Most of us would prefer to have lips that are a natural shade of pinky-red. Not only is this a look that’s often associated with attractiveness and femininity, but it’s also a sign that your lips are healthy.Â
When your lips are chapped, on the other hand, they’re far less likely to attract the right attention. In severe cases, chapped lips can even cause bleeding.
Luckily, it doesn't take much to fix your lips for good and naturally lighten them, making them soft and pink. You’ll be relieved to know that there are plenty of ways to lighten dark lips that don’t require buying expensive products or trying out even more expensive treatments.Â
Natural home remedies are just as effective in lightening your lips, providing you know what you’re doing. The time it takes for these remedies to work varies, but they’re all-natural and safe to use, so feel free to repeat them for as long as needed to achieve the results you want.
First off, what exactly is it that makes your lips go dark?
A whole range of factors can affect the colour of your lips. These include low blood circulation, heightened stress, taking drugs or smoking, and dehydration.Â
You may also experience an unwanted colour change in your lips if you consistently use lip cosmetics or other makeup products, which is frustrating because you’ll probably want to use more cosmetics to cover up your darkness as time goes on. Additionally, hyperpigmentation, anaemia, too much time in the sun, and even drinking caffeine and other hot beverages can cause discolouration of the lips.
You should certainly take all of those factors into account if you want to naturally pinken your lips for good, but there are certain home remedies you can try out that will help to speed up the process in the meantime. Who needs plastic surgery, scrubbing, or peeling when you can achieve similar results from home?
Stay tuned to hear everything you need to know about getting pink lips the natural way:
1. Create a honey sugar scrub
Honey and sugar make a delicious super-sweet combination for eating, but if you manage to spare a little, you can use it on your lips for natural pinkening. This scrub is really gentle, so it’s well-suited to the tender skin of your lips. Using a sugar scrub provides a highly effective exfoliation, or the gentle removal of dead skin cells, which are often the reason why your lips take on an unpleasant colour.
It’s technically fine to make this scrub with white sugar, but if you have it in your kitchen cupboards, brown sugar is a lot gentler on the skin. It also has the added benefit of being rich in antioxidants, the things that protect your skin from ultraviolet damage from the sun’s rays. Not only that but the glycolic acid present in brown sugar conditions your skin and protects it from toxins.
Honey is just as beneficial when it comes to skincare. It’s a natural humectant, which means it attracts moisture. In this way, it helps keep your exfoliated lips hydrated and healthy. The enzymes present in honey also help to naturally lighten the skin tone of your lips.
To try out the recipe yourself, here’s what you need to do: First, add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar to a small bowl. Then add 1 tablespoon of honey and mix the ingredients thoroughly. Once it’s fully combined, apply the scrub over your lips with your finger.Â
Lightly massage it on your lips for up to a minute – this is helpful for exfoliation, and also boosts blood circulation in the lips, making them healthier and lighter with time. Leave the scrub on your lips for a few minutes, then wash it off with cold water. Repeat 2 or 3 times a week until you see noticeable results.
2. Create a pomegranate seed and milk scrub
If you’re looking for something a little fancier than honey and sugar, here’s another scrub to try out, this time with pomegranate seeds and milk. Pomegranate is particularly effective in lightening pigmented lips, as it contains a compound called punicalagin that prevents the production of melanin. It’s also said to be a natural lip protectant, preventing lips from getting darker when exposed to the sun.
It’s quick and simple to make this scrub for yourself. Just take a handful of pomegranate seeds and grind them until they become more of a dust. Then mix the pomegranate seeds with a couple of splashes of milk, adding more until the mixture becomes paste-like.Â
Apply this mixture onto your lips, then leave it for about 15 minutes until it dries. Finally, wash off with cold water. You can apply this scrub daily for about one month continuously, in which time, you should notice that your lips become much pinker in colour.
3. Make a raspberry, aloe vera, and organic honey scrub
If you have a bigger variety of ingredients in your fridge, you might want to experiment with a raspberry, aloe vera, and organic honey scrub. Berries contain vital minerals and vitamins that are essential for keeping your lips healthy and vibrant. Both raspberries and strawberries also can give dark lips a much lighter, rosier colour, so you can use one fruit or the other – or both! – when preparing this remedy.
We’ve already mentioned some benefits of honey, but in this recipe, it’s particularly effective as a moisturizing agent, for softening your lips and restoring their natural pink colour. Aloe vera is another well-known soothing ingredient, which can help to treat chapped and irritated lips. It also stimulates the growth of new skin cells and aids in lessening skin damage caused by the sun, so it’s a great product all-round for dark lips.
You can see why combined together, these ingredients can really help to make your lips pink naturally. It’s fairly easy to prepare, too: just take equal parts raspberries, aloe vera gel, and organic honey and add it to a bowl (a tablespoon of each may be best to start with).Â
Then mash the fruits and blend the ingredients well to make a paste. Apply this paste straight to your lips, gently massaging in with your fingers. Leave it for about 20 minutes before you wash it off, then pat it dry and repeat whenever you fancy.
4. Create a lemon and almond oil balm
If you fancy something less bitty and exfoliating, try making a scrub out of lemon and almond oil. Lemon is an impressive skin-lightening agent, being a natural toner. Generally, it’s safe to use on the majority of skin types, but you can always do a patch test on the back of your hand to be sure. Lemon can also help to reverse the sun damage on your lips and lighten them naturally.
Lemon juice is fairly drying, which is why you should combine it with a good moisturizer like almond oil. This type of oil hydrates your lips from within, and studies have also found it can improve their complexion. If you don’t have almond oil, melted and cooled coconut oil makes an effective alternative.
To make this recipe yourself, squeeze the juice from half a lemon into a bowl, and add 1 tablespoon of almond or coconut oil. Mix the two thoroughly until they’re properly combined. Then lightly massage the mixture on your lips and leave to dry. For the best results, leave the mixture on your lips overnight. You can repeat the process every night for 3 to 4 weeks.
5. Make a beetroot juice and honey balm
If you’ve ever eaten beetroot, you’ll probably know well just how bad it can stain your lips, tongue, and teeth bright pink. But we’re not suggesting you simply stain your lips with beetroot every day – applying it to your skin can also naturally clear up the pigmentation. Another reason to love beetroot is that it’s also free of chemicals and inexpensive, so really, you may as well make the most of it.
To give this method a try, just combine one tablespoon of beetroot juice with an equal quantity of honey. Wet your lips with a piece of cotton, then massage the liquid over your lips. Leave it n overnight for the best results.Â
In the morning, you should notice your lips have taken on a soft texture and a pinkish tinge. Continue this for a week to achieve naturally pink lips.
6. Create a lemon and sugar scrub
They’re probably best known for their pairing on a pancake, but lemon and sugar also make an excellent lip-pinkening duo. Lemon is an effective natural bleaching agent, and sugar helps to exfoliate the dead skin cells. The citric acid in lemon juice helps to lighten the dark shade of lips, which helps your lips to take on a pinker appearance as a result.
Keep in mind that lemon is acidic in nature, and not all skin types will adjust to it, especially if you have extra sensitive skin. It’s worth adding a carrier oil to the mix if you want to keep your lips hydrated and moisturised when using this recipe.
What else should you know?
Now you have an idea of the basic recipes for getting pinker lips from home, here are a couple of other tips. First of all, no matter how delicious some of these recipes may sound, try to resist the urge to lick them off your lips. Your saliva will dry out your lips, which can actually make your lip situation even worse.
Equally, if you use commercial lip balms frequently, try replacing them with your own homemade alternative. Your lips will stop getting dry so much, as you’ll only be treating them with all-natural ingredients. Other preventative measures to take are wearing a good sunscreen, cutting down on smoking, and always removing your lip makeup before bed.
Conclusion
Having naturally pink lips is something that many of us wish for, and achieving the look is simpler than you might think. Rather than wasting money on expensive commercial products that might not work, try out the six recipes mentioned in this video first.Â
Once your lips are looking pinker, the best way to maintain them is to stay hydrated, get your vitamins, and avoid bad habits.
