Healthy, Happy Lips

Our lips can take abuse over our lives, too much sun or dryness for instance can wreak havoc on your lips over time. Stay hydrated. If you are dehydrated or lacking in some nutrients, the lips will be the first place to show this. Doing some basic things can help to maintain happy and healthy lips. These tips are for men and women both. 

For starters, take care of your skin overall by drinking enough water and taking a good multivitamin. Your skin, hair, nails and all your organs will thank you! Vitamin A and E and C are especially good for skin. It has helped me to find a couple of favorite glasses or water bottles to put my water in. When I go somewhere even, I take water in a cup to put in the cup holder in the car, or in a water bottle. If you happen to have lemon or lime on hand, you can add a wedge of those to add flavor and vitamin C.

You can gently exfoliate your lips, especially if they are chapped and flaking (not burned like sunburn). They have ones on the market that you can buy, but you can make your own with a baking soda mixture (with water) or olive oil and sugar. Gently mix and rub in your lips. If you have a gentle facial exfoliator you can use that too. You can gently exfoliate with a washcloth as well, just add warm water and gently massage. You can gently use a toothbrush and warm water to get any dead skin cells off. There are other lip exfoliators you can purchase, that will get the job done.

You can gently exfoliate your lips, especially if they are chapped and flaking (not burned like sunburn). This will get rid of any dead skin cells, which if left alone can make your lips more dry and flaky feeling.   They have exfoliators on the market that you can buy, but you can make your own with a baking soda mixture (with water) or olive oil and sugar. Gently mix and rub in your lips. If you have a gentle facial exfoliator you can use that too.

You can gently exfoliate with a washcloth or soft toothbrush as well.   You want to gently massage lip balm on your lips, then add warm water to the wash cloth or toothbrush and gently massage in a circular motion.   This will definitely get the dead skin cells off.  Make sure to reapply the lip moisture of your choice after you are done.   

Moisturizing your lips is important of course, and protects from further or future damage. You can use all kinds of lip glosses and lip balms for this. The thing is, you can also just use petroleum jelly, also known as Vaseline or even just a store brand. This will last a long time, be practical and very affordable. However, you can find fairly affordable moisturizers of all kinds. Avoid the urge to lick your lips if they are dry, because it can make them even more dry.

One thing to keep in mind is that you want to protect your lips from Ultraviolet rays from the sun. Even on cloudy days, your lips and skin can get very sunburned. Your lips don't have the natural pigment reactions that your skin does to protect itself. I know firsthand how sun damage can affect your lips over time. As a kid growing up in Southern California, I burned my lips from not enough protection for a lot of my growing up years. I just was too interested in playing and we didn't know as much as we do know about protecting your skin from UVA and UVB rays. If you are applying sunscreen to your skin, and don't have a lip balm or gloss that sun protection factor, you can apply some of your sunscreen to your lips. Its not as good as products made for your lips, but is better than nothing. Doing these things helps to prevent aging of your skin and lip