How To Plump Your Lips Naturally

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Want that perfect, plump pout but not interested in fillers and botox? Maybe the idea of injecting stuff into your lips doesn’t sit well with you. Perhaps you’d prefer a natural alternative.

Or maybe you’re trying to stay current with the trends (full lips are big right now!), but realize that a new season brings a new trend. And a permanent solution to stay current with something so fleeting, might leave you with regrets.

Just as trends are temporary, so are our options. If you want to know how to plump your lips naturally, keep reading because we’ve compiled our list of natural lip plumping hacks that will give you those luscious lips that will make everyone jealous.

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How to Plump Your Lips Naturally

There are lots of ways to plump your lips naturally to make them look full, healthy, and beautiful without having to resort to botox or surgery (though if you want to explore some of that, see here).

From organic DIY lip plumpers you can make at home and makeup tricks to our list of (temporary) lip plumping products – we’ve got you covered.

First things first – before you plump, you need to prep!

1. Exfoliate With a Lip Scrub

It’s super easy to make your own natural lip scrub from items in your pantry.

Lip Scrub Recipe – 1 tbsp coconut oil / 1 tbsp brown sugar / 2 tbsp honey

* You can also use plain sugar with this recipe, but avoid using raw sugar as the grains are too coarse and sharp to use as a lip scrub.

Coconut oil is solid at (North American) room temperature. It will liquefy at higher temperatures. The lip scrub should be made and used with the coconut oil in its solid state, so if you find it melting, just put it in the fridge until it solidifies.

Apply the lip scrub with your fingers or a toothbrush and rub in a circular motion. This will remove any dead skin cells. The scrub will increase circulation and boost your lips’ natural fullness and rosy color.

Exfoliate your lips as needed, as often as every other day.

After you exfoliate, follow up immediately with a lip moisturizer to repair and hydrate your lips. Then use a vitamin C lip treatment to hydrate and moisturize.

Clean, nourished lips tend to reflect more light, making them appear fuller and healthier.

2. Stay Hydrated

Making sure you stay hydrated is important if you want fuller-looking lips. Drink plenty of water every day. Studies have shown that adequate amounts of water increase the dermal thickness of the skin.

That means plump skin all over, including your lips.

You can further hydrate your lips with coconut oil, raw cocoa butter or Vaseline.

Rub a generous amount on your lips just before bed every night. This will give your lips a full night to absorb the nutrients and rehydrate naturally. When your lips are properly hydrated, they will look fuller and healthier.

3. Create the Illusion of Fuller Lips with Makeup

Overlining – Use a lip liner to draw fuller lips by lining the outside rim of your lips. Fill in your lips with the pencil, or with lipstick in the same color.

For a nude look, choose a liner similar to the natural color of your lips and lipstick the same color as your liner. Or you can use a clear gloss instead of lipstick. See our article on matching lip liner and lipstick for more information.

Choose light and glossy lipsticks – select colors that are lighter than your lips or no more than two shades darker than your normal lip color. Generally, light and glossy lip colors tend to make your lips look fuller and more natural.

Highlight – Using your finger or a small brush, apply a light highlighter to your Cupid’s bow (the little divot in the middle, over your top lip).

Use a shimmery or frost lipstick or gloss, the same color, but a few shades lighter than your lipstick and apply to the middle of your top and bottom lip.

Both the highlighter and lighter shimmer will make your lips look fuller by reflecting light.

Concealer – If you are going for a super full look, use a skinny brush with just a tiny bit of light concealer to line the outside of your already over-lined lips (make sure to blend it outward so you don’t have a line).

You won’t believe how much more your lipstick will pop!

How Lip Plumpers Work – and a caution

Before we go any further, we want to add a caution: If you have very sensitive skin or overly chapped, cracked lips with open sores or cuts, don’t try the following techniques. The ingredients they contain that will naturally plump your lips, also natural irritants.

The irritation causes blood to rush to the surface of the skin, which results in a mild and temporary plumping of the lips due to mild swelling.

Use your discretion if you are thinking about trying anything on our list below.

1. Make Your Own Natural Plumping Lip Balm

We have a couple of all-natural, super easy to make lip plumping recipes that will give you that perfect plumped pucker:

Coconut oil peppermint plumping lip balm – 1 tbsp coconut oil / 4 or 6 drops peppermint oil

Coconut oil cinnamon plumping lip balm – 1 tbsp coconut oil / 4 or 6 drops cinnamon oil

Store the remaining balm in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 years.

Though things like cayenne pepper and chili powder also produce a plumping effect and there are tons of blogs out there that recommend using these hot spices, we wouldn’t recommend it.

You wanted to know how to plump your lips naturally, not how to burn them! Lip balm can be annoying enough already…

2. Use Essential Oils to Turn Your Lip Gloss into a Lip Plumping Powerhouse

You can use the recipes above, but substitute the coconut oil with a clear lip gloss. This will keep your lips über shiny and moisturized.

3. Make Your Favourite Lipstick into a Plumping Lipstick

Cut the lipstick out of your tube and place it in a bowl with a tablespoon of cocoa butter or Vaseline.

Melt in the microwave for 30 seconds and add 1 tsp olive oil and 1 tbsp cinnamon oil*. Place in a small jar or container that has an airtight lid for storage later, and wait until cool before using.

*note: cinnamon is one of the more irritating plumpers, so might want to try with 1 tsp first to see how it feels on your lips. You can always add more if it’s not enough.