Wondering how to make your lips soft? You’re not alone and the task isn’t as simple as you might believe. While slathering on lip balms might feel like the only shortcut to smooth lips, there are many other beneficial steps to ensure you have a plump, hydrating pout year round. From exfoliating scrubs and treatments to balms and masks, here is your guide on how to get soft lips.
Step One: Exfoliate
Exfoliating your face with a facial scrub? Of course. But exfoliating your lips with a lip scrub? Absolutely! While the niche product is often overlooked (unrightfully so), utilizing a lip-specific scrub can be tremendously beneficial on your journey for soft and smooth lips. A lip scrub is different from a facial scrub because it’s an exfoliating formula specifically made to be gentle enough on the delicate lip skin but effective enough to remove flakes, dry patches, and dead skin cells.
A lip scrub is the perfect first step on your ‘how to get smooth lips’ path because not only will the exfoliant buff away dryness but the emollient component of the scrub will also instantly hydrate and soften lips.
Step Two: Treat
Did you know the skin on your lips is significantly thinner than the rest of your face? This is why the lip area can not only remain chronically dry but also be the first to show signs of aging, including a loss of volume, fine lines, and wrinkles. Normally solutions would come in the form of multiple steps and complicated products—until now. Lip treatments have recently become available, specifically made to hydrate, repair, and volumize lips. Lip serums or treatments can 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, working to deeply hydrate, repair, volumize, and revive the look of the lips. How to get soft lips? Try leveling up your routine with a lip treatment.
Step Three: Hydrate
As soon as you finish exfoliating and treating, immediately hydrate the lips. Those freshly scrubbed lips crave moisture, so lock in hydration with a soothing lip balm or lip mask. But before you apply any hydrating product to your lip, check the ingredient list. If you’re slathering on lip products consistently and still have dry, chapped lips, your lip balm (and its ingredients) is likely the issue. The American Academy of Dermatology suggests formulas that include oils and butters (which can linger and seal in moisture for longer), ceramides (they protect the skin, increase hydration, and soothe irritation), and super hydrating ingredients (like squalane, glycerin, and hyaluronic acid).
If lips can’t seem to get enough moisture, try to swap out your lip balm for a lip mask, which has a thicker consistency, more hydrating ingredients, and is designed to linger on lips for longer than a lip balm.
Hydrating inside and out is also important, so be sure you drink enough water. Chapped lips are a direct cause of dehydration, says the Cleveland Clinic.
Step Four: Protect
Mother Nature’s elements, like severe winter winds and the summer’s harsh UV rays, can do a number on the delicate lip area, causing chapped, dehydrated lips. But no matter the season, protect lips from UV exposure with SPF lip balm. Lips are just as prone to burning (or getting skin cancer) as the rest of the face, so hydrate and protect your pout with lip balms that include SPF. The best form of protection is prevention, so find a sunscreen-boosted lip formula that you enjoy reapplying often (and make sure you reapply often when in the sun).
The Best Products to Make Your Lips Soft and Smooth
While some skincare products are helpful but not always necessary, lip products are vital. The sensitive area cannot moisturize itself (like many other areas of the face can) and needs help to stay hydrated. The Tatcha Institute in Japan has tirelessly perfected formulas that not only make lips look healthy, but actually feel healthy, too. Here are the best products to achieve soft, smooth lips.
Step One: The Kissu Lip Scrub
The Kissu Lip Scrub gently scrubs with two exfoliating ingredients: konjac and peach seed. Konjac refines and smooths skin for a brighter appearance, while peach seed removes flakes for more hydrated and refined lips. When it comes to the emollient, we selected one of the most extraordinary and treasured ingredients available, and one that’s a Tatcha signature, too: Japanese camellia oil. The intensely hydrating oil seals in moisture, while also soothing tired lips. Together, The Kissu Lip Scrub effectively sloughs away flakiness and removes dullness while sealing in moisture for smooth, supple lips.
Step Two: The Kissu Lip Treatment
In the works for years, the new Kissu Lip Treatment will take your pout to a whole new level. 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. Packed with sea fern, sea kelp, and carob fruit extract, this formula gives kissable soft lips on demand.
Step Three: Camellia Gold Spun Lip Balm
Feel free to massage on as often as you’d like because our Camellia Gold Spun Lip Balm seals in moisture with camellia oil, renowned for centuries in Japan for its ability to curb dehydration. The formula is also packed with antioxidants and essential fatty acids to help nourish and protect. Additionally, the balm gives lips a hint of shimmer with 23-karat gold flakes.
The Kissu Lip Mask
If you’d like a deeper dose of moisture, grab one of the most awarded lip masks ever: the Kissu Lip Mask. The luscious, jelly texture (yet never sticky) melts into lips to plump, hydrate, smooth, and soften. Perfect for overnight use, but beautiful any time of day, The Kissu Lip Mask features moisture-sealing squalane, revitalizing Japanese peach, and hydrating camellia oil for a revelatory experience.
Step Four: The Kissu Lip Tint SPF 25
The sun doesn’t take seasonal breaks and neither should your lip products. Swipe on the Kissu Lip Tint SPF 25, which hydrates lips and seals in moisture with silk protein and botanical lanolin, protects the delicate skin from sun damage with SPF 25 coverage, and provides a buildable flush of color (available in three shades so you can choose the best one).
