How To Exfoliate Your Lips The Right Way: DIY Lip Scrub

Wondering how to exfoliate your lips the right way at home? When it comes to skincare, it can be easy to forget about your lips. However, your lips are often the first to suffer in dry or windy weather. This is because the skin on the lips is extremely thin, with no sebaceous glands to secrete natural oils.

As you age, your lips need greater help to stay moisturized and supple. So, if plumper, younger-looking lips are what you seek, learning how to make a good DIY lip scrub is paramount.

Just remember: Because your lips are ultra fragile, it’s important that you don’t overdo any DIY lip scrub routine.

Are You Suffering From Dry And Chapped Lips? Why Lip Exfoliation Is Important

To begin with, dry lips are the enemy of the perfect pout. Dry skin may make your lips look much older than they are, just as it can on your face and body. Dry, flaky lips also prevent you from pulling off your favorite lip color with ease. All those tiny flakes become highlighted as they get “stuck” in the color.

Exfoliation gently removes dead skin cells, helping to get your lips back to their naturally smooth, soft state. The bonus? Smooth skin (including smooth lips) reflects light. This may give your lips the appearance of being plumper, smoother, and more radiant.¹

How To Exfoliate Your Lips The Right Way Using Gentle And Natural Ingredients

Whether your lips are dry from the weather, too much sun, stress, aging, or just not enough hydration – it’s essential to know how to properly exfoliate them so you don’t cause any damage. A DIY lip exfoliator might help to keep those smackers looking younger and healthier.

Always start with clean lips, and no matter what DIY scrub you choose, a clever tool can go a long way. The best tool for your exfoliating routine is, quite simply, an old toothbrush.

Whether you choose to use a toothbrush on its own or combine it with a DIY scrub, here’s how to exfoliate your lips the correct way:

Wet the toothbrush (or dip it into your exfoliant).
Gently buff your lips in a circular manner for a few seconds.
Don’t exfoliate lips too much. Once or twice a week is plenty.
Always moisturize after exfoliating your lips. Grab your favorite lip balm or a quality lip-enhancing hydrator.
Invest in some quality, hydrating lip gloss tints.

Note: Buffing your lips also helps support blood circulation, giving them a temporary boost of color. So, you can do this right before you leave the house for a quick, natural glow.²

Try This DIY Lip Scrub Combination: Almond, Jojoba, Coconut, Or Olive Oil With Sugar

Homemade lip scrubs are so simple. You can use natural ingredients that are already on your shelf. The two key ingredients for any good scrub are:

A little texture to slough away dead skin cells
Moisturization

So, a great example would be to choose a natural oil – like almond oil, olive oil, coconut oil, or jojoba oil – and then combine it with gritty sugar. Sugar is one of the very best natural exfoliants for the skin. Brown sugar, in particular, is excellent. This is because it has finer grains and is the least abrasive.³

To make your moisturizing brown sugar lip scrub, simply combine ½ cup of brown sugar with ¼ cup of your desired oil. That’s all you need.

You can also give it a lovely fragrance boost by adding a little lemon juice, vanilla essence, or a handful of dried out and finely blended rose petals.

More Homemade Lip Scrub Recipes: Petroleum Jelly, Baking Soda, Honey, And More

Here are some more fresh ideas for a natural, easy, homemade lip scrub.

Honey And Sugar Lip Scrub

Did you know that honey is deeply moisturizing? Honey can act like an emollient (softens the skin) and a humectant (draws water into the skin). So, honey can help to both soothe and hydrate the lips.⁴

Mix a teaspoon of honey with two teaspoons of brown sugar.
Gently massage into your lips in a circular motion for a couple of minutes.
Wipe clean with a soft, wet face cloth.

Shea Butter Sugar Lip Scrub

Shea butter is famed for being an incredibly moisturizing body cream. So, it makes perfect sense why you’d want to put this nourishing, natural cream into your lip scrub.⁵

Mix a tablespoon each of brown sugar, honey, and olive oil, and combine with one teaspoon of shea butter.
Gently massage into your lips in a circular motion for a couple of minutes.
Wipe clean with a soft, wet face cloth.

Petroleum Jelly Lip Scrub

It doesn’t get any simpler than this recipe. Petroleum jelly locks in the moisture, and your old toothbrush supplies the grit (without any grainy ingredients). In fact, if you don’t have an old toothbrush lying around, the fibers in a face cloth are also quite effective on their own.

Grab your toothbrush and a jar of petroleum oil or your favorite moisturizing lip balm.
Place the jelly or lip balm directly onto the brush head and rub gently in a circular motion.
Wipe clean with a soft, wet face cloth.

Baking Soda Lip Scrub

One gritty substance easily found around the home is baking soda. Put it to use to help you get glowing, soft lips.

Sprinkle some baking soda into a dish, or your palm, and add just a few drops of water – enough to form a paste.
Apply to your lips with the toothbrush, and gently massage into your lips.
Wipe clean with a soft, wet face cloth.

Exfoliate Lips, But Don’t Stop There

When learning how to exfoliate lips properly, the final step is just as important – always moisturize your lips after exfoliating.

A good exfoliant only does half the job – removing the dead skin cells. Which is essential, as dead skin cells can block moisturizer from reaching deep into the skin. But a lip moisturizer completes the journey to healthy lips by sealing in the moisture.

Seek out deeply nourishing lip enhancing hydrators that contain such ingredients as hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and peptides. It’s also a great idea to choose lipsticks that will also moisturize and enhance your lips. You can find lipsticks that also contain these moisturizing ingredients.

And above all, avoid matte lipsticks. Matte lipsticks contain less oil, which makes the lipstick drier and more likely to settle into your fine lines (or to show up as dry flakes).

The Perfect Pout

Finally, you can’t perfect the perfect pout while protecting your lips from damage. Always practice good lip hygiene, and apply sunscreen to your lips whenever you leave the house. The sun’s UV rays are one of the greatest causes of premature aging.⁶

Learn More:
Exfoliation 101: What You Should Know About AHAs And BHAs In Your Skin Care Products
Why You Should Exfoliate Body, Face, Lips, And Hand Skin (Plus Exfoliation Tips For Softer And Smoother Skin)
Tips For A Natural Manicure At Home: DIY Nails

Sources
1 https://www.allure.com/gallery/get-glowing-how-to-revive-dull-skin
2 https://www.marieclaire.com/beauty/makeup/g2253/make-your-lips-look-bigger/
3 https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/homemade_sugar_scrubs_for_skin_care
4 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24305429/
5 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5933397/
6 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4344124/