Five Winter Lip-Care Tips

Winter is known for being a tough season on the body, especially on the skin. This year, it looks like winter is going to be coming with a special twist. Everybody’s going to be wearing face coverings. This could make life a bit more interesting when it comes to looking after your lips. With that in mind, here are five winter lip-care tips.

Choose your face mask with care

If you have sensitive skin, then a silk face mask is likely to be an excellent investment. Even if you don’t it could still be a worthwhile buy. The skin on your lips is the thinnest skin on your body. Anything rubbing against it can damage it. If you want to wear a “fun” mask, like a festive one, you can put it on top of the silk mask.

Depending on your lifestyle, you might even want to invest in a couple of silk face masks. That way you can leave them to air dry slowly after washing and still be sure of having a mask to wear.

Drink plenty of water

This applies all year round but can be particularly important in winter. The reason for this is that, in winter, you’re probably going to spend quite a bit of time transitioning from the cold outdoors to the warm, centrally-heated, indoors. That’s a double-drying effect on your skin, particularly on your delicate lips.

Use a moisturizing lip scrub regularly

In skincare, the term “scrub” is convenient shorthand for “gentle exfoliator”. It’s generally best if scrubs have some moisturizing content. It’s absolutely vital that lip scrubs are full of moisture, particularly in winter (and in peak summer). This means that if you’re going to DIY a lip scrub, you need to use more than just sugar.

Put the scrub on very gently. It only takes very little pressure to remove dead skin cells from your lips. Press too hard and you could end up cutting your lips. Cuts aren’t just painful, they are a way for infections to enter the body.

Once you’ve cleaned off the lip scrub, apply a moisturizer (e.g. a lip balm) and massage your lips. This stimulates the blood flow and helps to promote healthy new skin growth.

Clean off your makeup before you sleep

If you’re still wearing lipstick then make sure that it’s cleaned off properly before you go to sleep. This is partly for general hygiene reasons. It’s also partly so that your skin can breathe easily and partly because lipsticks can be drying on the skin. Also, you’ll need to get rid of makeup for an overnight lip balm to do its job properly.

Use lashings of lip balm

When you go to sleep, treat your lips to some heavy-duty moisture. Remember that air has a drying effect. You notice this when you’re awake but it may not be enough to wake you up when you’re asleep. In any case, you don’t want it to.  

In the daytime, you can use a lighter lip balm. That said, if you wear a mask for long periods, then it might be more convenient to use a longer-lasting lip balm. This can save you having to figure out how to reapply it safely.