Winter Guide For Lips

It's Winter time and that only means one thing! Our lips tend to be more drier than usual and we also might be having at some point crapped lips.

I'm going to share with you some reasons why our lips tends to be drier than usual and why it may occur and also why you may also experience chapped lips.

Your lips are unprotected 

Our lips are always exposed to the elements.  Just like our hands, but our lips do not have oil glands, so they don't have a natural buffer that could protect them from the harmful elements. This is where lips balms  comes in very handy. You should be looking for lip balms that have ingredients like beeswax, and lanolin. These are great moisturizers.

I have written a blog post about some great lip balms from Oh So Heavenly that you can read here and also from Labello here and here

If you are wearing lip gloss or lipstick I would recommend that you read my post here  that I wrote some while ago called "How to wear lip gloss like a pro". It's very important to apply lip balm throughout the day.  So keep one at hand.  If you are like me I have always one in my handbag and one at my desk.

They are dehydrated 

 Chapped lips can be caused by the chilly winter breeze that we in Cape Town are experiencing now or by general dehydration.  To fight dehydration that causes chapped lips I would advise you to drink more water!  If it's not part of your routine I will advise you to start drinking water.  I know many do not like to drink water, but luckily there are flavoured water on the market.

They are irritated 

If you notice that you lips are chapped.  Then I would advise you to follow the steps that I have mentioned above and PLEASE do not do anything that would irritate them. Exfoliating them can actually cause more harm to your lips. So do not even thinking of peeling them or biting them will do more damage.  I know we tend to bite them or peel it of, but this will slow down the recovering process.

You should also avoid products that contains camphor, eucalyptus and menthol.  These ingredients are well known to cause dryness.  If you have followed the above steps and still find that your lips are chapped you may have an allergy.  Consult a doctor.  Even recommended ingredients like shea butter may irritate your lips if you have allergy.

Do not lick your lips, since this would also cause your lips to dry out!