11 Ways To Make Your Own DIY Lip Mask
Most people think of masks as something you use to cover up, but sometimes the focus is on the big reveal. With lip masks, it’s what’s underneath that matters. Sometimes our lips need a little extra lovin’ and that’s when a lip mask or scrub comes in. There are several nourishing fruits, oils, and exfoliants which can combine to counteract the effects of cold weather or just chronically dry lips.
We can walk you through the steps of what you’ll need to make your own lip masks, but if you want to get a perfectly measured portion of several healing ingredients, then save yourself any stress and mess and grab the Delicious Sugar Lip Scrub from Vivianne Woodard to scrub your way to a super smile. It contains safflower seed oil to seal in moisture, shea butter to soften and smooth, as well as sunflower and rosemary leaf extracts to protect your lips from the elements.
However, if you’ve got a little time, you’re sure to have some of these ingredients to do it yourself. Try any of these 11 DIY lip masks, and what you’ll have is *spoiler alert* moisturized and luscious lips!
1. A Simply Sweet Scrub with Sugar and Honey
Sugar and honey are not only terms of endearment, but important ingredients for a lip mask that gets the job done. We all want to slough off the dead skin and moisturize that layer underneath, and a scrub with these two items that most of us have at home can do the trick. The sugar acts as a natural exfoliant, and clears the way for the honey to work its magic.
Honey has natural anti-bacterial properties that help soothe and heal distressed lips. Most of that comes from the hydrogen peroxide in the honey, but there are other components as well. You may have heard of manuka honey, which comes from Australia and New Zealand where bees pollinate the manuka bush. It has particularly heightened healing properties, due to methyglyoxal (MG), which is found in a much higher concentration in manuka honey. The more MG, the greater the antibiotic effect. So whenever you can, opt for some raw, organic manuka honey. But if you’re doing what you can with what you got, any honey will still help smooth the skin. Leave the mix on for up to ten minutes, and then wipe it away with warm water. And if you take a taste of your luscious lip mask while you’re waiting, we promise we won’t tell.
2. Soothe Away Worries with Aloe Vera
Plants help us out in more ways than one. They have provided us with fiber, fuel, food and shelter. Well, now we can add smoothing lips to that list. If your lips could use a little plant-based love, try adding Aloe Vera gel in the mix. Aloe contains a starch with molecules that help bind moisture to the skin and has hormones that stimulate cell production.
To get the gel from the plant, simply slice away the prickly edges and the top, and then remove one last leaf. This will leave the gel exposed all along one side. Then all you need to do is scrape it off into your container or onto the surface where you are blending your ingredients. Next, add a sprinkling of sugar and some vaseline. Once those are mixed together, smooth right onto your lips and leave for 15 minutes. Remove with warm water and a clean washcloth, and give a shout out to Mother Earth for helping you moisturize those lips naturally.
3. A Very Berry Luscious Lip Mix
We love them in smoothies, shortcake, and pie, but did you know that strawberries are sweet for your skin as well? The ellagic acid protects your skin from the effects of the sun’s UV rays. They are also plentiful in Vitamin C, and have collagen-producing properties, helping your skin look supple and younger. You can substitute kiwi for strawberry if you don’t have any of the latter on hand. Kiwis also contain vitamins C and E and acids that are good for the skin and cell regeneration.
After you mash the strawberry or kiwi, add a little vitamin E oil to make the mixture a more silky consistency, and then put in some coffee grounds to act as an exfoliant. Muddle them all together and apply to your lips. Leave this mask on while you remember all the other ways you can finish the rest of that fruit. Maybe a strawberry margarita will pair well with this wonderfully refreshing lip treatment.
4. A Marvelously Moisturizing Lip Mask
The recipe comes in three simple steps and separates out ingredients so your lips have a moment to soak in all the goodness. Gather the following together: sugar, oil (either coconut or olive), honey, and plain yogurt. You’ll need about a teaspoon of each, and a little bit less than a teaspoon of the honey. Then make sure you have your favorite lip balm handy for the final step.
First, mix the sugar and oil together to form a sweet scrub. You’ll want it to be thick enough not to drip off your lips. Gently scrub off the dead skin, being careful not to rub too vigorously. Save that energy for later, when you’re parading around with that perfect pout and blowing kisses to all your adoring fans. The scrub portion should take less than a minute, and then you can wipe away whatever is left with water and a clean cloth. Next, you’ll smooth a mixture of honey and plain yogurt over your lips. If some of it meanders on into your mouth, well that’s okay too. Leave it on for five to 10 minutes, and then wash it off. The last step is to simply grab your best balm and smooth it on. If you don’t have a favorite, this hyaluronic smoothing lip balm works wonders.
5. The Absolute Best Color Tint and Antioxidant Lip Mask
Did you know that the juice from one pomegranate has over 40 percent of the recommended daily dose of Vitamin C? And the chemicals that give the seeds their beautiful hue are called polyphenols, which are antioxidants. If you thought red wine was full of antioxidants, get this – pomegranate juice contains three times more! Don’t worry, no one is saying you can’t sip your share of both. But for this lip mask, we’ll go with pomegranate juice, and preferably some that doesn’t contain any added sugars. The only other ingredient you’ll need for this recipe is raw honey.
Mix the amount of honey and pomegranate juice that you’ll need to cover your lips in a drippy dip of nourishing color. You might want to tilt your head back a bit, or make sure you are not wearing your favorite white jumpsuit. In other words, remember those powerful polyphenols and how you just want to tint your lips, not your new bedspread. When you wipe it off you will notice a smoother surface with a sheer tint. Feel free to finish off the juice, or at least take a swig and let it linger a moment on your lips. Enjoy the benefits inside and out.
6. Marvelous and Mushy Moisture Lip Mask with Avocado
Next time you’re making your avocado toast or guacamole, set a little avocado to the side to use for this moisturizing mask. Also, feel free to send some guacamole our way! As you may already know, avocado contains vitamin E, an antioxidant that protects the skin, as well as Vitamin C, which skin requires to create collagen. So eat it up or smooth it on. For this lip mask, all you need is a little mashed up avocado and something to help affix this mixture to your mouth. Here comes Vaseline to the rescue! A little oil of your choice could also do the job, but vaseline works well to trap in the nourishing elements of the avocado. Leave on the avocado-vaseline blend for several minutes and then smack your lips and say “muah!” to a moisturized mouth.
7. Put Plastic on that Pucker
So far in this list of DIY lip masks we haven’t included the option of covering up your kisser while the ingredients get to work. Putting plastic over your mask can help lock in heat and moisture and intensify the effects. A really good recipe to try when you plan to cover up is the following: Honey. Seriously. That’s it. However, if you are like most people, you like to have options, so if you like, you can opt to add a little bit of brown sugar in with your raw honey (and remember what we said above about the benefits of manuka). That way, when you remove the plastic after 15 minutes, you can scrub your honey lip mask off and have it do double duty as a moisturizer and a scrub. And…that’s a wrap.
8. A Calming Pre-Balm Coconut Lip Mask
If you are cuckoo for coconuts, then you’ll love this one. This mask is great if your lips are dry and you don’t want to dabble with any scrubbing element at the moment. There’s no coffee grounds or sugar crystals in this recipe. All that’s required for this lip mask is some strawberry, honey, and coconut oil. Most of us who have hopped on the bandwagon, and are all in on the coconut oil craze have a jar on hand. But if you don’t, it is a product that should be easy to find.
Mash up a single ripe strawberry, stir in a teaspoon of honey, and add a teaspoon of coconut oil. Mix all the ingredients together until you have an aromatic medley of gorgeous goop. Strawberries contain salicylic acid, which naturally exfoliates dead skin cells from the surface. However, strawberries may irritate some sensitive skin. If you regularly consume strawberries, you should be just fine, but to be sure, you can test a small patch first. You don’t need to leave this tropical lip mix on too long since it only takes a few moments to achieve the desired results. After you gently remove this mask, cover your lips with a nourishing balm to protect the newly exposed skin cells.
If you haven’t applied a lip mask or scrub before, take a quick look at this tutorial, which covers all the bases:
Here are a few more lip masks mixes that might work for you.
9. The I Can’t Believe It’s Castor Oil Lip Mask
Castor oil might conjure up memories of an old-school laxative offered by a schoolmarm on Little House on the Prairie, but there are many more medicinal and cosmetic uses than you may have realized. Castor oil and the ricinoleic acid it contains are humectants, which helps with moisture retention. It also has antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties that protect skin from certain bacteria, and help with irritated skin, respectively.
Castor oil’s sticky, liquid-like consistency could potentially take the place of honey in several of the mixes we mentioned above, though it’s not nearly as tasty. That’s why we’re adding a couple drops of vanilla extract to sweeten the smell, as well as a little sugar for exfoliation and vitamin E for additional softening and nourishment. Mix one teaspoon of castor oil with two teaspoons of sugar, one or two drops of vanilla extract and a capsule of vitamin E oil (or a few drops if you have a bottle). When you wipe this off a few minutes later, you won’t believe how smooth those lips will be.
10. Good Morning to You, Goodbye to Dead Skin
The aroma of this next mask will make you think all that’s missing is bacon and eggs. This is a great scrub to start your day. All you need is a teaspoon of your coffee grounds, and a little less than a teaspoon of both honey and olive oil. Even if you don’t drink coffee, you can still enjoy the smell as you rub your lips together to work in this exfoliating and moisturizing mask. It’s a secret sauce for soft smooth lips. Like the other masks, just remove it with a warm washcloth, and voilà! A perfect pout.
11. Say Yes to Yogurt, Oil, and Honey, Honey!
If you’re on top of your game when it comes to your lips, and they just need a little lift, try this last mask on our list. Especially if you already regularly exfoliate, this mixture of oil, honey, and plain organic yogurt will moisturize, soften and nourish. Combine the ingredients to the desired consistency that allows you to completely cover your lips without making a needless mess (which begs the question, what is a needed mess? Hmm…a question for another time, perhaps). Anyhow, just allow the yogurt, honey, and oil (coconut, olive, or jojoba), to do what they do, or cover your lips with plastic wrap to lock in moisture and make the clean-up quicker. After 10 minutes, gently wash away the beautifying blend and feel free to lick your lips – just this once – to remove any last bit of the moisturizing lip mask.
The choice is yours when it comes to taking care of your lips. You can buy or DIY. Either way, a once a week ritual to gently exfoliate dead skin and replenish moisture is what every mouth wants. With a lip mask, or a combination of scrubs, balms, and sticks, your lips will be all set!
For over 60 years, Viviane Woodard has represented “The Purity of Skincare”. We are the leading beauty brand for water-based skin care products and promote the importance of good skin hydration. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for skin care tips, product discounts and more.