To brush your lips, all you need is a toothbrush with soft bristles and an exfoliant. You may also want to apply a moisturizer like coconut oil or olive oil after exfoliating. Brush your lips gently with your toothbrush in small circles. Wash off the exfoliant with warm water.
Gently brushing your lips with a toothbrush may help you get rid of dry skin and give your lips a smoother appearance. However, over-exfoliating can irritate the delicate skin over your lip. It's a good idea to brush your lips no more than once a week to avoid irritation.
Causes of dark lips
Darkening of the lips can be the result of hyperpigmentation. This is a typically harmless condition caused by an excess of melanin. Lip hyperpigmentation may be caused by: excessive exposure to the sun.Keep your lips healthy in three simple steps:
- Exfoliate. Gently rub your lips with a homemade mixture of olive or coconut oil and sugar and wipe clean with a face washer or a splash of warm water.
- Wear lip balm regularly. Apply and reapply a good quality lip balm, often:
- Apply a dry lips treatment overnight.
"Lip scrubs can be damaging to the delicate mucosa of the lip; they can cause a little bit of abrasion, micro-injury, and even some bleeding if you're not careful," Devgan said. "If you're too rough with exfoliation, you can get hyperpigmentation, and your lips will look a little more brown than pink," she added.
Mix the coconut oil, coconut sugar, and vanilla bean powder in a bowl. Transfer to a small container with a lid and store for about a month. Dip a small spoon or your finger into the container, rub the scrub on your lips and allow to sit on your lips for 3 – 5 minutes.
Lip exfoliation is also imperative. Like the other parts of your body, your lips shed and renew themselves, and need proper TLC.
Shop our picks of the best lip scrubs, below.
- Best Overall: Sara Happ The Lip Scrub.
- Best Budget: E.l.f. Cosmetics Lip Exfoliator.
- Best Drugstore: Burt's Bees Lip Scrub.
- Best Natural: Ilia Balmy Nights Lip Exfoliator.
- Best for Dry Lips: Tarte Pout Prep Lip Exfoliant.
- Best Sugar Scrub: Bliss Fabulips Sugar Lip Scrub.
To make your own lip scrub, mix a tablespoon of brown sugar with just enough honey or olive oil to get it to stick together. Once a week (twice at the very max) rub the scrub onto your lips, vigorously enough to loosen the dead skin. Let it sit for one minute, and then wipe off with a damp washcloth.
Apply freshly squeezed lemon juice to your lips and massage them gently. Follow this ritual every night before bed. Sugar scrub: Sugar works as an excellent scrub to exfoliate lips and also helps get rid of unwanted dead skin. Take three spoons of sugar and mix it with two spoons of butter to make a thick paste.
With the help of toothpaste for skin care, getting rid of those nasty dark or black lines is made simple. All you need to do is make a mixture of paste and water and apply it to the lines. Squeeze some toothpaste on your brush and add some honey to it. Use it to brush your lips for about 5 minutes.
Most likely, your lips are suffering from excessive dryness, or chapping. Actually, picking at them and peeling off the skin can worsen the situation, as this can make the dryness worse. It would be better to try applying a good lip balm or lip moisturizing lotion.
Other natural remedies
- Coconut oil. Using your fingertip, take a very small amount of coconut oil and gently apply it evenly over your lips.
- Rose water. Mix together two drops of rose water to six drops of honey.
- Olive oil.
- Cucumber juice.
- Strawberry.
- Almond.
- Almond oil.
- Sugar.
Here are the best lip masks to try now.
- Best Overall: Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask.
- Best Plumping: Kaplan Perfect Pout Lip Mask.
- Best Budget: KNC Beauty All Natural Collagen Infused Lip Mask.
- Best Overnight: Sara Happ The Dream Slip.
- Best Drugstore: Burt's Bees Lip Mask.
- Best Patch: Skyn Iceland Plumping Lip Gels.
Here's how to get soft lips in 12 simple steps.
- 1) Keep Your Lips Moist.
- 2) Choose A Lip Balm With SPF.
- 3) Wear The Right Lipstick.
- 4) Use Lip Products Without Added Flavors And Fragrances.
- 5) Avoid Biting And Licking Your Lips.
- 6) Make A Simple Lip Scrub.
- 7) Exfoliate Your Lips With A Toothbrush.
- 8) Make A Homemade Lip Mask.
The primary benefit of coconut oil is its moisturizing effects. This makes it ideal for chapped lips. Your lips are particularly sensitive to moisture loss because the skin is thin, and they're exposed to the elements more so than other parts of your skin. Coconut oil is also considered an emollient.
NATURAL REMEDIES FOR DRY LIPS
- Coconut oil. Spread pure coconut oil over your lips for instant hydration.
- Aloe vera. Apply the gel from a fresh aloe vera leaf to your lips to soothe sore or tender lips.
- Rose water and honey. Mix honey and rose water and apply to your lips for about 15 minutes before washing off.
Follow these 10 easy tips to get luscious, sexy lips naturally:
- Drink water throughout the day. Bet you didn't see that coming!
- Honey and lemon therapy.
- A slice of beetroot.
- A drop of almond oil.
- Moisturize and tint lips with rose and rose water.
- Exfoliate with sugar.
- Juice of cucumber.
- Strawberries for luscious lips.
Mix baking soda with water to form a gritty paste; you may have to experiment with the ratio. Use a clean washcloth or old toothbrush with soft, straight bristles to rub the paste onto your lips in a gentle, circular motion. Rinse with warm water, gently pat dry, and apply lip balm or petroleum jelly.
Shop our picks of the best lip scrubs, below.
- Best Overall: Sara Happ The Lip Scrub.
- Best Budget: E.l.f. Cosmetics Lip Exfoliator.
- Best Drugstore: Burt's Bees Lip Scrub.
- Best Natural: Ilia Balmy Nights Lip Exfoliator.
- Best for Dry Lips: Tarte Pout Prep Lip Exfoliant.
- Best Sugar Scrub: Bliss Fabulips Sugar Lip Scrub.
The secret to dealing with dry, sore, chapped lips is to find a way to lock in moisture and protect the lips from the cold, dry air. Vaseline® Healing Jelly is an excellent choice as it forms a protective layer on the lips and penetrates deep down to rehydrate the skin and speed up the its natural renewal process.
A lip scrub exfoliates good and bad skin on your lips, and they then become dry and scabbed. This ultimately results in even more chapped skin. Using a scrub is not unlike to taking sandpaper to your dry chapped lips!
Lip scrubs can make your lips swell from the friction, but they can't make your lips bigger. If the lip scrub had peppermint oil in it (as mentioned by another Quoran in their answer), its chemical properties can give your lips a plumping effect.
Unless you're lips are really, really light and/or lacking pigmentation, the Vaseline will probably not darken them noticeably. What happens is any lip balm (or lotion or cream, for that matter) that contains petrolatum as an ingredient can darken your skin.
Brown Sugar And Honey Exfoliation Scrub
Mix the brown sugar with raw honey. Add a few drops of lavender essential oil to this mixture. Once blended, apply the scrub to your lips and rub it well in circular motions for two to three minutes. Wash with lukewarm water and apply some lip balm.“Lip scrubs can be damaging to the delicate mucosa of the lip; they can cause a little bit of abrasion, micro-injury, and even some bleeding if you're not careful,” Devgan says. “If you're too rough with exfoliation, you can get hyperpigmentation, and your lips will look a little more brown than pink.”