Your lips feel dry, cracked, flaky and are so not ready for that beautiful new lipstick you just bought! SCREAMING…. (on the inside) WHY ME?! Well, it can happen to anyone. Try & catch yourself licking your lips, you’ll start to realize how often you do it. Even for a few seconds, your causing further damage for those few seconds of sweet relief. Here’s the gist: Your tongue transfers saliva from your mouth to your lips which actually eats away and destroys the thin layer of skin covering the lips. This can easily become a vicious cycle leading to painful, cracked, sore lips. Whatever it takes, do your best to avoid licking your lips when they begin feeling dry.
Did you know that these can also cause dry, chapped lips:
- One of the major causes of dry lips is sun damage which can occur even when it’s cloudy and you’re not in direct sunlight.
- Using matte lipsticks or long-wearing lip paints (especially in arid or cold climates).
- Using lip plumpers that contain irritants such as capsicum (pepper), menthol, menthoxypropanediol
- Vitamin B2 deficiency, which in addition to chapping can cause persistent cracks in skin at the sides of the mouth.
- Niacin or vitamin B6 deficiencies can also cause persistent cracks along the side of the mouth.
- The anti-acne drug isotretinoin (formerly Accutane) is notorious for causing severely dry lips.
LIP MAINTENANCE 101:
- Find a great lip scrub- most are a sweet sugary consistency that instantly remove dead, flaky skin. Try: GLAMGLOW’s POUTMUD™ Fizzy Lip Exfoliating Treatment
- Apply a lip emollient or balm before bed (something that does not contain camphor, menthol or ginger that will just do more harm than good) Try some of our favs: Kat Burki Glossy Lip Treatment , RMS Beauty Lip & Skin Balm , or Eve Lom Kiss Mix
- Use a SPF lip emollient lip balm, lip gloss, or lipstick with an SPF 15 or greater with the UVA protecting ingredients of titanium dioxide/zinc oxide is highly recommended. Try Coola Liplux UVA/UVB Lip Treatment
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