Prevent your lips from cracking

As autumn approaches, our skin, hands and lips start to lose moisture.

Sure, you should restock your purse and bedroom with lip-ice, but that’s not the only answer for how to get rid of chapped lips. To kiss cracked lips goodbye and score a truly gorgeous, soft, touch-me pucker, try one or all of these brilliant chapped-lip cures.

•  Before you wash your face, apply a lip balm to your lips. Your cleanser may actually be drying out your lips. Both salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide disrupt your pH balance and can cause chapping.
•  Use almond oil. The hypoallergenic moisturiser in these lip balms contains free-radical fighters vitamins A and E.
•  Turn on a humidifier at night. It helps keeps your lips and skin moisturised.
•  For chapped and sore lips, slice up a cucumber into thin pieces and leave them over lips for five minutes. Try it while you’re watching TV. It helps rehydrate your lips and feels fantastic.
•  Exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate. Use a lip exfoliator or make an at-home paste with sugar and honey. For very sensitive lips, use a clean, soft toothbrush and brush back and forth.
•  Don’t lick your lips. We lick our dry lips to add some moisture, but it actually dries them out even more. Your saliva contains acids that break down food, but they also irritate your lips. Plus, continuously licking will remove any natural oils you have on your lips.
•  Breathe through your nose. Something as little as breathing through your mouth can actually dry out your lips.
•  Got flaky lips? Resist the urge to pick at them. Instead, soften them with lip balm and exfoliate the flakes off.
•  Use sunscreen to prevent burned, chapped lips. Already chapped? Skip the SPF so it doesn’t irritate the sensitive skin.
•  Another ingredient to look for: shea butter, which nourishes and moisturises and gives lips a silky smooth finish and subtle shine.
•  Chapped lips will heal best when they’re moist, so stick to lip balms and skip lip waxes.
•  On the flip side, if your lips are looking good, use a beeswax when you’re going to be outside for a while. Beeswax works as a barrier against dehydration.
•  Stick to lipsticks with conditioners like vitamin E, macadamia oil and shea butter.
•  Pass on matte lip colours in favour of moisturising lipsticks. If you must go matte, apply a lip conditioner before.
•  Drink water. Hydrating from the inside will help keep your lips from getting dry.
•  Use a toothpaste that doesn’t contain synthetic flavours, as they can cause an allergic reaction, making your lips flaky.
•  If your lips are chapped, pass on drinking orange juice, eating grapefruit and putting any other citrus fruits near your lips, as they can cause more dryness.
•  Rub on aloe vera. It helps relieve the pain and heals small cuts that occur when your lips are chapped or burned.
•  The oldest trick in the book: petroleum jelly. It is super moisturising.
•  Sometimes fragrances can cause allergic reactions. If you suspect your lips might be suffering because of a scented balm, stick to one without strong scents or flavours.
•  Say goodbye to those hot wings for a while, because yes, spicy foods can dry out your lips.

Information obtained from www.stylecaster.com