The LIBS is versatile and has been applied to direct analysis of a variety of material (solid, liquid, and gases) with none or little sample pretreatment procedure. The fast response associated with the simultaneous multielemental capability makes LIBS a high-throughput analytical method and the microanalytical capability, which becomes the technique as a quasi-non-destructive method and extensively used for solid sample analysis. However, the research in elemental determination in liquid samples by LIBS is still growing, aiming to overcome some challenges, such as the formation of shock waves, loss of energy in the solvent evaporation processes, strong splashes that can contaminate the optical components and affect the analytical signals causing lack of signal reproducibility, and high limit of detection. To overcome these difficulties, various strategies have been adopted, including sample preparations and/or different experimental conditions for plasma emission signal improvement. The following experimental conditions can be applied: single-pulse and double-laser pulse ablation, resonance LIBS, and applied external magnetic field. It is important to highlight that improving plasma emission means updating components, such as the laser or detector, and this can lead to a considerable increase in costs. Alternatively, lower costs and complexity can be achieved with sample preparation strategies, highlighting direct bulk, a liquid jet, droplet, and liquid-to-solid conversion (ice, substrate, or layer). Even these proposals have disadvantages, such as change in sample chemical composition, contamination, and throughput increase. Finally, these approaches are discussed in applications of liquid environmental samples, such as seawater, groundwater, ice, industrial effluents, wastewater, landfill leachates, industrial wastewater sludge, crude oil, liquid algae suspension, among others.