Flawless skin- check. Well blended eye makeup- check. Contouring of cheeks- check. Lips- Eeek!
When the dryness of your lips prevents you from perfecting your beauty routine, it’s time that you address your pucker issues. Why be bullied into suffering the consequences when you can do something about it? Let us get to know the causes, find remedies, and minimize its appearance through some makeup tricks.
The Culprits:
1. Dehydration- are you getting at least 8 glasses of water a day? Would you rather ingest 8 bottles of soda or 8 cups of coffee instead of the good old water? While they are undoubtedly the more yummy alternatives, they do not replenish your needs for adequate hydration. Caffeine is a diuretic that can further increase fluid loss. Your lip condition could be a reflection of your hydration status.
2. Environmental factors-Extreme weather conditions can cause the lips to lose its capacity to retain moisture. While exposure to the cold weather can leave the lips prone to dryness, the hot season can be dehydrating, pointing us back to number 1.
3. Expired lip products- lipsticks and lip glosses are the earliest to go from your beauty kits. Monitor the dates they were bought and examine the consistency, odor and taste of the lip product. If it has turned rancid, toss it to the trash bin. No matter how pricey that lipstick was, risking untoward reactions on your lips won’t be worth it.
4. Allergies- When you're prone to hypersensitivity and certain ingredients come in contact with your lips, expect reactions to come in various forms, and flaking happens to be one of them. Common lip allergens are dyes, phenyl salicylate, and propyl gallate in lipsticks, sodium lauryl sulfate in toothpastes and metallic items that you unconsciously place near the mouth.
5. Medications- The drugs that you take could have dryness of the lips as a side effect. Among these are Vit. B12 supplement, which contains cobalt, which in turn, may trigger allergic reactions to the lips. Too much intake of Vitamin A could also lead to crusting while some Beta blockers and Chemotheraputic agents yield the same effects as well.
6. Lip Smacking- While saliva is a fluid, it doesn't help alleviate the condition when you habitually lick your lips. Unlike water, saliva contains enzymes that are meant for digestion, thus leading to the appearance of those partially-digested lips.
7. Sleeping Habits- If you'r the type who slumbers with an open mouth, chances are, you dry up your mouth easily and wake up with dehydrated lips.
8. Citrus fruits- the acidic content can be irritating to the lips, inducing a phototoxic reaction giving rise to dryness and fissures.
9. Smoking- Need I say more?
10. Concomitant diseases- The presence of medical conditions like Hypothyroidism, Autoimmune diseases such as Psoriasis, Lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome, Pre-cancerous lesions and Fungal infections could leave your lips dry, scaly or fissured.
Which among these culprits above do you suspect to have caused your dry lips? Once you have pinned them down, the first step would be avoiding or treating these lip criminals. If prevention doesn't do the trick, hang on for our tips how to relieve chapped lips on the next post.
[...] the causes was our first step in beating the perennial problem of dry lips. Please check on this previous post, in case you haven’t read it. If you have isolated the possible culprits, avoid them and observe [...]
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