Stop suffering from dry lips in the winter months with these great tips and advice to care for your lips.
The winter months and cooler climate can be great for snuggling up under a blanket at night with a lovely warm beverage. However, these weather conditions are not so good for your lips. The dry air that comes with the winter season often leads to dry, chapped lips. These can be painful, uncomfortable, and often unsightly.
The reason lips chap so easily in the winter is because the skin on your lips is so thin and has no oil glands to self-moisturize and combat the dry air. However, there are plenty of ways that you can retain the moisture in your lips as winter hits. Rather than suffering through dry, chapped lips all winter long, consider some of these ways to keep your lips healthy.
Tinted Lip Balm Instead of Lipstick
Lip balm is obviously the first line of defense against dry lips in the winter and it does work very effectively. If you want even better results, however, it is worth trying a tinted lip balm instead of lipstick. Applying lipstick often dries out the lips even more and makes the work even harder to stay soft and supple.
A tinted lip balm, however, has extra moisturizing properties, just like a standard lip balm. With a tinted lip balm, you get a bit of extra color and shine, just as if you were wearing lipstick. This makes your lips aesthetically pleasing as well as enhancing the moisture in them.
Some Moisturizing Tips
There are many products you can use to help your lips retain their moisture. As the temperature drops, alter your beauty regime just a little bit to incorporate some of this lip care. Try some natural moisturizers such as aloe vera, coconut oil, and shea butter. All of these are soft and gentle on the lips. Applied twice a day, morning and night, you will notice a big difference in chapped lips.
Another great things to use on your lips at home are moisturizers or lip balms containing Vitamin A and D. These two pro-active vitamins are friendly to the sensitive skin on your lips, and also contain fatty acids which the skin can absorb easily.
Alternative Home Remedies
You may be surprised on some basic home remedies that can make a big difference to the moisture in your lips. For instance, honey is a fantastic moisturizer. If you apply some honey on your lips at night before going to bed, you will find that your lips will become more clean and moist.
Another one is green tea bags. Press one of these against your lips for around 4 or 5 minutes. Doing this each day will increase the natural moisture in your lips. Likewise, lemon juice will nourish your lips and leave them feeling softly enhanced with moisture. Finally, cucumber is a vegetable jam-packed with moisture. Extracting some cucumber juice and wetting your lips will this will help build up a strong reserve of natural moisture for the winter months.
Consider your diet
As with anything beauty related, your diet has a big impact. This is true for dry and cracked lips. Some dietary factors to consider, especially in the winter, include:
- Drinking plenty of water
- Eating fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals
- Consuming Vitamin A rich products such as milk, carrots, and apricots
- Getting plenty of Vitamin C through citrus fruits
- Eating plenty of nuts, leafy vegetables, and eggs which have Vitamin E to prevent the aging of the skin around your lips
Use sunscreen
Just because the sun isn’t shining doesn’t mean it’s UV rays can’t poke through the clouds and harm your skin. The sun is one of the biggest factors for dried and chapped lips, even in the winter. All year round you should apply an SPF-based lip balm sunscreen. This will prevent your lips from becoming dry and scaly.
Do’s and don’ts for your lips
To help keep your lips healthy and well all year round, but particularly in preparation for the winter time, there are some basic do’s and don’ts to consider. These easy principles will help to keep your lips in optimal health and condition:
- DO exfoliate the skin off your lips at least once a week
- DON’T pick at the dry skin when it starts to chip. Rather, exfoliate and moisture it.
- DO consider using a humidifier around your home to improve the air for your lips and skin.
- DON’T use lip balms which contain nasty ingredients, such as phenol, menthol, or any acid based ones.
- DO use lip moisturizing products which contain healthy vitamins, natural oils, and shea butter for the best results.
Author bio: Ella Jones is a beauty-obsessed blogger and shopaholic from NYC, armed with a Professional MBA from Fordham and a License in Cosmetology from Empire Beauty School in her hometown of Brooklyn. She’s the proud owner of a successful salon and beauty parlor in the city, and she has started her blog PickUpBeauty to share her beauty secrets with all of you. Check her profiles on FB, Twitter and Pinterest, as well.