I’m someone who has suffered dry lips for as long as I can remember and boy have they gotten bad. Some days I would wake up with dry, cracked, peeling and sometimes even bleeding lips, and no matter how many diet changes I made, how much water I drank nothing really helped, but after my years of beauty blogging I’ve come across a few amazing products and tips to help get rid of dry lips and keep them in tip top condition…
Some of my favourite lip care products which include: *Nuxe Reve de Miel Ultra-Nourishing Lip Balm, Manuka Honey, Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask, *Lanolips Lemonaid Lip Aid, *Suvana Paw Paw & Honey Balm, *Rosehip Plus Roll On Oil
Cleanse
In order for all your lip care products to actually work it’s important to remove any residue, many products (especially long wearing products) will leave a residue on your lips until you remove them with a good makeup remover. Use a gentle (but effective) makeup remover (I like Bioderma Crealine h20) on a cotton pad. For extra sensitive lips I like to apply loads of lip balm onto the lips and remove it with a cotton pad.
Exfoliate
Lip scrubs make me cringe and personally; I’m against using one. The lips are uber sensitive and don’t have any oil glands to produce moisture for themselves and have a much slower process at repairing damaged skin on the lips so in my opinion scrubbing the lips is a no no. Put down your Lush Lip Scrub, your baby tooth brush and Vaseline and ditch the lip scrub. I prefer to use a gentle lip balm with exfoliating properties like *Lanolips Lemonaid Lip Aid (AKA the best thing since sliced bread)
Use a Lip Mask
If you’re anything like me you probably love to wear lipstick, I wear a lot of long-wearing lip products which tend to be quite drying on the lips so once a week I like to use a lip mask on the lips. These are basically like face masks, but you slather them over the lips, leave them for 10 minutes and then gently remove them with a warm flannel/washcloth. What’s my favourite lip mask? Organic honey (bonus points if it is manuka) you see honey has fantastic anti-bacterial properties and is super hydrating. If slathering honey out of jar isn’t your style I also love Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask.
Use a Lip Treatment
Lip balms are great, but they often don’t do anything more than provide a barrier for the lips to prevent them drying out, this is all very well and good, but if you have very dry lips it isn’t actually going to help them. This is why it is best to use a lip treatment/serum. I love to use hydrating facial oils on the lips (such as rosehip oil) my favourite is *Rosehip Plus Roll On Oil because it has a roll on applicator that is perfect for the lips, not to mention the oil is cold pressed meaning it is super pure. I also like *Sukin Nourishing Lip Treatment and *Burt’s Bees Ultra Moisturizing Lip Treatment (although the flavor isn’t the nicest)
Use a Lip Balm
Next of all you are going to want something to “lock” in the moisture you’ve applied to your lips, I swear by *Suvana Paw Paw & Honey Ointment (it has that excellent anti-bacterial property we talked about earlier) and have recently became a huge fan of the cult *Nuxe Reve de Miel Ultra-Nourishing Lip Balm.
Use Sunscreen
Using a lip balm with a physical SPF is very important. First, because the sun is an extra vicious ball of fire that causes our poor little skin (and lips) to get sunburned and secondly because a physical based sunscreen like Zinc Oxide has repairing properties that are great for healing chapped lips. In saying this it is important that you DON’T use sunscreen in the evening time as this messes up your skins/lips natural repairing process. Use a lip serum and lip balm in the evenings and use a lip sunscreen in the day.
Also:
- DON’T and I repeat DON’T lick your lips, licking your lips can actually make them drier.
- Drink lots of water and eat well, dry lips can be a sign of dehydration.
- If your lips are severely dry make sure that your dry lips aren’t a sign of a health problem.
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*This post contains a product/sample which was sent to me for editorial consideration in accordance with my disclosure policy. This does not alter the honesty of this article or this blog, all opinions stated are honest and my own.