there,” she said on TikTok. Then added, “My skill set probably went from a 10 down to a six.”
Her husband, apparently unfazed by her constant beauty experiments, just laughs it off. She says she’s adapted to the odd lip movements now and the awkwardness only lasted for a few days. “I feel like I’ve gotten used to the way that my mouth kind of moves,” she added.
Though the lip flip isn’t FDA-approved for lip use — unlike fillers — that hasn’t stopped people from trying it. In fact, curiosity is booming. A study from the National Library of Medicine found a 33% monthly rise in online searches for lip flips from 2014 to 2024.
Carrero usually uses four to six units of neurotoxin on clients, which runs at around $14 a unit at her clinic — something echoed by the American Board of Facial Cosmetic Surgery. But in her case, she pushed the envelope and went for 16 units around her mouth. And yes, she injected them herself. “I am somebody that needs to try everything and expose myself to complications so I’m able to relate to my patients,” she explained.
Despite the hiccups, her transparency has struck a chord. After her video gained traction, viewers flooded the comments with messages of gratitude. “No one tells you this!” one person wrote. Another chimed in, “I wish I knew this before getting mine.”
For Carrero, it all comes down to honesty and personal choice. “There’s nothing that you need to have done, like nobody needs a lip flip and nobody needs cosmetic procedures, but it’s a matter of want,” she said. “If it makes you feel good, don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise.”