5 Tips for Battling Dry Winter Lips

5 Tips For Battling Dry Winter Lips 1 Daily Mom, Magazine For Families

Along with the cold, dry weather of winter can come dry, flaky, even painful lips. If you’re suffering from less than baby soft lips this season, try these tips for renewing your lips to their once kissable state.

1. Apply the Right Lip Balm

5 Tips For Battling Dry Winter Lips 2 Daily Mom, Magazine For Families

If you have dry lips, chances are that you are already consistently applying some form of lip moisturizer. But, have you ever thought about the ingredients in your current balm? Believe it or not, many ingredients in popular lip balms can actually exacerbate the problem and promote further dryness and irritation.

Here are some ingredients to avoid if your lips are severely dry:

  • Eucalyptus
  • Menthol
  • Camphor
  • Phenol

While these ingredients can help to temporarily soothe dry, chapped lips, they actually dry the lips out further making you want to reapply more often.

Instead, look for lip balms with ingredients like:

  • Beeswax
  • Ceramides
  • Glycerin
  • Cocoa butter
  • Lanolin

All of these are great moisturizing, healing agents that will actually improve the quality of your lips. A great, simple lip balm that we love and recommend is Burt’s Bees Replenishing Lip Balm.

2. Use a Humidifier

5 Tips For Battling Dry Winter Lips 3 Daily Mom, Magazine For Families

The big culprit of chapped winter lips is going from the dry, cold weather outside to the warm, dry weather inside. Something that can help is adding a little bit of moisture back into the air in your home or office via a humidifier. This is an especially good idea at night while you sleep so your body can soak up that extra moisture.

If you’re in need of a good humidifier to get you through the rest of winter, we highly recommend the Crane Drop Shape Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier or the Crane Adorable Cool Mist Humidifier (both pictured above). Crane creates humidifiers that not only work extremely well, but that come in a variety of charming designs from tear drops to cute creature shapes like a frog, a pig, and an elephant.

3. Exfoliate

5 Tips For Battling Dry Winter Lips 4 Daily Mom, Magazine For Families

If you’re at the stage where your lips are already so dry that they’re starting to flake, you should give lip exfoliation a try. There are lip exfoliant products for sale at your local drugstore, but you really don’t need to go any further than your own kitchen. Here’s a simple combination that we love:

2-Second Homemade Lip Scrub

  • Brown Sugar
  • Coconut Oil (or Olive Oil)

Simply create a paste with a pinch of sugar and oil and gently massage into your lips. Wash off (or lick – we won’t tell!) and apply a high quality lip balm or Vaseline to seal in moisture.

Make sure that you don’t scrub too hard to prevent damage to your already sensitive lips!

4. Apply a Night Treatment

5 Tips For Battling Dry Winter Lips 5 Daily Mom, Magazine For Families

Right before you hit the sack is the perfect time to apply a deep moisturizing treatment to your lips. After all, once you’re asleep you won’t be talking, drinking, or licking your lips, so there will be plenty of time for the ointment to soak in and repair your dry winter lips.

If you’re after an affordable, easy to find product, try Vaseline (pure petroleum jelly). Petroleum jelly creates the ultimate skin barrier, protecting your lips from the dry air and allowing them to heal from the inside out. Some people don’t like the idea of using petroleum as it is a by-product of oil refining and can contain carcinogens, but the Vaseline brand is triple-purified and regarded as a safe product. Just be careful with off-brands of petroleum jelly that may not be held to as high of standards. If you still aren’t comfortable with using a petroleum product, check out Alba Un-Petroleum Jelly made from beeswax, coconut oil, and vitamin E.

If you are interested in trying out a lip treatment that is specifically formulated for nighttime use, Neosporin Overnight Renewal Therapy and C.O. Bigelow’s My Favorite Night Balm are popular choices. Just apply right before bedtime and wake up to a softer, smoother pout.

5. Stay Hydrated

5 Tips For Battling Dry Winter Lips 6 Daily Mom, Magazine For Families

Fight your dry winter lips from the inside out by drinking lots of water! The daily recommended amount is around eight 8-ounce cups of water and most of us aren’t consuming nearly that much. If you think that you could improve your water intake (and thus help your dry skin and dry lips), try investing in a new water bottle, like the Camelbak Eddy Glass Water Bottleto take with you everywhere. The more readily available water is to you each day, the more likely you will be to drink it! You can also try kicking your plain water up a notch by throwing in some fresh lemon, lime, or even cucumber slices. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of flavor to motivate you into getting hydrated.

If you are also suffering from severely dry winter skin, check out our other post on How To Beat Winter Weather Skin.

Photo Credit: The Art of Making a Baby, Amanda T., Dreams To Do

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Ariel
Arielhttp://www.dreamstodo.com
Ariel is a working mom of two (expecting baby #3 next July!) who is married to her high school sweetheart. When she isn’t at the office or playing with her young kiddos, you can find her writing on her personal blog, Dreams To Do. Ariel is a lover of inspirational words, photography, coffee, reality TV, and of course, her family. You can connect with Ariel on Twitter and Facebook.

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