Internet - Pain is beauty and beauty is pain: a TikTok user took this saying literally and came up with a pretty disgusting method to make his lips bigger.

One word that comes to mind when thinking about lip injections is: expensive.

A young man named Jerry Maldonado decided to ditch the costly procedure of having filler injected to plump up the lips, and instead turned to a cheaper home remedy: erection cream!

Yes, you read that right.

In a TikTok video, he explains that he saw a movie "where a girl put erection cream all over her lips and it made them really big" – so he had to try it.

Jerry then takes viewers along for the ride, describing his sensations: "It kind of tingles. It’s not terrible, but we'll see."

A few minutes later, a burning sensation kicks in and Jerry quickly wipes off the cream, before marvelling at his swollen lips.

The final result of the unusual beauty hack? "They definitely look a bit bigger," he says, "I kind of like it."

The TikTok video quickly went viral with over 3.5 million views and over 600,000 likes, and many users commented they were tempted to try using erection cream themselves for the same effect.

However, doctors have raised red flags...

In a response video, a user called the Derm Doctor pointed out the dangerous effects of the trend.

"I don't know exactly which cream is being used in the video, but all erection creams work by using vasodilation, which increases blood flow to an area," he said.

"Increased blood flow will lead to swelling of the area, and this lasts for about an hour. All the benefits of plumping will be completely temporary," the expert continued.

"These creams were not made to be ingested or consumed by mouth and it's probably not safe to be consumed."

A veterinary nurse also weighed in, explaining that the vasodilator in the cream, known as alprostadil, can cause rapid heart rate and palpilations.

So, even if you are tempted, it may indeed be better to keep your hands – and lips – away from beauty hacks like this one.