5 Needle-Free Ways To Make Your Lips Look Fuller

“We naturally look at someone’s mouth when we’re having a conversation,” says celebrity dermatologist Dr. Dennis Gross. “Plus, the continued use of video chats for meetings has led to a pronounced emphasis on the lips and lip area.” As a result, he says, he has seen a dramatic increase in the number of patients seeking lip treatments over the past few years: “Whether it’s for professional injections or something they can use topically to mimic the effects of filler. Plus, when lips are plumped in the right way, it can actually make you look more youthful.” With more at-home products, non-invasive in-office alternatives and plumping makeup techniques on offer this spring, it’s easier than ever to get a softly defined, subtly more voluminous pout without the needle. Here’s how…

Call them wet-look, high-shine or glossy lips, the lip-gloss revival is still going strong this spring. Once a 2000s beauty staple, it’s been given a sophisticated update for 2025 with formulas that hydrate and plump instead of being sticky. To get the look, prep is essential. Just like the skin on the rest of your face, your lips need moisture to keep them hydrated and plump, so start with a moisturizing lip balm to create a smooth, flake-free base. When it comes to lip gloss, Charlotte Tilbury’s Collagen Lip Bath delivers a gorgeous high-shine finish, as does Sisley Paris’s Le Phyto-Gloss, which comes in a range of pink-to-neutral shades, including transparent Moon. Wear it on its own or over your favorite lip color for an instant lacquered effect.

While often neglected, the texture and tone of the skin around your mouth can make a big difference to your overall lip look. “This area is incredibly difficult to treat,” affirms Dr. Gross. “You can’t fill lines around the mouth with filler – you need to trigger collagen production instead. LED is a great way to treat this area, because it stimulates collagen production in the skin as well as blood flow, which increases plumpness and your natural lip color at the same time.” Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare’s FDA-cleared DRx Spectralite LipWare Pro LED device uses 56 lights in an array of wavelengths (amber, red, deep red and infrared) to stimulate circulation and collagen production at all layers of the skin on and around our lips in just three minutes. The result? Fewer fine lines, a more even texture, a brighter natural lip color and a more defined, fuller pout. Equally effective are MZ Skin’s Lightmax Minipro LED eye patches. They stick to skin using a double-sided colloidal patch and can easily be applied around the lip contours to help plump and strengthen the skin here, too.

While topical lip formulas won’t deliver as dramatic a result as injectable filler, they can help you achieve a bee-stung effect in an instant. “There’s a bit of filler fatigue at the moment, and topical products are an attractive option because they’re more affordable than filler, plus you avoid having to commit to the long-term look of filler,” says Dr. Gross. His Derminfusions Plump + Repair Lip Treatment is a hydrating-balm formula that plumps your pout (it gave mine noticeable inflation in seconds), helps to define your lip line, and boosts lip color using four molecular weights of hyaluronic acid, smoothing peptides and skin-soothing centella asiatica and ectoin, which help to protect against irritants that can come from traditional lip-plumping formulas. Use it alongside the brand’s DRx Spectralite LipWare Pro device (the treatment is best applied after the three-minute LED session). Equally effective is Dr. Macrene’s Macrene Actives High Performance Lip Filler, which uses a special peptide to smooth fine lines. If you like a bit of color, MZ Skin’s Volumising Lip Perfector delivers a glossy nude tint, while La Mer’s The Lip Volumizers offer subtle volume with just the right amount of iridescence in universally flattering pink, nude, coral and berry shades.

Ombré lips – a modernized makeup technique of the ’90’s dark lip-liner look – features a gradient effect using two or more shades of lip products for a fuller finish. You can do this hack with any color, but brown, beige and neutral hues work best to achieve a plumper-looking pout (think Cynthia Erivo at the Golden Globes). “Start with a lip liner that’s a shade or two darker than your natural lip color,” says makeup artist Sheika Daley, who works with Zendaya. “I tend to use powders as lip liners – normally the same formula and color I’ve used as a face contour, which works perfectly to keep that seamless monochromatic look. Just blend the color down from the lip line a bit, and use your favorite nude lip gloss or lipstick over the top.” This will give you a seamless gradient effect. However, the key, according to Daley, is to add a dollop of clear lip gloss on top of the colored gloss or lipstick, just in the center of your pout. “Most of my clients are on the red carpet, so by putting gloss in the center of the lips, it gives it time to spread over the whole lip. It’s a great trick if you don’t want color to bleed too early.”

“Our lips are one of the first areas to suffer loss of collagen and fat as we age – as early as 25 – and, as a result, they kind of ‘implode’ inwards, look thinner, and fine lines start to appear on and around them,” says Dr. Rita Rakus, who is known for her discreet approach to lip enhancement. “Thermage FLX is an in-office treatment that uses radiofrequency [RF] to reach the deepest layers of the skin with targeted pulses of energy. The heat from RF stimulates the production of collagen, which in turn tightens and plumps the skin. Focusing on the lips is a completely new use of Thermage FLX and one that works a treat.” The treatment is an easy 30 minutes – it’s not painful; it just feels a little warm, especially when the device is taken over more sensitive areas of the lips. You’ll see an immediate lift of your upper lip afterwards, as well as plumping (and there’s typically no redness or downtime), but the real results develop slowly over several months, as your skin builds collagen. “It’s an increasingly popular treatment, especially with slightly older patients, as it offers more than just lip plumping and fullness,” adds Dr. Rakus. “It lifts and tightens the skin above the cupid’s bow to add volume and rejuvenates the entire lip area.”