7 Ways To Stop Chapped Lips From Ruining Winter

Sure, it's lovely to be bundled up and cosy with a blanket and hot cuppa in winter but your lips may not feel the same way. Especially during this drying season, most lips turn cracked, flaky and chapped. Now, not only is that unsightly, it's also painful, calling for extreme, industrial strength Vaseline. So instead of going through winter with ultra-chapped lips, try these seven useful skin care tips instead. Your lips will thank you, we promise.

1. Don't Lick Them

Many of us instinctively lick our lips when they feel dry but that's actually making it worse. Licking them removes the natural oils from the lips and dries whatever little moisture is left in them. Nobody wants that, now do they?

2. Exfoliate

Manually scrubbing your lips is a no-brainer to get lip of those dry flakes that seem to appear in winter. Do just that by exfoliating them gently twice a week at home with a simple to whip up sugar scrub that does the job while being completely natural.

3. Slather Some

Along with the rest of your night routine, make sure you don't forget your lips. By this, I mean apply a thick layer of petroleum jelly on your lips before bed and then call it a night. When you wake up in the morning, you will find your lips smooth and soft.

4. Cover Up

On particularly sunny or windy days, cover your lips with a scarf or wear a wide-brimmed hat. These elements are notorious for drying out your lips and burning them so even a light layer can go a long way to protect your lips from cracking.

5. Get Oiling

You may not know this yet but oil isn't only a magic potion for your hair and skin in winter - it works like a charm on your lips too. Especially for more viscous oils like almond and coconut, they hydrate the lips naturally and enrich them with a host of vitamins and minerals.

6. Skip Them

If your puckers have a tendency to dry out as soon as there's a nip in the air, take a pass from foods that are spicy or salty. As such foods saturate the body's level of moisture, it can lead to dryness even on your lips.

7. Get SPF-in

SPF isn't only for your skin but for your lips as well so ensure that your lip balm of choice has a minimum of SPF 15 as that's ideal to keep the sun from leaving your lips sore and dry. Now, winter doesn't have to leave you in fear of dry lips any longer.