Don’t you just hate it when you wake up in the morning with dry, cracked lips? The problem is even worse when you drink hot coffee or when you kiss your partner.
First, we must remember that our lips need to be hydrated at all times. Warning! Do not use lips or face creams randomly. For each problem your lips encounter there are different remedies.
Why do your lips crack?
Temperature
Although we usually blame the weather, it’s not always at fault. It’s true that wind and cold weather can contribute to drying and cracking of lips, but high temperatures may do so as well. Heat that you use to heat your home and car dry the air and lower the humidity level, which naturally leads to dry skin and lips.
Cosmetics
Be very careful with lip gloss that often contain chemicals which irritate the lips to make them look fuller, bigger. Capsaicin (a substance synthesized in hot pepper), mint and menthol are some ingredients that you must avoid.
Foods
Spicy foods and citrus acid can burn the lips and lead to dryness and irritation. In addition, people with allergies to peanuts or nuts should be careful when using products containing these food extracts, such as body butter.
Drugs
Some drugs used in treating acne can pretty much dry lips, even if they don’t come into direct contact with them. Products for topical application, such as acne creams or anti aging creams that contain benzoyl peroxide or alpha-hydroxyacids, can cause irritation when in contact with the lips.
Don’t lick your lips!
When your lips heal, avoid to lick them or allow excess saliva to reach your lip area. You can use a toothbrush to mildly brush your lips and remove the dead skin. Be careful when you do this though, as you can easily hurt your lips even more.
When you have cracked lips you need to avoid to moisture them with your tongue as saliva contains substances that cancels the effect of some natural oils. It is best to use lip balm. You need to use it carefully though, because you could have allergies to certain ingredients.
Using certain cosmetics products on a longer term may result in allergy or inflammatory reaction, which, in turn, can dry lips worse. I recommend a lip balm with natural anti-inflammatory, such as saffron.
As there are no sebaceous glands in the lips, they are drier than the rest of the skin. Vitamin B usually causes their cracking. Toothpaste dries even more the lips and it’s highly recommended that you replacing it with damp sodium bicarbonate or tooth gel that contains aloe.
Brush your lips with salt free butter or butter cream
Wipe your lips with a slice of raw cucumber
You can use olive oil
Use a moisturizing lipstick or a lip balm
Mix 3 drops rose oil with one tablespoon of corn oil and wipe your lips with the mixture several times a day
Cut a capsule of vitamin E and wipe your cracked lips with the oil inside
Don’t you just hate it when you wake up in the morning with dry, cracked lips? The problem is even worse when you drink hot coffee or when you kiss your partner.
First, we must remember that our lips need to be hydrated at all times. Warning! Do not use lips or face creams randomly. For each problem your lips encounter there are different remedies.
Why do your lips crack?
Although we usually blame the weather, it’s not always at fault. It’s true that wind and cold weather can contribute to drying and cracking of lips, but high temperatures may do so as well. Heat that you use to heat your home and car dry the air and lower the humidity level, which naturally leads to dry skin and lips.
Be very careful with lip gloss that often contain chemicals which irritate the lips to make them look fuller, bigger. Capsaicin (a substance synthesized in hot pepper), mint and menthol are some ingredients that you must avoid.
Spicy foods and citrus acid can burn the lips and lead to dryness and irritation. In addition, people with allergies to peanuts or nuts should be careful when using products containing these food extracts, such as body butter.
Some drugs used in treating acne can pretty much dry lips, even if they don’t come into direct contact with them. Products for topical application, such as acne creams or anti aging creams that contain benzoyl peroxide or alpha-hydroxyacids, can cause irritation when in contact with the lips.
Don’t lick your lips!
When your lips heal, avoid to lick them or allow excess saliva to reach your lip area. You can use a toothbrush to mildly brush your lips and remove the dead skin. Be careful when you do this though, as you can easily hurt your lips even more.
When you have cracked lips you need to avoid to moisture them with your tongue as saliva contains substances that cancels the effect of some natural oils. It is best to use lip balm. You need to use it carefully though, because you could have allergies to certain ingredients.
Using certain cosmetics products on a longer term may result in allergy or inflammatory reaction, which, in turn, can dry lips worse. I recommend a lip balm with natural anti-inflammatory, such as saffron.
As there are no sebaceous glands in the lips, they are drier than the rest of the skin. Vitamin B usually causes their cracking. Toothpaste dries even more the lips and it’s highly recommended that you replacing it with damp sodium bicarbonate or tooth gel that contains aloe.