Which lip gloss is best for dry lips?

Considering how popular Ilia's Lip Wrap Lip Mask is with Allure readers and editors alike, it should come as no surprise that the brand has launched a daytime balm version of its overnight treatment. In addition to hydration-locking hyaluronic acid, the Lip Wrap Reviving Balm utilizes moisturizing and barrier-supporting natural ingredients like prickly pear oil and sea succulent extract. Over time, that stronger barrier means even dryness-prone lips hold onto moisture more effectively.

Ilia Lip Wrap Reviving Balm

Drunk Elephant Lippe Balm lives rent-free on Allure contributing editor Marci Robin's nightstand. Broader than your usual balm stick, you get no-fail coverage when applying the buttery formula, which includes avocado oil — full of omega fatty acids, antioxidants, and vitamins — as well as peptides to boost lips' plumpness. "Even if I apply it an hour or two before I actually fall asleep, I always wake up with smooth lips," Robin says. "That's pretty much a miracle for my perennially flaky lip skin."

Drunk Elephant Lippe Balm

There are so many amazing lip-nourishing ingredients in Chanel's super luxurious Hydra Beauty Nourishing Lip Care — jojoba oil, shea butter, and meadowfoam seed oil, for example — but the real start of this splurge-y formula is the camellia. Two different types of extracts from the flower ensure that hydration stays locked into your delicate lips all day long.

Chanel Hydra Beauty Nourishing Lip Care

It honestly makes sense that Paula's Choice Hyaluronic Acid and Peptide Lip Booster doesn't have "balm" in the name, because it's so much more than that. Made to not only moisturize lips but also plump up lines around the border, it relies on hyaluronic acid and peptides to promote more fullness without any irritation. Its squalane also does an awesome job stopping moisture loss, so lips look and feel soft long after application.

Paula's Choice Hyaluronic Acid and Peptide Lip Booster

If you take a hard pass on scented lip balms in favor of straightforward hydration, the undeniably lovely Biossance Squalane + Rose Vegan Lip Balm will make a great impression on you. As with every Biossance product, squalane is the star of the show because it's such a reliable moisturizer — especially when assisted by ingredients like hyaluronic acid and ceramides to attract and lock in that moisture. It's the kind of replenishment that leads to lips looking noticeably plumper when you use it consistently.

Biossance Squalane + Rose Vegan Lip Balm

The brand may be called Summer Fridays, but its Lip Butter Balm is a year-round must-have. Two majorly moisturizing botanical butters, shea and murumuru seed, condition dry skin while vegan waxes smooth over flakes and seal in hydration. Plus, the natural vanilla flavor makes it downright impossible to resist, even when your lips are feeling far from chapped.

Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm

It may be no-frills, but this Lather Lip Conditioning Balm doesn't need bells and whistles to make a noticeable difference in how your lips feel. "I'll apply it in the morning when I get it up, and it stays put throughout the day," says associate beauty director Sarah Kinonen, who'll reapply it just before bed. That long-lasting moisture comes from avocado oil, sweet almond oil, and evening primrose oil, which get some soothing help from hydrating, calming aloe.

Lather Lip Conditioning Balm

Although editorial assistant Talia Gutierrez uses the Chapstick Total Hydration With Sea Minerals Overnight Lip Renewal Treatment overnight as the name suggests, she's gotten in the habit of applying the aloe and shea butter-infused formula during the day, too — especially before putting on makeup. "It's like a lip oil and lip mask hybrid I use to keep my lips from drying out whenever I wear a lipstick or crayon," she says, adding that her lips are never chapped when this is a regular part of her routine.

Chapstick Total Hydration With Sea Minerals Overnight Treatment

Don't worry if it's cold out — your body heat will still be more than enough to help Kinship Supermelt Vegan Lip Jelly Mask transform from a balm to moisturizing oil that efficiently addresses dry, chapped, and even cracked lips. Beauty editor Devon Abelman especially loves using it at night to undo the day's damage. "I may go to sleep with crusty lips, but I always wake up with lush, plump ones when I slather this on before bed," she says.

Kinship Supermelt Vegan Lip Jelly Mask

It's downright ridiculous — in the best possible way, of course — how long Skin Regimen's Lip Balm lasts. For hours on end, its vitamin E (provided by avocado oil and karite butter) protects and moisturizes skin into a remarkably supple state that rarely ever calls for a touch-up. "It has a super-creamy formula that goes on like a gloss," says deputy editor Kara McGrath, "but it keeps my lips hydrated for literally the whole day."

A 2019 Allure Best of Beauty winner, Laneige's Lip Sleeping Mask works overtime to ensure lips are moisturized, supple, and smooth-as-silk by morning. Infused with berry-derived antioxidants and vitamin C, as well as its proprietary "moisture wrap" technology, you'll notice a visible difference in dryness after just one use. The intoxicating fruity scent doesn't hurt either, though if that's not your jam, it also comes in vanilla and apple lime.

A word from Allure beauty editor Paige Stables: “Even though it's designed to use as an overnight mask, I also love it during the day,” she says. "A thin layer of the antioxidant-rich balm adds the prettiest subtle sheen to lips, and it layers nicely with lipstick, too."

Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask

Sara Happ's The Dream Slip Night Lip Treatment renews your lips while you sleep. Just dab the glaze — packed with jojoba oil — onto your lips before your head hits the pillow and allow the formula to melt in. When you wake up in the morning, you'll notice a smoother, softer pout.  

Sara Happ The Dream Slip Night Lip Treatment

The Patrick Ta Major Glow Softening Lip Masque is made with an emollient ester blend that imparts shine and moisture and a vegan form of lanolin that seals in that moisture, making lips look plump and hydrated. 

Patrick Ta Major Glow Softening Lip Masque

Editors are obsessed with Glossier's Balm Dotcom for its chic packaging and its ability to soothe dry, chapped anything — lips, cuticles, elbows, heels, you name it.

Carmex Lip Balm is an oldie but a goodie. The iconic formula (which contains petrolatum, menthol, and camphor) has been soothing cracked lips for almost 80 years. One application, and it's no surprise why we keep going back to it every winter.

Fresh's Sugar Tinted Lip Treatments are a beauty editor staple, and it isn't hard to understand why. They feel rich and moisturizing on lips, and depending on swipe strength, the color can range from a sheer tint to a juicier, more saturated sheen.

Fresh Sugar Tulip Tinted Lip Treatment

Loaded with antioxidants and vitamins — including A, C, and E — Dr. Pawpaw's Multipurpose Soothing Balm delivers an intense dose of nourishment to the lips, as well as anywhere else on the body that could use some T.L.C. Additionally, its main ingredient, plant-derived fermented pawpaw, is lauded for soothing dry, irritated lips on contact. And if that wasn't enough, it's also fragrance-free and vegan-friendly, making it suitable for so many different people.

Dr. Pawpaw Multi-Purpose Balm

Don't let the millennial-friendly packaging fool you: Lanolips 101 Ointment Multipurpose Superbalm is widely loved for a reason. Not only does it work wonders on dry, cracked lips — as well as chapped areas anywhere on the body — but it's also lightweight, non-sticky, and leaves behind a silky sheen that doesn't disappear after an hour. You can't go wrong with this one.

Lanolips 101 Ointment Multipurpose Superbalm

In addition to being intensely hydrating, Smith's Rosebud Salve has the slightest hint of pink, making it one of the easiest way to boost your natural lip color if you're going for a no-makeup makeup look. Makeup artist Diane Kendal keeps tins of the stuff in her kit at all times.

We're big fans of Bite Beauty's Agave Lip Mask — it's heavy-duty enough that you can put some on before bed and lips will still be nice and moisturized come morning.

Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask

Clarins Lip Comfort Oil is one of those products that we could keep smearing on our lips all day because it feels slick, smells like vanilla, and makes lips super shiny while moisturizing them at the same time.

Protect your lips with nourishing conditioners like the mango and cocoa butter in the Flower Beauty Petal Pout Lip Mask. This treatment goes on with a sheer, peachy hue so you can wear it all day long just like it's a regular lipstick. Needless to say, it deserved a Best of Beauty award. 

Flower Beauty Petal Pout Lip Mask

Look, you know a lip treatment is legit when the entire Allure team can't stop telling everyone and their mothers about it. Available in six sheer, lip-enhancing shades — including a lime green hue and a blackish-purple — this Japanese lip treatment goes above and beyond your basic balm, almost acting as a lip gloss.  

Formulated with innovative "self-moisturizing" technology, the UZ team created an elixir that truly leaves your lips hydrated for hours. Sure, the shiny effect might fade throughout the day, but unless you want an ultra-glossy look, you won't find yourself reaching to reapply this luxe treatment every 15 minutes (unless you feel like it, that is). To learn more and see what it looks like on the lips, check out our digital beauty editor's in-depth review.

UZ 38°C/99°F Lip Treatment