Lip care is for everyone! From a 13-year-old to an 80-year-old, proper lip care ensures that your lips stay supple, soft, and moisturised for a long time. We all desire soft, amazing lips like our favourite celebrity icons, but we get dry lips.
With the onset of the winter season, dry and chapped lips will be a common sight now because of the cold, harsh winds that are drying and cause a reduction in lip moisture. But only chapstick is not the solution for soft and supple lips.
The skin on your lips is a million times more sensitive than your face. Just like you take care of your facial skin, your lips require additional care too. Chapped lips look not only unattractive but also feel uncomfortable. A proper lip care routine is as essential as a good skincare routine. Cleansing, exfoliating, masking, and moisturising – one should follow all these steps to get soft, supple, pink lips.
Let’s look at a few reasons why your lips are not as soft as they should be:
- Dehydration – Dry, chapped lips are typical in winter because we drink less water. Increase your water intake, eat more watery fruits, and lower your coffee intake to stay hydrated.
- Sitting in the Sun – Sun exposure can harm your lips and cause dryness. Always wear a mask before stepping into the sun.
- Licking your Lips – Every time you feel your lips dry, you wish to lick them. But avoid doing that, as your saliva can cause the skin to break down more often. Sip water when you feel like licking your lips.
- Diet – Adding nutrient-dense foods to your diet will help keep your lips supple. Also, keeping citrusy and salty foods away from your diet will be good.
- Nutritional Deficiencies – Dry, chapped lips can also be caused by a deficiency of essential nutrients like zinc, iron, and B vitamins. Consider adding multivitamins and also increase servings of fruits and vegetables.
- No Oil Glands: Since your lips do not have natural sebaceous glands, they dry out quickly, and if not exfoliated and cared for, they become chapped, cracked, and prone to flaking and peeling.
- Lack of Moisture: Extreme weather conditions like humidity and excessive exposure to sunlight can lead to dryness on the lips. Moisturisation is essential so that it doesn’t lead to dehydrated, dry, and dull lips.
- Medication: Certain medicines, like Vitamin A, and retinoids, can lead to dry, chapped lips. Always hydrate your lips when taking these medications.
So, why should lip scrubs be a part of your lip care routine? Lip scrubs are on the rise nowadays, and not just for dry, chapped lips, but also a lip scrub for dark lips is prevalent everywhere for restoring the original lip colour.
So, what exactly is a lip scrub?
As the name suggests, a lip scrub is a scrub or exfoliant for the lips. It is made of softer ingredients for the sensitive skin of the lips that help shed dry skin and dead cells from the lips. It is lighter than a body scrub and is your lips’ best friend if you want to keep them hydrated, soft, and plump. A lip lightening scrub, like other scrubs, has exfoliants that are solid components like brown sugar or coffee and emollients, which are base oils or butter. Exfoliated lips absorb moisture better and stay hydrated for longer.
Chapped lips can sting, burn, or crack easily and be highly uncomfortable when doing basic things like talking, eating, or kissing. When exposed to various environmental conditions and elements, lips can peel easily if they are not appropriately exfoliated. Exfoliation is essential when your lips go dry, sore, or flakey. The exfoliants in the lip scrub help slough off the flakes and remove dead skin cells. If you don’t take proper care, your lips can dry any time of the year. Exfoliated lips look soft, plump, and healthy. Avoid licking or biting your lips, as it can dry them out.
So, how exactly is a lip scrub beneficial for you? Let’s discuss this below.
- A lip lightening scrub helps rebalance the lipid layer of your pout to keep it hydrated.
- If you want your lip colour to last longer, exfoliate your lips to rid them of flakey skin.
- Regular exfoliation is necessary to avoid swelling, bleeding, cracks, and dry lips.
- A natural lip scrub not only buffs away dead skin cells but also improves your natural lip colour.
- Regularly scrubbing your lips removes any build-up that you may have on your lips, like makeup, smoke particles, dust, and pollution that can make your lips darker.
- If you want a natural, healthy flush, you must scrub them regularly to improve blood circulation.
Every product demands a proper ritual and a proper routine while you use it. So, here are the steps you must follow when you begin using a lip scrub.
- Always ensure that your lips are clean and devoid of products like lipsticks, lip balms, or lip masks. Wash them with clean water and pat dry.
- Scoop out a tiny quantity of the lip scrub on your fingertips.
- Spread it all over your lips.
- Using your fingers, lightly massage it on your lips in a circular motion to gently buff away dead skin and dry patches.
- For best results, apply the balm on slightly damp lips to avoid friction and better absorption.
- Do this for one-two minutes and wash your lips with water.
- Moisturise with a hydrating lip mask if you wish.
- Top it off with your favourite lip lightening balm to promote smooth, hydrated lips.
- Let it stay for a minute or two, and then top it off with lipstick if you go out.
You can use your natural lip scrub whenever your lips lose moisture and become flaky. If your lips are such that they dry out quickly, then you should gently exfoliate your lips every other day. However, if you see your lips becoming raw or red, that is a sign that you are over-exfoliating them and being too harsh on them. Using a lip scrub twice to thrice a week is sufficient to get plump, soft, and smooth lips.
Rid yourself of the thought that lip exfoliation is required only in extreme weather conditions. You should have a fixed schedule for lip scrubbing, whether in the morning when you do your skincare routine or at night before you go to bed. This will help you remember to scrub, as exfoliated lips absorb other products quickly.
If you haven’t started, now is the time to exfoliate and stick to a lip scrub routine for that perfect pout.