Chapped, dry lips sometimes seem to come out of nowhere! The physiology of lip skin is partially to blame but there’s a good chance you’re making at least one of these mistakes when it comes to caring for your lips.
1. Moisturizing instead of hydrating
The terms hydrate and moisturize are often used interchangeably but really, moisturization refers to oil content and hydration, to water (learn more about oil and water in the skin HERE). Lips don’t have oil or sweat glands so they often lack both water and oil in the outer layer. Since oil floats on water, applying an oil to dehydrated lips moisturizes that area but prevents water from reaching the skin. This can result in lips that never seem to stop chapping despite the multiple balm applications.
What to do about it: Instead of using balms and oils, look for hydrating ingredients like glycerine, botanical hyaluronic acid (cassia angustifolia seed polysaccharide), and plant saponins. These ingredients bind to water locking it in and hydrating the lips. The Consonant HydrExtreme Advanced Lip Serum is made with the hydrating complex that’s clinically proven to outperform pure hyaluronic acid serum for potent and persistent hydration. This lip serum is an emulsion of water-binding sugars, botanical extracts, and plant oils to help hydrate and moisturize the lips to ensure they stay quenched and plump.
2. You’re using predominantly occlusive ingredients
Occlusive ingredients are substances that form a protective barrier over the skin. While using an occlusive ingredient can help seal water and oils into the skin, using an occlusive substance, like petrolatum (Vaseline), lanolin, or certain waxes, on their own can form a barrier that prevents water from reaching the lips, keeping them dehydrated, chapped and cracking.
What to do about it: Layer hydrating ingredients first and follow with oils and occlusives. During your skin care practice apply your moisturizer to a damp face as well as damp lips and follow with oils and natural occlusives. Better yet, try the HydrExtreme Advanced Lip Serum that combines these ingredients into creamy all in one treatment. The occlusives exist suspended with the water-binding sugars so water can penetrate into the lips where it is trapped by the humectants keeping lips soft, supple and visibly healthy.
3. You're overlooking your lips
We spend a lot of time thinking about skin care but rarely give thought to how we’re caring for the skin on our lips. Just like the face, lips need regular, gentle exfoliation, hydration, and protection. The benefits of which can be amplified by wellness practices that increase product efficacy. This can include gentle massage, face yoga, or facial cupping. It is through these practices that blood flow can be increased, the amount of nutrition getting to cells is amplified, and underlying facial structure can be sculpted. It’s also important to take into consideration your daily behaviours that may be negatively impacting your lips. Not drinking enough fluids, nervous lip biting or picking, and the use of irritating colour cosmetics.
What to do about it: Reflect on when your lips look and feel their best and document the behaviours leading up to that time. Try our FREE habit tracker to help identify the lifestyle and physiological correlations to help you discover your best skin.
Whether it’s investing in dedicated lip treatment product, incorporating face yoga session into your regimen, or a committing to a lifestyle modification, don’t let your lips get overlooked and give your lips some love!