I Tried Lip Masks With My Partner & This Happened

As a skincare and sheet mask enthusiast, indulging in a face mask on a weekly basis has become just another facet of my regular beauty routine. But I had never considered the healing and restorative potential behind trying a lip mask until I came across some newbies in Sephora recently. My partner and I were busy spending our graduation gift cards on rows of highlighting powders when we discovered the retailer's Sephora-brand lip masks.

Since we are both beauty aficionados, Skylar and I love trying new products and trends together. The time we spend with one another doing our nails, contouring, and exfoliating our faces makes for incredible centering and bonding that we look forward to often. We especially love winding down together at the end of the day with matching sheet masks, and experiencing the treatments' lovely skin-enhancing benefits side-by-side.

Naturally, we thought that trying these mini-sheets for our pouts together could be fun, too. In the name of beauty-based bonding, we'd also stay true to our obsession with trying new things. With the remainder of my gift card money, I snagged us two different lip masks with high hopes that this experience would be just as compelling as the previous ones. Here's how it all played out.

Our Faces

I have very sensitive skin, especially regarding the area around and on my mouth. Anxious lip biting and frequent eczema breakouts near the corners of my mouth have always made me wary of what I'm using on my precious lips. Many lipsticks irritate my pout, making them itchy and inflamed with the occasional cold sore. So the idea of using a lip mask concerned me a bit. However, assuming the mask didn't irritate my skin, I looked forward to enjoying lips that were a bit less cracked and perhaps even plumper than usual.

Skylar had a different set of concerns and goals in mind. Their lips are already unbelievably smooth and soft, but the area around their mouth is constantly irritated. Whether it be from shaving sensitivity, utilizing lip products, or simply changes in weather, Skylar has had recurring cold sore-looking patches at the corners of their mouth regardless of all the exfoliating and moisturizing they've been doing. Perhaps a lip mask could be the answer to their chronic irritation.

Rose Lip Mask, $3, SephoraShea Lip Mask, $3, Sephora

For these reasons, I opted to use the Rose Mask (which is meant for softening and moisturizing), and Skylar opted to use the Shea Mask (ideal for protection and repair).

Mint Julips Lip Scrub, $11, Lush

After choosing our masks, we exfoliated our lips with some of Lush's minty lip scrub just to have as smooth a working area as possible, and got to work.

The Results

Right away, I could tell that having a mini-sheet mask over our mouths was going to be tricky. I chose to hold my lips in a slightly pouty/slightly open position to reap as many of the benefits from the treatment as I could and cover the majority of my lip skin.

We both loved how we looked in these funny, oversized, lip-shaped sheets, and had a very hard time not laughing or smiling (which, as you might imagine, could cause the sheet to slip or peel off). At one point, I burped with the mask over my lips, and felt like my tummy's gas bubble was perpetually stuck beneath the sheet until I took it off. Very weird.

Skylar and I are used to chatting while relaxing with our sheet masks, but these lip sheets would clearly not allow for that. So after we took our goofy selfies, we laid side by side on the bed and waited out the 15 minutes in silence, making indistinguishable noises every now and then mostly for comic relief. As we did all this, we felt the moisturizing and healing properties of the masks working, soothing our previously irritated skin.

At long last, the 15 minutes were up and it was time to reveal our newly restored pouts. After discarding our tiny sheets in the trash, we massaged the remainder of the mask into our lips and in the areas around our mouth, as the packaging suggested.

We both noted that our lips felt tingly immediately after the masks' removal — something Skylar enjoyed, but I found a little uncomfortable. After having our mouths in the same position for almost 20 minutes, we both licked our lips to find that the remainder of the products tasted not-great (not that the packaging recommends consumption, but I was hoping for more of a rosy taste).

Would We Try This Again?

As the last bits of our lip masks absorbed into our skin, our lips and skin around them felt super hydrated and soothed, while our pouts were even a bit plumper than usual. The cracks in my lips were gone, and Skylar's formerly inflamed skin was much calmer. We both noticed the texture and plumpness of our lips improved just by this one treatment. Quite impressive.

My lips felt amazing for days afterwards. So much so that I avoided using any of my precious lipsticks to preserve the feeling. However, before writing this I used some NYX lipstick and my pout still feel delightful. In fact, the color seemed to go on much easier and more evenly with my newly transformed mouth. Honestly, I'm pretty prepared to buy more of these Sephora lip masks in bulk. My pout has never felt better.

Images: Meg Zulch