Lip masks are the future, and they are beautifully weird.

We’re well into 2019 and amazing things are happening.

Men all around you are wearing makeup, Korea has turned snails into skincare gods … and now lip masks are getting popular.

What is a lip mask?

Only proof that you can make any part of your body better with a little nourishment.

Do you ever worry that your lips are getting dry? You’re halfway through a hard day and begin to feel a bit of chap, the little fissures forming that will become cracked lips if you don’t get onto it soon. In summer it can get you feeling anxious, and that just makes it worse.

Lip masks are the idea that prevention is the best cure, that your lips will never trouble you if you start the day making your pout perfect. They’re facemasks for your lips.

Isn’t that just a facemask?

Kind of, except lip masks, have a few perks:

Facemasks aren’t fruit flavoured. They’re facemask flavoured.
Most lip masks are lip coloured and shaped, which makes it very clear this is a skincare treatment.
Lip mask ads say you can put them on during your commute. To be honest, most of them are noticeable, but it’s the commute. No one will care.

Like sheet masks, lip masks are riding a tide of celebrities rocking them on social. It started in 2017:

Just before the Golden Globes, an MUA named Rachel Goodwin posted a picture of her client getting treatment. It was Emma Stone, pulling a face with her lips covered in pink goo. It was hilarious, mysterious and perfectly timed.

In the caption, Goodwin introduced lip masks to the world. And that’s how you make lip skincare a thing.

What’s going on in these exotic contraptions?

Users say that a little after you put on the mask, there’s a tingle in your lips. That’s the main active ingredient, collagen. Society is catching onto the power of collagen in a big way, which is why we see it in so many mighty products like bone broth or skinB5’s Clear Skin Superfood Booster.

Collagen is the most common protein in your body. That’s because the skin is a huge deal — it’s your biggest organ. Your tissue is literally made of the stuff, and it slows aging and wrinkles by making the skin more elastic. It’ll even make your bones stronger.

People who use the masks say that their lips become plumper, healthier, with more of a glow. But if you’re into internal skincare, I have great news.

You already have a stash of secret weapons to fight lip chafe.

If anything, lip masks show us that a thorough skin regimen is best. The idea behind lip masks is to hit dryness before it happens by keeping the skin supple and happy.

And the best way to do that is from the inside.

Say you have a long commute to work tomorrow morning. Lip masks are a handy last-minute plan if you’ve forgotten your first line of defense: A good anti-acne supplement. Something with a complete formula like skinB5’s Clear Skin Superfood Booster will have collagen.

Your other secret ingredient is water. I don’t mean have a glass now and enjoy smooth lips for a while. I mean if you figure out a water regimen and stick to it, you can have luscious lips all the time.

We’ve blogged before about how in hot weather when lips really start to crack, you need twice as much water than usual. But before that, you need to know the baseline amount of water that will make you shine, emotionally and physically.

People say eight glasses a day, but a glass is such a subjective amount. So I’m giving you the real number:

Get a calculator, put in your weight in kilos, and times by 0.033.

Do you weigh 60 kilos? You want two litres a day. 90? Three litres. If it seems like a lot, you can try spreading it evenly through the day. Have a pint every six hours. Figure out what happens in your day every three hours and have a glass to match your baseline then. Maybe it’s waking up, arriving at work, lunch, that beautiful couldn’t-be-bothered feeling at 4 pm, dinner, bedtime.

Remember that caffeine and sugary drink will make you less hydrated, even though it has water in it. Your safest bet is good, pure, relieving water. Aim for pale, plentiful and unscented urine. That means you’ve reached your goal. Dark and odorous means you need to stop what you’re doing and get hydrated. Somewhere in between means, you’re on the right track, but the best is yet to come.

After a week of that, if you’ve been having your water with a skinB5 superfood booster and your lips aren’t any more comfortable, I’ll eat a hat made of lip masks. At least they don’t taste like facemask.

Peter Matthews is a freelance writer living in Melbourne. He prefers huge glasses of water to small ones because they’re more forgiving if you forget to drink throughout the day.