There’s a lot more that goes into having a pretty pout than just apply chap stick every now and then. With every aspect of your body, taking care of the whole thing should be your number one priority, but it doesn’t hurt to take some of these tips for healthy lips into consideration:
1. Leave your lips alone! Licking your lips might be sexy, feel nice and moisturizing–but after the saliva evaporates, they’re left drier than before. Also, make sure you don’t make out with anyone with suspicious looking lips, which is obvious.
2. When you’re getting some lip balm, check the ingredients. I know those orange soda scented chap sticks are tempting but those could actually be more irritating to your lips. Look for the thicker products which have ingredients like beeswax (not vegan), jelly, or paraffin. Avoid salicyic acid, that’s the stuff they put in acne products–no way those are gonna do anything for your kisser. Menthol, silicone, and camphor can also cause some drying issues, so if you can, avoid those. Check out the ingrediants of lipstick too, as they can have many of these drying ingrediants, and harmful preservatives such as methylparaben, which is said to be linked to cancer, and tocopheryl acetate which can cause irritation. Look for products with hydrating glycerin, aloe, lactic acid, sorbitol, lanolin (not vegan) or mineral oil.
3. Don’t smoke, duh.
4. Exfoliate. Once a week give your lips a good exfoliation, whether you just use your toothbrush, purchased product, or a diy lip exfoliant.
Here is a recipe for a lip scrub from girlwithcurves:
- 1/2 tsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp honey
Combine and massage into lips for about a minutes, remove with damp paper towel. Pretty simple, right?
5. Lip Exercises. These are debatable as to the legitimacy, but there are strong believers in things like face yoga. The idea is that the exercises build and flex the face muscles, which tend to get weaker and droopy as we age. Some face exercises for the lips include puckering your lips out like you’re giving a dramatic kiss. Another facial exercise is creating a small “O” while tensing your lips, then smile as hard as you can so you can feel your cheeks contract.
