Preventing chapped lips is not that difficult. If you have chapped lips treating it also should not be that much difficult if you take care of it a little bit. Drying lip is the most common problem. But it is the easiest to treat. Just a few minutes of daily 24 hours and you will have a beautiful lip. It does not take more than five minutes in a day to take care of it, then why neglect any feel uncomfortable all day?
Treating Chapped and Dry Lips
Before seeing how to treat Chapped lips, you should avoid actions that cause chapped lips. Here check the reasons for chapped lips.
1. Use a good long-lasting Lip Balm
There are some lip balms only made of waxes and oils. Now you have to understand that wax only can protect the hydration but it does not provide any moisture or does not work as a humectant. Second, oils moisten the skin but cannot penetrate deep into the skin. As oil molecules are bigger they cannot penetrate inside the skin. So buy a lip balm that has humectants with butter, and oils. Humectants attract water from the environment and bring them to the skin’s surface. This keeps the moisture for a long time.
Check for These Good Ingredients
I’m listing some good ingredients but there are many. Your skin can be allergic to some or not. Be aware while choosing.
- Castor Oil: Castor oil is absolutely good for your skin and hair. It provides moisture to the skin. It has anti-inflammatory and soothing properties. There is other oils good that is good for the skin. Like tea tree oil (Not moisturizing but has anti-inflammatory properties), hemp-seed oil, marula oil, almond oil, coconut oil, etc.
- Shea Butter: Shea butter is a moisturizer itself. It contains various fatty acids oleic, palmitic acid, etc. It also has anti-inflammatory properties. Shea butter has vitamins A and E which are very essential for the skin.
- Cocoa Butter and Mango Butter: Like shea butter, these two kinds of butter are also my favorites. Cocoa butter smells good Mango butter is on the other hand the lightest butter among these three kinds of butter. Butters provide and lock the moisture.
- Petroleum Jelly: It is suggested according to the American Academy of Dermatology Association. Petroleum jelly is only useful when your lip is hydrated. It does not provide any hydration but can trap it. So applying jelly at the last can be helpful.
- Ceramide: Ceramides are 50% of our epidermis skin layer. When the skin is very damaged it’s better to use Ceramide products. With aging or after 30 using ceramide, in general, is a good idea. It strengthens the skin barrier or epidermis layer. One very affordable good ceramide is Illiyoon Ceramide.
- Sun Filters: Yes. Sun filters are for every part of our body. Finding a lip balm with filters like zinc oxide, titanium oxide or chemical filters is tuft. It also increases the rice of a lip balm a lot. What I simply do is apply sunscreen all over my face, neck, hands, and other open areas including eyelids, lips, and ears. And at last, I put my lip balm. It is okay and better.
Avoid Bad Ingredients
Bad ingredients are just bad. Bad for everything. Try to avoid them.
- Fragrance or Perfume: I don’t mind perfume because my skin is not sensitive. And more than 90% of lip balms have fragrance in them. But then I thought lip balm is something we consume internally unintentionally. And the fragrance is something we should not consume. Perfume is also bad for sensitive skin types. It’s better to avoid it.
- Essential Oils: Again same for essential oils. Nowadays brands are not using “Fragrance” or “Perfume” words anymore because it already has a very negative impression on customers. Instead, they are using essential oils. Now there are some loved essential oils. Well, me too. But not for my skin! I mean my skin doesn’t react as it’s not sensitive but I would try to avoid essential oils in those things I use daily for my skin. Citrus, Lavender, Lemon, Mint, and Orange are essential oils used for scent.
- Exfoliating ingredients: These are NOT bad. But there’s no point in using exfoliant ingredients in moisturizing products. Second, when the lip is damaged, exfoliants will make it worse. So avoid AHAs, BHAs, lactic, salicylic acid, etc.
2. Exfoliate After Healing Cuts
Exfoliation of the lip is very important as its skin cells get expired first. But that is only after recovering a little bit. There should not be a cut in the corner of your lip or the middle. Scrubbing on dry and damaged lips will make them dryer and more damaged.
- For exfoliating, you can use the same product you use on your face. A physical exfoliator works well with lips.
- For the first few weeks do not exfoliate at all. Use lip oils and balms all the time.
- Then for the next few weeks do not exfoliate more than two times in a week. Do not use a brush because it can damage your lip. Use your finger and gently scrub your lip clockwise and anticlockwise motion.
- Do not scrub more than 2-4 times in total.
- Then gently wash your lip with lukewarm or normal water.
3. Do Not Lick Your Lips
DO NOT LICK YOUR LIP at all. It’s a habit or not. Some just lick their lips when it’s dry. And some have a very poor habit of licking lips all the time. I have seen it! Now, when you lick your lips saliva moist the lip skin surface. But saliva gets dry very fast and when it does it dry out the lip more. Just like water. If you wash your hand more you will see your hands are dry at night. You will notice when you wash your hands and you don’t towel dry them, it becomes drier when the water evaporates.
4. Close Your Mouth
Breathe through your Nose. I know it’s not possible every time because occasionally we all catch a cold. But when you are fine breath through your nose, not through your mouth. Some have a general problem with breathing. Consult with a doctor. Because if you breathe through your mouth the whole night, your mouth will get dry very quickly.
5. Use a Humidifier
A humidifier can improve dry skin conditions dramatically. For colder days using a humidifier for the night or all day (If the temperature is very low) is recommended. You may use essential oils like tea tree or lavender in them. The lavender smell is very therapeutic. Choose your favorite scent. It will keep the mind fresh.
