10 Easy Steps to Take Care of Your Lips This Winter

10 Easy Steps to Take Care of Your Lips This Winter

Nobody can ever want to have chapped and dry lips but this winter season is the cause of the dry and pale lips due to the harsh weather. Soft and beautiful pink lips look elegant and comfortable so you have to do effort to make your lips soft and supple. If you do not try to care your lips, the cold weather and low humidity will affect the lips badly by stealing the moisture away from that. By the time, the condition becomes worse.

Actually, the lips do not contain oil gland that is why the skin of the lips in thin and easily gets chapped. In this case, you need to do extra care to sort out the problem of raw, cracked and sore lips.

Taking care of your lips is not so difficult but make sure you are using natural and homemade products because the products that are available in the market can be a risk as those products contain harsh chemicals. Homemade products will never give you any side effects on your lips. Here are some amazing remedies given below:

1. Hydrate Your Lips From Within

Winter season seriously effects on your lips as they remain dehydrated all the time so you need to special care for this. The first thing you should do that try to take 8 to 10 glasses of water per day. But on the other hand, everyone has different requirements for water intake in their bodies so it would be better to consult your doctor first that how much water you should drink based upon your overall health fitness level.

Besides drinking water, you should eat vegetables and fresh fruits that are rich in water content. The fruits are cantaloupe, watermelon, kiwi, apples and watery veggies like cucumbers, zucchini, carrots and tomatoes. Fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins A and C. Vitamin A helps in maintaining the texture of your skin, tissues of the skin. Whereas, vitamin C helps to produce the moisture in your lips and also it protects your overall skin from ultraviolet rays.

2. Use DIY Masks Regularly

You can also make homemade hydrating masks easily because these masks are important to retain moisture to your lips, especially in the winter season. You can opt variety of different ingredients present in your kitchen such as olive oil, honey, avocados and milk cream.

• Honey is great to moisturize your dry and chapped lips. You have to simply apply honey directly on your lips. You can also make a paste from honey and glycerin then apply on your lips before getting sleep at night.

• Apply fresh cream milk on your lips then keep it on your lips for 10 minutes. Gently wash your lips with the help of a cotton ball already dipped in lukewarm water. Do the remedy daily and enjoy soft and pink lips.

• Mash the spoonful of mashed avocado and add some olive oil into that. Wait for 15 minutes then wash it off with lukewarm water. Do it once daily.

• Another thing you can do is mix 1 tsp of rose water with 1 tsp of honey. Apply this mixture on the lips then wait for 15 minutes. Wash it off with normal water and pat dry.

3. Exfoliate Weekly

As you exfoliate your face, your lips also need to exfoliate to get rid of flaky and dull skin. After your lips will be exfoliated, you will feel your lips look fresher and more toned.

Regular exfoliation is important to get soft and pink lips and you have to do it two times a day. Otherwise, the winter season will cause redness, irritation and soreness. Use a natural abrasive lip scrub prepared with sugar and olive oil.

• Take 1/2 tsp of granulated sugar, add olive oil to make a paste.

• Gently rub this scrub on your lips with the help of circular motions to remove flay skin.

• Rinse it off with lukewarm water.

• At last, pamper your lips with a mild moisturizer to make your lips smooth and soft. Add few drops of almond oil, coconut oil to keep your lips hydrated.

• Repeat the remedy two times a week.

4. Moisturize Several Times A Day

Lips lose the moisturizer quickly in the winter season so in this case, moisturizing lip balm is best to apply to keep your skin properly hydrated all the day.

While you brush your teeth, try to rub your lips with the soft-bristled toothbrush. It will help in exfoliating the dry and chapped lips so that they will look fresh and soft.

Massage your lips gently with few drops of olive oil and coconut oil. Massage will help in increasing the blood flow.  Apply lip balm every two hours like after sweating, swimming or exercising.

5. Lip Care Before Bedtime

Take care of your lips properly before going to bed, especially during the winter months.

Before going to bed, wash your lips thoroughly with lukewarm water. Pat dry the lips with soft cloth then immediately apply a lip balm. Always keep your lip balm near your bed and use it every time you wake up at night.

Oil-based lip balm is much better as compared to the water-based or alcohol-based formula to keep your lips to retain moisture during the night time.

• To make your lips soft and smooth, few drops of coconut oil, olive oil or almond oil are so much effective for this purpose.

• Mix equal amounts of glycerin and rose water then apply this mixture to your lips along with all your face before sleeping.

6. Don’t Lick Your Lips

Licking the lips is one of the bad habits that almost everybody is addicted. It tends to damage your lips badly when the saliva from your mouth comes in contact with your lips. It evaporates the moisture and dries out the skin of your lips. Stop this habit to avoid dry and dehydrated lips.

Always apply moisturized lip balm and keep it all the time with you to avoid licking lips. You can try chewing gum or sucking on a hard piece of candy in this case. It will help in stopping up the bad habit of licking.

7. Protect From Harsh Winter Winds

The harsh winter winds effect on your skin as well as lips. Due to the cold temperature, it takes away moisture from your lips and leaves them dry and dehydrated.

When your skin gets exposed to the winter winds, it breaks down the fat and oil molecules on the skin. The presence of fat and oil molecules maintains the moisture in your skin and also the ultraviolet rays of the sun. The exposure to the strong and cool winter winds lead to the skin redness and irritation.

Whenever you expose outside in the winter winds, cover your face with a scarf to protect against the harsh winds. Apply moisturizing lip balm again and again whenever you think your lips are losing moisture.

Always prefer a lip balm with at least 15 SPF to protect against the damaging UV rays. Ultraviolet rays damage your skin in the cold temperature.

8. Opt For A Humidifier

The cold winter winds effects on the health of your lips and they become to dry, chapped and cracked lips. The heating areas and fireplace at your home produce warm air that adds extra dryness in the environment that causes more dryness.

Use a humidifier at your home and in office to add moisture. Humidifier will definitely help when you sleep as the moist air will help your skin and lips to remain hydrated. Set the humidifier between 30 and 50 percent and clean it time to time to get rid of germs and dirt.

9. Quit Smoking

Chain-smokers usually have dry and black lips because smoking effects on your skin and make it dehydrated.  The nicotine takes out the iron from your body so it causes the discoloration including the lips.

Excessive smoking tends to burn the lip and leave a dark patches on your lips. Smoking in excess quantity leads to the cancer which commonly causes unpleasant lip scratches.

So you have to say good bye to the smoking if you really need to make your lips soft and pink enough to feel confident.

10. Control Your Caffeine Intake

Winter time is the right time of the year to drink few cups of your favorite beverage like coffee. A warm cup of coffee helps in soothing you from the coldness as it dehydrates your skin and lips.

Coffee reduces the body fluid levels because it has a mild diuretic effect. After taking coffee, your mouth will immediately begin to dry that is the point of indication that you are getting dehydrated.

Instead of coffee, you should drink an herbal tea. Herbal teas are dehydrating and also helpful for your health.

Additional Tips

• Avoid spice, hot foods that force your tongue to the lips.

• Choose lip balms with moisturizing agents in the winter season like shea butter, beeswax, jojoba oil, coconut oil, honey and aloe vera.

• Avoid wearing lipstick, especially in winter. Apply lip balm instead of that.

• While playing sports, wear a mouth guard as it will prevent you from injuries happened to lips and teeth.