Chapped, cracked lips leave little to smile about. Add to it the pain and discomfort; alas, you have the perfect recipe to brew trouble.
Sure, you can slather on gobs of lip glosses and balms, but it never seems to remedy the problem for that long. While dry weather and wind is a common cause, low humidity increases evaporation from the lips, causing dryness and cracking.
Here, Onmanorama breaks down the five best ways to keep scaled lips hydrated and smooth.
1. Stop licking your lips!
Repeated licking removes the skin's natural lipids, which then causes the person to develop a cycle of licking lips to try to relieve the dryness.
2. Drink gallons of water
When you don't drink enough water, you become dehydrated. Dehydration dries out your skin, including your lips. Drink at least eight glasses of water a day to stay hydrated all through.
3. Exfoliate every three days
While that might sound complex, exfoliation is a simple way to remove flaky, dead, chapped or dry skin from the lips. It also minimises lip darkening. You can make your own exfoliation scrub by mixing sugar with either honey or olive oil or coconut oil.
4. Apply lip mask overnight
This again is not as difficult as it sounds. Just apply a generous coating of olive oil on your lips before going to bed and voila, be ready to wake up with soft and plump lips
5. Use a good lip balm
Be choosy when you buy lip balms. Make sure you opt for lip balms with an SPF rating as UV rays can be damaging to your chapped lips, making it really worse.