Lip care 101: kiss dryness goodbye!
Let’s be real, many people do not know that ‘lip care’ routines are a thing. This is because Skincare and haircare are more popularized.
Luckily, unlike skincare and haircare, lip care doesn’t require much time, money and products. So, we should extend deserving care to our lips too.
Caring for the lips has great benefits including that it enhances its appearance too, let’s not sleep on it. It is not restricted to product usage alone but also some dos and don’ts that you should know for healthy lips.
In this article, all will be explained in simple details. So halt lip licking and welcome healthily moisturized lips.
Why you need lip care
The lips is not like the skin on the rest of the body. Unlike the skin on out body, the lips. Our lips are thinner and they do not have oil glands keeps it hydrated like our skin does. It inability to also hold water than other parts of the body leaves it prone to dryness and eventually chapped.
This is why our lips due to extreme weather void of moisture in the air like harmattan, winter or extreme heat, it gets chapped.
Most people will usually automatically lick their lips when their lips are dry but this only leads to even more dryness.
A good lip care routine can help prevent or tackle this problem and keep your lips hydrated and moisturized.
More than hydration, a good routine also helps to improve the texture and appearance of your lips by making it smooth and soft.
Even your lip glosses and lipstick will glide easily on your lips without the appearance of cracks or dried lip.
Below is how to get started!
Lip care routine Guide
Cleanse
The first step to a proper lip care regimen like a skincare routine is to cleanse. This can done in the shower when using a cleansing balm or it can be gently wiped with a damp washcloth.
Exfoliate
Exfoliation can help get rid of dead skin cells on the lips that makes them appear dry. This should be once to twice in a week so as to avoid over exfoliating. You can gently exfoliate with a lip scrub or alternatively a soft toothbrush.
If you have healthy lips, exfoliation might not be necessary in your routine. However, for people with dry lips you can beginning by exfoliating once a week and subsequently twice a week.
Exfoliation should be avoided totally if you have a crack or other lip injuries until it is properly healed.
Hydrate/Moisturize
Moisturizing is where the fun is at because it leaves your lips hydrated and smooth. It may even shimmer depending on the balm you use. Moisturizing the lips typically comes after exfoliating the lips and it is to be reapplied everyday and throughout the day when the lips begin to get dry for best results.
For a satisfying experience, we will recommend our Mediheal Labocare Pantenolips Healssence Coral lip essence. It is a Gel type lip essence containing soothing and nourishing ingredients like Panthenol and olive oil. It sufficiently moisturizes and nourishes the lips leaving it smooth, hydrated and glowy.
If you are an aesthetic girly like me, you can add lip masks to your routine and use on your lips on occasions especially before going to bed on self-care days(I absolutely love self-care days). Like moisturizers they also hydrate and some even provide light exfoliation.
Don’t stall and only use balm during winter or harmattan periods. It should be an essential to be found in your purse always.
Protect
The sun can darken the lips and dull it’s appearance. Like the skin, sunscreen is recommended on the lips to protect it from harmful sun rays that can damage its feel and appearance.
For this reason, a lipbalm with at least spf 15 will come in handy especially for re-application purpose.
Additional tips
- Stay hydrated by drinking water often
- Use lip balms that has SPFs
- Avoid licking or picking your lips
- Do not over exfoliate everyday
- Use the right products. A good lip balm for instance should not contain alcohol.
- Smoking dries and darkens the lips, stay healthy.
