First of all,
Gong Xi Fa Chai everyone!
The hectic day is finally over so here I am finally able to sit down and write something for this long-dumped-blog.
My Chinese New Year this year is not so pleasant because I have been through a severe dry and cracked skin on my mouth and chin area for over a month now.
I had a hard time to speak and if I do, I really really was restraining myself for going rampage punching everyone because it was amazingly PAINFUL T____T
This is my first time experiencing something like this, but anyway I am not going to talk about that in this post. I will post it next because I just want to focus on chapped lips.
I won't be all science here since I bet you all know what chapped lips is. Some of you might had it before and some of you might have it FOREVER like me *handshake*
There are many many methods to heal chapped lips from the convenient way to the complicated one (for sure you can't count how many are they. They are endless!)
Let me explain my lips condition first. They are overly dry, cracked, bleed, and painful. All year, all my life. I used to dislike lipstick not only because of the uncomfortable feeling on my lips, but also because they look ugly and accentuate my cracked lips even more. It was a nightmare, truly. People often told me "Hey, drink more water!" or "Eat orange and fruits!" Know what? I drink water more than you did and eat fruits! Yet they are still useless to heal my lips, not a bit.
I followed and did some methods that I found on the internet hence here are some tips that I think are most convenient and effective. 3 steps are enough, surprised?
1. Avoid Licking Lips
DO NOT lick your lips no matter what happens. It is a big no no! Or at least try to avoid licking it whenever you could remember. The expert says that saliva contains acid that help break down food. Those acids can irritate compromised lip skin. When you lick your lips, it may bring temporary reliefs. But as saliva evaporates, it dehydrates your skin further. I know that the temptation is really hard, but hang on! You will amaze how better your lips without licking them. I won over the temptation :D
2. No scrubbing, peeling, and biting off skin flakes (even exfoliate)
I KNOW! I don't judge you, but peeling and biting off the skin flakes are the hardest out of all the temptations. We know that those are bad yet we still did it *wink*
Picking (in this case, scrubbing; peeling; and biting off) at the already thin skin of the lips will obviously lead to bleeding and severe discomfort. This slows the healing process and irritates the skin further, such as infection or a cold sore.
If you have the urge to picking on it, immediately put on a lip balm instead.
While exfoliating chapped lips has been a big talk in the beauty world. Some of them agree and some of them disagree. The "agree" team said that exfoliate helps the healing process because we remove the unnecessary dead skin before healing treatment which makes the lips ready for the treatment. On the other sides, the "disagree" team said that this beauty practice isn't necessary for lips. The skin will replace its old cells at the right time. Exfoliation can make dry lips even more uncomfortable.
Now, which sides do you agree on?
I personally think that exfoliate should not be done when you have a chapped lips.
Exfoliating is super handful when your skin and lips is on perfect condition.
On chapped lips case, you don't have only dead skin cells but also the new skin layer (aka baby skin) underneath those cracked skin which also exposed to the surface.
Now, when you exfoliate your chapped skin, you also automatically exfoliate those baby skin that has just born on your lips. It is unavoidable! And... we know that exfoliating baby skin (new skin layer) is very harmful.
So I agree that we better not exfoliate an already dry lips. The time will do the job. Just compare it when you swim for hours and have a sun burn. Your skin might cracked and flake like a snake. We don't exfoliate it, right? Because it's painful and we know that all those dead skin cell will gone as the time goes. Same same. Makes sense?
Me, myself, also did the exfoliate for 3 times in 2 weeks, I guess. And it did nothing. My skin went even worse than they already are.
If you still don't believe and are going to exfoliate your chapped lips, it's not like I prohibit you from doing it. Just a suggestion that you may want to use a mild exfoliate to prevent endanger your lip skin.
3. Moisturizing and protecting with lip balm
Our lips need a shield to stay in shape. A balm provides a buffer between your delicate lip skin and the weather or indoor heating. Also, since skin heals better when it's kept moist, wearing an emollient balm or ointment is better than wearing a waxy stick treatment.
To conclude, the goal is to seal in moisture and get extra hydration with beneficial oils while that barrier will help seal deep cracks and splits from infections and irritation.
I was in love with my EOS lip balm when my skin was not so dry, but EOS help nothing when my skin went too far. Petrolatum is a common ingredients for nourish cracked lips. Castor seed oil, shea butter, sunflower seed oil, or squalane also did the same job. I did a research and decided to buy Kiehl's #1 lip balm. Glad I did! It has petrolatum on their first ingredients and followed by squalane.
I recommend you to try it and please note that it smells so bad. Lol. Have you ever smell Egyptian Magic Cream? They both smell almost the same. It has this "oily" smell like a frying oil. It was a challenge for me to resist from wiping it off because the smell was just too gross, but.... just bear with it! All your efforts will pay off ;D
(I also heard that Paw Paw Ointment is also good for cracked lips. Please correct me if I'm wrong)
That's all!
The healing time is different for everybody. Mine, personally, need about 3 weeks to healed completely. So don't give up! My lips now doesn't feel like my lips anymore because it's very smooth and the color is kinda baby pink which I've never ever had this kind of lips in my life before, but now I do!
Don't forget to keep your body hydrated by drinking lots of water, eat fruits and vegetables, re-apply your lip balm whenever your skin feels dry or almost dry, and toss out all the old lip balm or lippie product you have because they are bad for our lips.
Until next post,
XOXO
There are many many methods to heal chapped lips from the convenient way to the complicated one (for sure you can't count how many are they. They are endless!)
Let me explain my lips condition first. They are overly dry, cracked, bleed, and painful. All year, all my life. I used to dislike lipstick not only because of the uncomfortable feeling on my lips, but also because they look ugly and accentuate my cracked lips even more. It was a nightmare, truly. People often told me "Hey, drink more water!" or "Eat orange and fruits!" Know what? I drink water more than you did and eat fruits! Yet they are still useless to heal my lips, not a bit.
I followed and did some methods that I found on the internet hence here are some tips that I think are most convenient and effective. 3 steps are enough, surprised?
1. Avoid Licking Lips
DO NOT lick your lips no matter what happens. It is a big no no! Or at least try to avoid licking it whenever you could remember. The expert says that saliva contains acid that help break down food. Those acids can irritate compromised lip skin. When you lick your lips, it may bring temporary reliefs. But as saliva evaporates, it dehydrates your skin further. I know that the temptation is really hard, but hang on! You will amaze how better your lips without licking them. I won over the temptation :D
2. No scrubbing, peeling, and biting off skin flakes (even exfoliate)
I KNOW! I don't judge you, but peeling and biting off the skin flakes are the hardest out of all the temptations. We know that those are bad yet we still did it *wink*
Picking (in this case, scrubbing; peeling; and biting off) at the already thin skin of the lips will obviously lead to bleeding and severe discomfort. This slows the healing process and irritates the skin further, such as infection or a cold sore.
If you have the urge to picking on it, immediately put on a lip balm instead.
While exfoliating chapped lips has been a big talk in the beauty world. Some of them agree and some of them disagree. The "agree" team said that exfoliate helps the healing process because we remove the unnecessary dead skin before healing treatment which makes the lips ready for the treatment. On the other sides, the "disagree" team said that this beauty practice isn't necessary for lips. The skin will replace its old cells at the right time. Exfoliation can make dry lips even more uncomfortable.
Now, which sides do you agree on?
I personally think that exfoliate should not be done when you have a chapped lips.
Exfoliating is super handful when your skin and lips is on perfect condition.
On chapped lips case, you don't have only dead skin cells but also the new skin layer (aka baby skin) underneath those cracked skin which also exposed to the surface.
Now, when you exfoliate your chapped skin, you also automatically exfoliate those baby skin that has just born on your lips. It is unavoidable! And... we know that exfoliating baby skin (new skin layer) is very harmful.
So I agree that we better not exfoliate an already dry lips. The time will do the job. Just compare it when you swim for hours and have a sun burn. Your skin might cracked and flake like a snake. We don't exfoliate it, right? Because it's painful and we know that all those dead skin cell will gone as the time goes. Same same. Makes sense?
Me, myself, also did the exfoliate for 3 times in 2 weeks, I guess. And it did nothing. My skin went even worse than they already are.
If you still don't believe and are going to exfoliate your chapped lips, it's not like I prohibit you from doing it. Just a suggestion that you may want to use a mild exfoliate to prevent endanger your lip skin.
3. Moisturizing and protecting with lip balm
Our lips need a shield to stay in shape. A balm provides a buffer between your delicate lip skin and the weather or indoor heating. Also, since skin heals better when it's kept moist, wearing an emollient balm or ointment is better than wearing a waxy stick treatment.
To conclude, the goal is to seal in moisture and get extra hydration with beneficial oils while that barrier will help seal deep cracks and splits from infections and irritation.
I was in love with my EOS lip balm when my skin was not so dry, but EOS help nothing when my skin went too far. Petrolatum is a common ingredients for nourish cracked lips. Castor seed oil, shea butter, sunflower seed oil, or squalane also did the same job. I did a research and decided to buy Kiehl's #1 lip balm. Glad I did! It has petrolatum on their first ingredients and followed by squalane.
I recommend you to try it and please note that it smells so bad. Lol. Have you ever smell Egyptian Magic Cream? They both smell almost the same. It has this "oily" smell like a frying oil. It was a challenge for me to resist from wiping it off because the smell was just too gross, but.... just bear with it! All your efforts will pay off ;D
(I also heard that Paw Paw Ointment is also good for cracked lips. Please correct me if I'm wrong)
That's all!
The healing time is different for everybody. Mine, personally, need about 3 weeks to healed completely. So don't give up! My lips now doesn't feel like my lips anymore because it's very smooth and the color is kinda baby pink which I've never ever had this kind of lips in my life before, but now I do!
Don't forget to keep your body hydrated by drinking lots of water, eat fruits and vegetables, re-apply your lip balm whenever your skin feels dry or almost dry, and toss out all the old lip balm or lippie product you have because they are bad for our lips.
Until next post,
XOXO
