Did you know the skin on your lips is significantly thinner than the rest of your face? This can lead them to be particularly sensitive to the elements, including UV exposure, harsh treatments, and extreme weather. Add to that the fact that lips are almost always in motion – whether it be speaking, eating, deep breathing, or kissing – and you’ve got the perfect storm of lip issues. Not only are lips one of the first areas of the face that show signs of aging (via fine lines, volume loss, and lack of definition), but they can become chapped, chronically dry, and irritated.
One new and exciting innovation in the lip category is lip serums, which act like targeted treatments that nourish and address common woes. What can a lip treatment do for your lips and is one right for you? We uncover those questions and more (including discovering the best lip treatment) below.
What Is a Lip Treatment?
A lip treatment is a formula specifically made to hydrate, repair, and volumize lips. While at first glance, it might feel like a frivolous product, lip serums, also known as treatments, can be wonderfully valuable. The best lip treatments should not only help with the health of lips, but also the cosmetic appearance. Just as the best facial serum for your skin type can deliver impactful ingredients deep into the skin, helping to address the appearance of the skin, lip serums can work similarly. Depending on the formula, many can accomplish a bevy of beneficial results, from deeply hydrating and repairing skin to volumizing and reviving the look of the lips.
What Are the Benefits of a Lip Treatment?
In general, the best lip treatments can accomplish a few impressive tasks that other products, like a lip balm or mask, cannot. Here are a few of its most notable benefits.
- Hydrate Deeper
Most lip balms and masks hydrate, but lip treatments can take things even further. The molecule size of ingredients is important. Lip balms usually rely on very effective emollients that sit on the surface of the skin and shield it from external factors, helping to soothe and hydrate the surface. But some lip treatment formulas have ingredients that can penetrate deeper, addressing the long-term hydration of the lip when applied consistently. Why is this important? While facial skin has the ability to self-hydrate with sebum and oils, lips do not naturally produce either one of these and can easily suffer from dehydration.
- Plump and Restore Volume
The loss of collagen as we get older is perfectly natural, making your pout appear thinner looking. While some plumping lip glosses can temporarily volumize lips with (potentially irritating) ingredients, like pepper and cinnamon, lip treatments have the capacity to both naturally plump and restore the natural volume lost over time. This is why a treatment is one of the best lip repair products on the market.
- Revive Lips Natural Color
Did you know that lips naturally lose pigment as they age too? The same reason they become thinner – collagen loss – is also why they begin to appear less vibrant. A lip serum can help to restore lips lost color and definition due to aging and dryness, helping to make lips appear more vibrant and healthier looking.
- Smooths Fine Lip Lines
Speaking of aging, lips are especially prone to fine lines. (Remember how lips are one of the thinnest skin on our face? That makes them quick to age.) This is where a lip treatment can really shine. A serum can help reduce the look of lip lines by plumping and boosting volume, while also helping with the appearance of lipsticks by curbing the feathering and bleeding that can occur with aging lips. Think of a lip treatment as a sort of lip primer meets serum meets long-term longevity booster.
When To Use a Lip Treatment
If you’re not following the ideal order of applying a lip treatment, you could be wasting precious product and not getting the full benefits of your best lip repair treatment. Here’s the ideal order to apply a lip treatment within your lip care routine.
Step One: Exfoliate with a Lip Scrub
Just as you exfoliate your face frequently to scrub away dead skin cells, your lips need the same step. A lip scrub can help remove flakiness and dryness, but also help your next step – the vital lip treatment – penetrate better and deeper. Learn more about how to exfoliate your lips (gentle is key!).
Step Two: Repair with a Lip Treatment
It’s time for the star of the show: the lip treatment. Now that the skin is freshly exfoliated, clean, and dry, squeeze a generous amount on and massage into the lips. The added massage helps to boost the powers of a lip serum even further by temporarily improving blood circulation.
Step Three: Protect with a Lip Balm/Mask
After allowing the lip treatment to absorb for a minute, lock it in with a lip balm or lip mask. A lip treatment does not replace a lip balm, but rather works in tandem with one. While the lip serum targets the appearance of the lip, the lip balm is beneficial because it creates a protective seal on the lips, allowing the treatment to work while also hydrating the surface of the skin.
Also, if using during the day, don’t forget to use a lip product with SPF. As mentioned before, lips are very sensitive to the elements, including sun exposure. Protect your pout with an SPF product specially formulated for the lips. Try The Kissu Lip Tint SPF 25, which provides sunscreen protection, seals in moisture, and has a buildable kiss of color (in three flattering hues).
Best Lip Treatment
The Kissu Lip Treatment
We’re overjoyed to share this special lip serum that we’ve been finessing for years. Want a lip serum that can do it all? Say hello to your newest obsession then, The Kissu Lip Treatment. This daily serum is clinically proven to instantly plump, while also restoring natural volume, reviving lip color, and improving lip’s natural definition over time. It’s the best dry lip treatment, in our humble opinion.
A few lip care ingredients help take the Kissu Lip Treatment to a whole new level.
- Sea Fern
This unique sea botanical impressively and instantly plumps lips, while also boosting volume—but without irritating the delicate lip skin with irritating ingredients. Instead, it accomplishes these results by increasing the lips’ lipid storage over time. Additionally, our proprietary Hadasei-3 complex is present, helping to reduce roughness, increase hydration, and soften lips.
- Sea Kelp
Speaking of potent sea botanicals, sea kelp helps to improve lip definition and natural lip color for healthier-looking lips.
- Carob Fruit Extract
The carob fruit, an ingredient often seen in food and medicine, acts like a peptide, which helps build a stronger skin barrier and smoothes the appearance of fine lines.
The Kissu Lip Treatment is designed to work in tandem with the rest of the Kissu collection. This includes the brand new Kissu Lip Scrub, the SPF protectant Kissu Lip Tint, and the beloved and award-winning Kissu Lip Mask. To make things even easier – both on you and your lips – we’ve even created a new Lip Set Curator, where you can choose three lip formulas and receive a complimentary bag. It’s a foolproof ritual to polish, plump, and protect—all in the name of softer, fuller lips instantly.
