Everyone gets chapped lips from time to time. Nights by fireplaces, indoor heating and freezing temperatures can really dry out your lips. If you want to avoid chapped, dry lips, use these survival tips to helps keep them hydrated and protected.
- Avoid licking your lips. Saliva evaporates quickly and always leaves your lips drier than before you licked them. Avoid flavored lips balms, which may tempt you to lick your lips even more.
- Protect your lips with an oil-based lip treatment or lip balm.
- Before going out in the cold or dry weather, apply a lip cream or balm that contains sunscreen and then cover your lips with a scarf. Even on a cloudy or rainy day, your lips are exposed to drying wind and damaging UVB and UVA rays that cause dryness, wrinkles and aging.
- Stay hydrated and drink plenty of fluids.
- Labbri, Epicuren and Jane Iredale lip treatments are all good choices to prevent chapped lips and keep your lips hydrated, healthy and beautiful. If you can't find these products, be sure to find one that has natural moisturizers that penetrate deeply to soothe and have an SPF to protect your lips against environmental damage.
- Be careful of using waxed lip products and menthol based products that can leach the moisture out of your lips, causing them to become drier. Some people tend to get addicted to these lip treatments and find that even if they use them a dozen times a day, their lips end up really hurting.
- If chapping is severe and doesn't respond to treatment at home, consult your doctor. Sometimes persistent chapped lips may indicate an underlying health problem.
Veronica Barton-Schwartz, a longtime Malibu resident, is the owner and an esthetician at . She has been in the health and beauty business for more than three decades, and opened her first Malibu center in 1981. Barton-Schwartz can be reached at veronica@veronicaskincare.com.
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here
