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If we’re talking about fillers around the mouth, there are basically two main types that you might be looking at. 

(And this post will cover them both!)

If you have many short wrinkles or lines that extend directly from around your lips, which many people call “smoker’s lines”, there are good cosmetic treatments that will address them! We’ll look over the best options for these tiny lines in the mouth area. 

And if you have longer, vertical lines that stretch from the corners of the nose to the corners of the mouth, and that might even continue past the corner of your mouth, there are separate treatments for those too! Those lines have a bunch of different names – “nasolabilal folds”, “smile lines” or “laugh lines”, or “marionette lines”.  

I’m going to cover both types in this post, starting with the lines that come out of the lips. The treatments are different for each! 

Why are there wrinkles around my mouth?

They call them “smoker’s lines”, but of course you don’t have to be a smoker to get them. They can just as easily come from using a straw, or pursing your lips when you think. They’re also just part of the natural aging process! We experience volume loss in our face as we age, and those lip wrinkles happen as a result.  

For that reason, I don’t love calling them “smoker’s lines”. I feel like it’s a judgy name. My mother used to call them “lipstick lines”, and that’s definitely better. I’d like to call them upper lip lines, because they are generally more pronounced in the upper lip area. But as long as you know what lines I mean, we’re good. 

You’ll see these vertical lip lines in this very chic woman! They extend up and out from the edges of her lips. 

As we age, these lines can become quite deep creases. They’re the result of living our lives! Kissing, eating, smiling, drinking iced coffee…I’m not giving any of these things up and I hope you don’t either. (If you smoke, you might want to give that one up! Full disclosure, I smoked cigarettes for years. I’m glad I quit.)

What fillers are best for wrinkles around the mouth?

But them being natural doesn’t mean we’re stuck with them. Fillers are the option you searched for when you found this post, so I’ll start with those. 

Because our mouths need to be able to move in so many different ways, you want a soft, loose filler for these lines. The best filler options for lines around the mouth are going to be focused on movement and flexibility. (A surprising number of fillers are really stiff or can clump up on you.)

​A few options that are good for lines around the mouth: 

• Restylane Kysse is specifically marketed for lips and lip lines and might be a great choice if you also want to add some volume to your lips;
• Otherwise, Restylane Refyne also targets moderate lines and prioritizes flexibility
• Belotero Balance also emphasizes smoothness and ensuring that you’re still able to move your lips as you do right now
• and Revance markets a line called RHA that advertises easy movement. There’s a few different weights in the line, so your plastic surgeon would make the call on which is best.   

What other treatments will work for wrinkles around the mouth?

Okay, I gave you the fillers first because you asked for fillers first, but I personally would not start with fillers for lines around the mouth! 

Fillers are a comparatively expensive treatment that requires a lot of upkeep– some of these fillers advertise that they last only six months! 

So here are some other options for smoker’s lines or lipstick lines:

• Botox for smoker’s lines​. If you already get Botox, your injector can add a small amount to your upper lip to suppress the muscles that purse your lip, smoothing the wrinkles over it. It’s such a small quantity of toxin that this works out to be quite an inexpensive add-on. However, some people don’t like feeling that the movement of their lips is limited. 
• Microneedling for smoker’s lines. Okay, let me be real here: microneedling around your lips hurts. But this is probably the most inexpensive option for smoker’s lines, even if you do it in an office. The microneedling leads your body to production of collagen, and that collagen stays permanently. More microneedling will bring further improvements. 

As an aside: platelet-rich plasma can be a great add-on to this treatment. However, I would not add radiofrequency to a microneedling treatment on the face. Many people describe fat loss and volume loss as side effects of radiofrequency. And if we’re talking about anti-aging, we are not looking to lose any volume. Radiofrequency (sometimes marketed as RF) has its uses, but it’s not the best way to do anti-aging on the face. 

What are marionette lines or laugh lines?

Marionette lines or nasolabial folds are facial wrinkles that start at the corners of your nose, connect to the corners of your mouth on the same side, and then sometimes extend below the mouth slightly, towards the tip of the chin.

Because of the rounded appearance, they’re sometimes also called parentheses lines. I prefer laugh lines or smile lines! Because they are the sign of a life well lived that you are enjoying! 

But the appearance of marionette lines is aging, and it’s understandable that you might want to get rid of them. Fillers can lead to a more youthful appearance, and they’re an effective treatment for these lines. 

Really, these lines come primarily from the loss of fat, collagen and volume in the face as we age. They tend to be deeper wrinkles as a result. It’s less about muscle movement and more about folds forming where the face is losing volume. So facial fillers can be a great choice for bringing that volume back.

Hyaluronic acid fillers for laugh lines

You can think of hyaluronic acid fillers as your “standard” fillers — a majority of fillers start with HA. The body produces it naturally, and it is easily adapted to different textures and thicknesses. 

• For the marionette lines, these hyaluronic acid fillers are typically used:
• Juvederm Ultra Plus and Juvederm Vollure XC are both very popular hyaluronic acid fillers, with Vollure lasting slightly longer at 18 months. 
• Restylane also has two HA products aimed at laugh lines: Restylane Refyne and Restylane Defyne. It appears that Defyne is aimed at deeper folds. You likely won’t need to choose which product you prefer — an injector who has one will have the other, and will recommend one to you. 
• The Bolotero product I linked above can also be used for marionette lines!  

Compared to the two types of filler that I’m going to explain next, hyaluronic acid fillers have a short life. You might want that, if you’re just experimenting! But for what you’re paying, you may want to consider options that last longer. 

Collagen stimulating fillers for laugh lines

So, an alterate type of filler like Sculptra can treat laugh lines in a different way. Sculptra is made of poly-L-lactic acid. Unlike hyaluronic acid fillers, this type will sit under the skin and slowly stimulate collagen production. Adding this filler under your skin stimulates your skin to produce more collagen. 

Since collagen loss is part of why we get laugh lines in the first place, this is an elegant solution. However, the fact that it’s your body doing the work means it takes longer: 1-3 months! For someone with a big event, Sculptra may not be the best choice. But if you’re looking to slowly regenerate collagen without ever having that “done” look, Sculptra may be a great choice. 

Two drawbacks:

• Sculptra is typically more expensive up front because you’ll usually have several treatments in the same area rather than one vial of filler and be done. However, since it lasts longer, it pretty much ends up the same over time. 
• If you are unhappy with something about your Sculptra treatment, it can’t be dissolved like filler can be. 

(Personally: I am very interested in Sculptra and especially the Sculptra as an add-on to microneedling!)

Radiesse filler for laugh lines

Radiesse is almost a hybrid product: it has a short-term effect because of its gel texture. (It’s not hyaluronic acid though, but for our purposes you can think of it as more or less the same.) In addition to that gel texture, it has calcium hydroxylapatite, which stimulates the body to produce more collagen just like Sculptra does. 

Radiesse is a little cheaper than Sculptra, and significantly cheaper when you consider that you only have one treatment at a time vs. 3-4 of Sculptra. The gel volumization part of the filler will typically last a year to a year and a half, and the collagen stimulation part will last indefinitely. (Though of course your body will continue to age!) 

To me, Radiesse is the most attractive option for laugh lines and where I expect to go when my time comes! 

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Alternative treatments for laugh lines

I don’t like Botox injections for this use. You need to be able to smile! Some practitioners may try to sell it to you, but since these lines come more from a loss of facial volume than from muscle movement, it’s not a great choice. 

If you are in the early stages of seeing marionette lines, where they’re still fine lines rather than full on skin folds, microneedling can be used to beat them back. I do microneedling at home, and I make a point of doing this area 3-4 times per year. I am in my late thirties and have had two children, and after my pregnancies I did have some light marionette lines. The microneedling has addressed them well, but it’s a long-term commitment. I wrote more about it here: Does Microneedling Help Stretch Marks? [2024]

However, if fillers are too expensive or you don’t like the idea of injectable treatments, you can get great results slowly and cheaply from microneedling. I’m planning to write more on that soon!