Chapped Lips
Do you have dry, cracked, or constantly peeling lips?
Oh, do I understand! I have [not so fond] memories of growing up in SE Florida (where it's already super moist!), and my mother telling me to leave me lips alone. . .
And then how it feeeeels - tight, irritatingly always conscious of it, wanting to lick your lips or apply chapstick constantly, only for it to just feel like it's wet while it's peeling off your face. Egh. Even being married, I did NOT feel very attractive around my hubby. He obviously didn't seem bothered by it and still showed me affection, but it's one of those things you know not only makes you feel more desirable, and YOU can feel it.
I wanted to get away from chapstick because I.WAS.A.ADDICT. I carried it around with me constantly. And if I did happen to forget it, my lips were all that I was thinking about. . . which inevitably made it worse because I didn't have a "safety net." As I got more educated as an adult, I learned that chapstick could actually WORSEN your lips because it could be filled with harsh chemicals that dry out your lips, or the fact that when it moisturizes your lips it tells your body that it doesn't need to and then you just have to rely MORE on it. Let me put it into perspective. . . we weren't born with a tub of chapstick available for our much needed moisturizing lips. . . so when I think of this, I know that something is off balance in the body and there IS an actual solution.
Then I found something that helped in my routine, at least in the summer time, but still left me wanting in the dry winter months. Many tout it for it's wonderful moisturizing abilities for hair and skin, as well as starting labor in pregnant women (I wouldn't know I've never tried). It's castor oil! I love doing this in the morning- and nighttime routines. I find that it is smooth, yet not sticky. It makes my lips actually feel moisturized throughout the day and not just coated that needs to be reapplied often. BUT AGAIN. I realized that in the winter months that just wasn't cutting it and my nasty peeling lips came back.
In my reading of, Empowering Your Health by Dr. Asa, I am reading about how many chemicals people apply to their skin/body just in their morning routine. Now I don't use any of those kinds of products (aka DIY Minimalist here), but he said something that made me think:
"We take a shower with a bar of soap that is lard based that we smother on our bodies thinking that our skin is clean, but is really just coating dead skin cells and soap on our skin. . . then we apply lotion full of chemicals that coat even more. . ."
And I thought, that sounds a lot like "buildup" that we hear so often in the beauty industry and then realized, here I am putting more and more moisture on my skin but it's not seeming to absorb??? LIGHTBULB: buildup without proper exfoliation! In order for those "crunchy" moisturizing products to penetrate my skin, I needed to incorporate a daily exfoliation for my lips to be able to soak it in. Basically, I needed to be wiping my lips and face each morning with a cloth (I'm obsessed with Norwex's body cloth) before putting on my lotion. FYI - I didn't say "scrubbing," just a soft rub to remove any dead skin cells.
I've done this the past few days now, AND THE DIFFERENCE! No need for chapstick during the day. No cracked or peeling lips. Even my face in general is benefitting from all this and feels SO SMOOTH to the touch without as much acne as I was getting before (because #agingproblems).
So the real solution to chapped, dry lips? . . . EXFOLIATE then moisturize. Again, I do this every morning and then moisturize only before bed. Find what your skin likes and what works for you! Then feel confident in your lips no matter where you and and who you're with
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