Is This Lip Mask Worth the Hype? We Think So. | Reviews by Wirecutter

Mar 27, 2025

By Hannah Frye

Hannah Frye is a writer covering beauty and style. She swears by clothing rental services and won’t leave the house with less than three lip products.

As the ever-expanding world of gooey lip balms grows by the second, they often seem to drift into two categories—those draped in beautiful packaging with a luxurious feel and those that truly deliver results.

But one Wirecutter staff favorite, the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask, bridges the divide, offering both indulgence and efficacy. We know it’s one of those über-popular beauty products making waves on TikTok and Reddit, with high-praise reviews on Sephora to match. We know it’s hyped up. But we think the hype is well deserved.

This little pot even earned a place in our guide to the best Korean skin-care products and has long resided in the makeup bags, nightstands, and purses of Wirecutter staffers, who are shoppers known for their discerning taste.

As Wirecutter editorial director Marguerite Preston, who has been using this lip mask for nearly a year, says, “My lips are in the best shape they’ve ever been.”

Though this balm is too sheer to qualify as a mask, it does soften lips at bedtime. And it has a yummy fragrance and a pretty shine, so it’s great for all-day wear, too.

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Reapplying lip balm all day can be tedious, so the fact that a single application of this Laneige balm can have lasting effects is one reason our staffers love it.

“I used to get horrible cracked lips in the winter (as one does), and when I apply it even just once a day in colder months, I avoid it altogether,” says Wirecutter senior social strategist Hali Potters.

Marguerite says that she used to wake up to dry lips each morning, but now they feel soft and hydrated, “and often that feeling lasts all day.” The balm has been a “game changer for my chronically dry, chapped lips.”

Inside the jar are hydrating ingredients such as shea butter, murumuru butter, and coconut oil, all of which contribute to keeping skin moisturized and soft to the touch.

While many people use it exclusively at night, others also reach for the pot during the day, swiping it on as a lip gloss or, as Hali put it, a “pre-makeup lip treatment.”

The jar is small yet mighty, so you need to use only a little at a time. One staffer says that they’ve used the same tiny jar for over a year, both with evening and daytime use, and still have more to work through. So although nearly $25 may seem steep at first for a lip balm, its lasting power makes it worth the investment.

Compared with a traditional lip balm in stick form, this one leans goopy. But before that word sends you running, let’s be clear: The plush, cushiony texture is exactly why Wirecutter staffers and countless reviewers rave about it.

The formula walks a fine line between overly rich and completely weightless. It could be sticky, but it isn’t. Once applied, it melts into lips, feeling soft and pillowy rather than tacky. As someone who loathes getting hair stuck in lip gloss, I can confirm that this balm doesn’t hold on to my strands like a lint roller. Instead, after I apply it in the evening, I can toss and turn in my bed freely, never feeling sticky or overly glossed.

That said, not everyone agrees with the “mask” label. Some testers for our guide to the best Korean skin-care products found the name misleading. Senior staff writer Rory Evans, the author of that guide, considers a “mask” to be thicker than a balm that doubles as a wearable lip gloss. “It makes for a yummy, luscious daytime gloss, and its smooth, satiny texture strikes us as too sheer to earn mask status,” Rory notes.

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The original shade and flavor of the balm is berry, nestled in a charming hot pink jar, but Laneige also offers other playful options for those who enjoy exploring different tastes, such as a light purple gummy bear, a bubblegum-pink sweet candy, and a cream-colored vanilla.

As someone who has grown accustomed to the Aquaphors and Vaselines of the world, I didn’t think I’d love the addition of flavor to my lip-care routine, but it has unexpectedly grown on me. In fact, the subtle berry note is much more satisfying to me than the heavy petrolatum-y taste of those other, traditional gooey lip balms.

The delightful flavors may even explain why some staffers have had their Laneige lip mask jars playfully swiped by their children. “My sons beg to use it if their lips are feeling chapped,” says Jennifer Smith, Wirecutter’s manager of commerce operations. Another staffer, senior staff writer Zoe Vanderweide, says, “My daughter loves it. She’ll run into the bathroom saying, ‘I need some Laneige!’”

In a world where call-it-what-you-want lip balms, lip masks, and lip treatments seem to fall from the sky on a daily basis, this balm has earned its place among our crew of discerning shoppers—and a host of other beauty enthusiasts—for good reasons.

It’s adorable, yes, but not deceivingly so.

This article was edited by Hannah Rimm and Maxine Builder.

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Hannah Frye

Hannah Frye is a staff writer reporting on beauty and style for Wirecutter. She was previously an editor at Mindbodygreen. She has been using skin-care items since she was 11 (which, she says, is a fact, not a recommendation). When she isn’t making new Pinterest boards or shopping for vintage clothes on eBay, she’s testing vegan recipes in her Brooklyn apartment.

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