Dehydrated and chapped lips are always uncomfortable for all of us. When you have dry lips, you can not apply lipstick on your lips correctly, because your lips become flaky.
But if we care about our lips, we can keep our lips hydrated, moist and soft.
In this article, I will share some important tips that keep you aware of how to keep your lips hydrated, moist and soft.
So keep reading this article.
Reasons For Chapped Lips
There are many reasons for having chapped lips.
- Climatic changes
Climatic changes affect chapped lips. You may have noticed that when the winter season, your lips become dry and chapped. Sometimes, when you travel to a foreign country, you may also experience this condition.
- Dehydration
Our body needs a sufficient amount of water. For women, the body needs 2.7 liters per day and for men, it is 3.7 liters. If we have not been given sufficient water for our body, it is also a reason for chapped lips.
- Medication
Certain types of medications such as chemotherapy drugs, and Vitamin A are also reasons for chapped lips.
- Smoking
Some bad habits in our lives are also affected for chapped and dry lips. For instance, tobacco smoke can irritate the sensitive areas of our lips, which can cause for chapped and drying.
- Vitamin deficiency
When you have some vitamin deficiencies, it may also be a reason for dry and chapped lips. For instance, Iron, Zinc, and B vitamins deficiencies can make your lips dry and chapped.
- Cheap Lip products
I have an experience related to this. I tried a cheap lipstick that I bought from a local fancy shop. My lips were dry and turned into a dark color after I applied it several times. Then I stopped using it and tried a good and high-quality product for my lips. Now, do not experience that.
So, try to use quality and good products for lips. Otherwise, your lips may look dry and dark.
- Hormone imbalance
During the early forties, women’s bodies eventually decrease the production of estrogen and progesterone. This is called menopause and during these times, you may experience your lips becoming dry.
- Biting and licking lips
Biting and licking lips can also make your lips dry.
Unlike other parts of our body, lips do not have oil glands to produce oil for natural moisture. So our lips get dry every time.
Most of us are trying to wet our lips by licking them. Some may have it as a habit. Even though saliva can wet your lips, it is temporary. When you wet your lips with saliva, it may cause more dryness.
Importance Of Lip Hydration
Why do we need to hydrate our lips?
Having healthy lips can reduce with hydration means the chances for lip irritations are very low. If you can maintain healthy lips, your lips may not be irritated, chapped, or dry.
Secondly, you can get more youthful and plump lips when you maintain your lips. When you are hydrating your lips, the collagen and blood circulation increase, which can give you plumpy, sexy, and soft youthful lips.
Also, soft and hydrated lips can give you flawless lip makeup. We all like to have a plumpy and sexy lip look after we applied our lipstick. Then, you need to maintain your lips, to have your dream lip look after you applied lipstick.
How To Maintain Hydrated Lips
The next step is to know about how to maintain lips.
Following are some simple tips that I have practiced daily and still do. These steps can give you hydrated, moist, and soft lips.
If you apply lipstick daily or if have one of the above reasons for chapped and dry lips, then you need to adopt the following steps into your lip care routine.
1. Drink Water
As mentioned earlier, drinking much water is important to maintain health in your body, especially for your lips.
Most people complain about drinking water, that they could not remember to drink it. I used two methods to achieve my daily water intake level.
First, I used a mobile app to remind me about my water intake. Each and every over, pop up a notification that reminds me to drink water.
Secondly, I take a 500ml water bottle. You may wonder why did she take 500ml to drink water rather than taking a 1L bottle. I followed that also. But I noticed that when I use a large bottle for drinking water I’m very lazy to drink it because it is very large and I could not notice a change in the water level in the bottle.
But when I use a 500ml bottle, it is visible that the water level is decreasing and again and again I fill it and drink it. At the end of the day, I completed my goal to drink 2.7L of water. Also, you need to drink just 5 bottles of water when you drink by 500ml bottles.
2. Exfoliate Lips
Exfoliating your lips is always important as exfoliating your face.
Exfoliating your lips can remove the dead skin on your lips and increase blood circulation as well. This can improve the softness of your lips and gives you plumpy and rosy lips.
The most common method used to exfoliate your lips is the toothbrush method. If you do have not much time for lip exfoliation, you can exfoliate it using your toothbrush at the same time you brush your teeth.
But, you can give extra care to your lips as follows.
You can use take a bowl and add some sugar, honey, and lemon juice to it and mix it as a paste. Then you can apply it to your lips and gently scrub it. You need to use small sugar cubes because large cubes can damage your lips.
After 1-2 minutes of exfoliating, you can wash it and you can see brand-new rosy lips.
3. Homemade Lip Mask
After giving an exfoliation to your lips, you can apply a lip mask to give a hydrated touch to the lips.
Usually, I apply aloe vera as a lip mask on my lips or organic bee honey. If you can find raw aloe vera or bee honey, trust me, you can not ignore the visible change in your lips.
Also, you can make a DIY lip mask by mixing 2 mashed strawberries with 1 pinch of coffee grounds and 1 tsp of coconut oil and mixing it as a paste. Then you can apply it to your lips and leave it until 20 minutes.
As an overnight lip mask, you can use aloe vera gel as well.
4. Don’t Use Cheap Lip Products
We use many cosmetics products for our lips. Especially for me, I like to purchase many many lipstick shades and try them.
I have a bad (sometimes good) habit to buy cheap products if I see lipstick for an affordable price, I buy it. After applying it, I experienced it is a low-quality product.
Sometimes it is a good habit to not waste your money. But my husband told me one day, we need to buy good and quality products for our own use, especially the things that we used for our body, even though they are high priced.
If you were like me, buying cheap and low-quality products, please avoid it. I think, buying a quality product, even though it is very expensive, is a good investment for yourself.
Also, buying an expensive but quality product is well more than buying a cheap product and meeting a doctor.
5. Avoid Bad Habits
Avoiding bad habits is not easy. But if you have courage, yes you can.
Avoid smoking. You can try a nicotine replacement under the guidance of your medical service provider, try relaxation techniques, remind yourself of the benefits of quitting smoking (Having a rosy lip) or taking behavioral support.
6. Don’t Skip Lip Balm
Applying a lip balm is very essential for a healthy lip.
There are many lip balms in cosmetics shops you can buy.
Also, you can make a DIY lip balm for your lips. Only you need are, 1 tbsp of bee wax, 2 tbsp of olive oil, and 1 tbsp of almond oil. Put these three ingredients together and double boil it until the bee wax melted. After that, you can add some Vitamin E and some beetroot essence to the paste and mix it until it is dry. Now you can see a thick paste after 3-4 minutes of mixing.
You can try this DIY lip balm every day. When you apply it, you can apply a minimum layer and gently rub it. It can give you hydrated, moist, soft, and rosy lips.
When You Should Meet A Doctor?
If these steps can not treat your dryness or if you have some symptoms like dark pink or red lips with a lumpy texture, ulcers, and white plaques on the lip surface, you need to meet a dermatologist, because these symptoms can be cheilitis.
Cheilitis is a chronic inflammation of your lips. If you have the above symptoms you should meet a doctor.
In Conclusion,
Keeping hydrated, moist, and soft lips are very essential for everyone. You can try these steps to keep your lips healthy.
