Are you annoyed by dry, chapped lips in winter? When it's cold you have to apply a little thicker here. The lips lack some of the protective mechanisms that your skin has elsewhere. What really helps with chapped lips and what only makes things worse? Learn more!
Hautpflege
Dry lips in winter: how to gently care for them again
Photo by Cesar La Rosa on Unsplash
Dry lips - what is the cause?
Brittle, cracked lips are a normal part of winter for many. When it is cold outside and heated inside, the skin dries out faster. This hits the delicate lip area particularly hard. She's extremely thin-skinned . And it has neither sebum nor sweat glands, which otherwise produce the skin's natural protective film. This makes the lips nice and red, but also a bit helpless.
But we don't want to blame winter for everything. There are other causes of chapped lips. You notice a direct effect when too much alcohol has flowed. Alcohol dehydrates. The lips usually feel it first. Even if you are under a lot of stress, they will dry out faster. And then there is the nutrient deficiency as a possible cause. If all else fails, you can have it checked out. However, the right care usually makes a huge difference.
Good lip care promotes regeneration
As already mentioned, the skin of the lips can hardly help itself. You have to do that for her. Your lip balm should therefore:
- Provide protection from the cold and dehydration. So make sure your lip balm contains wax .
- Support skin renewal with nourishing ingredients. Actually logical, right? Not even close. Many lip balms are still full of mineral oils. They don't take care of your delicate lip skin at all. Better choose lip care with vegetable oils .
☝️ Note: Mineral oils only seal the skin against water loss. This purely occlusive, i.e. closing, effect is not enough for dry lips. They need real care!
Which ingredients go well in lip care
Natural waxes and oils offer you exactly this combination of protection and care . But there are many fats. In order for your lips to remain supple for a long time, it is important to choose the most effective ones . So take a close look at the ingredients when you buy them. Keep an eye out for these particularly valuable ingredients:
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castor oil
Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil
There is no risk of escaping here: castor oil spreads super slowly. It stays where you put it. As a result, it forms a protective film on the lips that lasts for a long time. It also penetrates into the intercellular spaces of the skin's surface and acts in depth. -
beeswax
Cera Alba
Waxes form a protective film on sensitive lips and give them more shine. They have a strong moisturizing effect and ensure a long-lasting feeling of care. Beeswax develops a kind of depot effect. It gradually releases the active ingredients into the skin over a long period of time.
🌱 For vegans there are herbal alternatives such as candelilla wax ( Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax/Cera) or berry wax ( Rhus Verniciflua Peel Wax/Cera ; however, it has a less film-forming effect, which affects the protective effect 1 ). -
shea butter
Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) butter
Butter is thicker than oil. This ensures that shea butter protects your lips for a long time. At the same time, it softens the skin and promotes its regeneration - an important point in lip care! It helps acutely and makes your lips more resistant. -
sea buckthorn pulp oil
Hippophae Rhamnoides (Seabuckthorn Fruit) Oil
Sea buckthorn oil protects and soothes lips. It inhibits inflammation, promotes the healing of cracks and boosts cell regeneration. Here, too, you get protection and strengthening in a double pack.
🌟 Tip: Use waterless care products for your lips in winter. You can usually recognize them by the fact that they come in a care stick or jar. Lip gloss and creams, on the other hand, usually contain a lot of moisture. It's counterproductive when it's cold.
Dos & Don'ts for dry lips in winter
Let's reiterate: Lip care with waxes, vegetable oils and without water is good. However, there are still a few things we can do to make life even harder or easier for our chapped lips. Here are the three biggest mistakes and help in everyday winter life.
Don't do it - mistake with chapped lips
- Lick the lips. Wetting your lips with saliva will dry them out even faster.
- Ignore dry lips. The problem doesn't go away on its own. It's only going to get worse. The lips burst open and cracks become inflamed.
- fumbling around . Where the lips crack, germs have free rein. By pinching, you injure the skin even more and create an additional target.
Yes, please - this helps with dry lips
- Healthy indoor climate. A dry ambient air dries out the lips faster. This is where a humidifier comes in handy.
- drink a lot Moisture should mainly come from the inside in winter. Put a pot of tea on the desk. She reminds you to drink enough.
- Lip scrub. A peeling from time to time is much better than peeling on chapped lips. You can mix it yourself (see below).
Three home remedies for dry lips
Your lips are already cracked and super irritated? Don't worry, we'll fix it! Your kitchen is sure to have some seriously effective first aiders for chapped lips. These include, for example, sugar, salt, coffee grounds, cooking oils and honey. everything there? Very good. And this is how you use them:
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SOS trick honey
Honey is a boon for chapped lips. It inhibits inflammation and promotes the healing of cracked skin. Just put some on your lips and let it sit for 15 minutes. Caution sweet tooth: Don't lick it! Then wash off with lukewarm water and apply care. -
Make your own lip scrub
For a scrub you need two things: 1. something that scrubs and 2. a binding compound. Sugar, salt or coffee grounds are suitable as granules. With a few drops of oil or honey you bind the granules into a paste. Rub it gently over your lips. Then rinse off and apply care. -
olive oil overnight
The skin regenerates at night. Give her care along the way. Apply olive oil to lips and dab gently. In principle, another edible oil is also possible. Slowly absorbing fats are preferable. Olive, avocado, or argan nut oils are better here than coconut oil, which is a quick spreader.
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Are lip balms addictive?
No, the products do not contain any addictive substances. The feeling of not being able to live another second without lip balm comes from getting used to it. However, this only applies to products with mineral oils ! Many conventional care sticks still rely on ingredients such as petrolatum or cera microcristallina . These artificial hydrocarbons have no caring effect whatsoever, they only pretend to be. This creates the feeling of having to keep applying cream.
Another reason not to use mineral oils
Pay attention to how often you lick your lips. When they are dry, this happens automatically. Every time you take on some lip balm. This is not a problem with natural oils. How mineral oils affect your health is questionable. Some of these substances are considered carcinogenic . It is not for nothing that Ökotest criticizes mineral oils harshly again and again. Some manufacturers have changed their recipes as a result. But many remain. Incidentally, at the end of 2020, some very popular brands failed the Ökotest 2 .
💡 Reading tip : A direct comparison to synthetic ones shows the advantages of natural oils.
A love story: lips and FIVE Shea Cream
Our FIVE Shea Cream is known to be an all-rounder. The waterless balm cares for your lips with shea butter, jojoba oil, argan oil, vitamin E and neroli oil. It says Face & Body Cream on it, but many of our customers have come to love it for their lips too. For example this one...
My new lip pomade ❤️
Since it got colder, things went fast and my lips in particular are drying out. Now I use the shea cream as a lip pomade several times a day - awesome!
