Is Your Face Mask Making Your Lips Dry? You Need A Lip Routine!
Denise Vasi
When it comes to hydrating masks and exfoliation, most people think about their faces and bodies, but what about the lips? For someone like me who usually rocks a matte red lipstick daily, keeping a lip routine is essential. For others, the lips similar to the neck and are easily forgotten. Think about it—your lips are (usually) always exposed. Elements like the sun, wind, dry or cold air all can cause flaky, chapped lips. How are you offsetting it all? Are you drinking enough water? Are you using lip products with SPF? Dehydration, lack of protection, or a combination of both are contributors to premature aging lips.
Now that wearing a face mask is rightfully required to go anywhere, our lips are battling a whole new challenge. Our covered pouts are currently getting no fresh air. Our lips are basically suffocated by our own warm moist trapped breath—leaving us with dry, chapped, lackluster lips. Do you have chapped lips from wearing mask?
Why Are My Lips So Dry?
Lips dry out more frequently than anywhere else on your body simply because the skin on our lips is extremely thin. As we get older, that already delicate skin continues to get thinner due to collagen production slowing down. You also need to take into account that the lips have very little melanin, the protective pigment that helps block ultraviolet rays, making them more susceptible to sun damage. When you factor it all in, it’s no wonder the lips are one of the first telltale signs of age.
Heal and Prevent Dry Lips with A Lip Routine
Maintaining an easy lip routine will literally save your lips!
The essential steps are exfoliation, hydration, and protection. Focusing on these three things helps to keep my lips soft and supple. It also ensures a perfect lipstick application each and every time. Removing the dead skin through exfoliation is especially necessary when working with a matte lipstick.
So how can you incorporate a lip routine into your life? Below you can find two recipes, one for a lip scrub so you slough off dead skin without drying your lips. The other is for a lip mask that’s going to add a healthy dose of hydration. I love DIY projects like this one because you know exactly what’s in the product. Another bonus is that both of these lip treatments are made from ingredients you probably already have hanging around the kitchen, and those ingredients are safe enough to eat, making these 100% non-toxic.
I like to exfoliate with the Brown Sugar Coco Lip Scrub every few days, especially during the winter months. I leave the Avocado Honey Lip Mask on for a minimum of 15 minutes, but some nights I sleep in it.
Brown Sugar Coco Lip Scrub
1 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp vitamin E oil
Mix all three ingredients together and use your finger or a soft bristle toothbrush to scrub your lips for five minutes before washing or eating off.
Avocado Honey Lip Mask
2 tsp mashed avocado
1 tsp honey
Mix both ingredients together well and then use your finger to apply a heavy layer all over the lips. Feel free to work outside of your lip line.
I also love Juice Beauty’s SPF 8 Lip Moisturizers to protect my lips from the sun and Biossance’s Rose Vegan Lip Balm (does not contain SPF) to keep my lips plumps and glossy.
FYI… There’s a difference between chapped lips and lips that are broken-skinned. If your skin is actually broken you should not exfoliate until the skin is healed but you can use the lip mask to help assist in the healing process.
Last but not least, never leave home unprotected. Remember to apply some sort of SPF lip treatment to your lips before you head out. There are quite a few lipsticks and lip glosses that are infused with SPF or you could use an SPF chapstick over your regular lippy. Y’all already know —anything on the lips should be non-toxic.
Not only does a lip routine ensure a perfect lipstick application every time but it also helps in maintaining a youthful soft pout.
So stop leaving your lips out of the party and start showing them some TLC too.
