Chapped Lips – Tis the Season!

Bah humbug.

Among the most common grumbles I hear during this time of year is the complaint over chapped lips — and it’s easy to understand why.

Beyond being unsightly, chapped lips can be painful and painfully frustrating if they take a long time to heal. They occur more frequently during the winter months when sub-zero temperatures, low humidity and biting windchills zap the moisture from our skin and leave it feeling dry and chafed.

Our lips are particularly prone to dryness because they’re always exposed to the elements and the natural — not too mention momentarily satisfying — tendency to lick our lips when they get chafed only makes the situation worse.

Store-bought balms can also compound the problem with a host of ingredients that, like saliva, make you feel better for a few minutes but do little to repair the dryness or replace the lubricating oils from your skin’s protective barrier.  

So, what is there to do?

My top tip for alleviating chapped lips is to chuck all those nice smelling, menthol lips balms and instead, apply the below hands creams to the affected area.

What these products don’t contain (allergens, irritants and fragrances) is almost as important as what they do contain, namely: dimethicone and lipids. Lipids/ceramides help repair dry and cracked lips while the dimethicone protects them moving forward.

So, go ahead: follow my tips this winter so you can pucker-up under the mistletoe with a perfectly healthy pout!