Perk up your Lips with a Natural Lip Care Routine
May 25, 2021
Perk Up Your Lips With A Natural Lip Care Routine
Taking care of your lips is easy to forget unless it's the winter season. A lip balm alone cannot take care of the dry and chapped lips that sometimes itch or hurt. Similar to a skin care routine, you need to include simple steps in building a natural lip care routine. With these steps, it becomes easier to maintain healthy and plump lips. But first, let us see why lips need extra attention and care.
Due to the anatomy of lips, it becomes imperative to keep them hydrated and healthy. There is a difference between your lips and the skin on other parts of your body. The skin on your lips is thinner compared to your typical facial skin. Also, our lip area does not have any hair follicles or sweat glands. So lips neither sweat nor produce sebum to protect the lip region from the external environment. This makes applying a moisturiser regularly to your lips a necessity.
Do you know what gives your lips a pinkish colour? The blood vessels appearing through the skin of your lips give them a pink hue because your lip region contains less melanin cells. Many people in India have dark pink lips which are characterised by a pinkish hue in the pout region and a brown outline on the outer lip. This is usually genetic. It is not reversible, but it can be improved with consistent care. Let us find out why our lips get dry, dehydrated and dark and learn how to make a natural lip balm for pink lips.
Causes Of Dry And Pigmented Lips
1. Environmental Factors -Your lips are more exposed to the environment than any other part of your skin. Harsh, dry and cold weather conditions can easily dry them out. Dryness in the air dehydrates your lips and makes them prone to chapping. On the other hand, heat can also cause dry lips.
2. Sun Damage -Sun exposure can darken or dry out the lips as the lip skin is very thin, delicate and has very few melanin cells. If the lips are constantly exposed to sunlight, they can get pigmented, similar to the facial skin.
3. Licking Your Lips -Licking not only dehydrates your lips, but can also worsen the condition of chapped lips. This can also lead to bleeding on your lips.
4. Smoking -Nicotine and tar, absorbed into the lips while inhaling cigarette smoke, can lead to pigmented lips. Avoid smoking to prevent further darkening of your lips.
5. Inflammation -Due to dietary deficiencies or use of unsuitable or expired lip care products, the corners of lips can become painful, irritated and turn red. This inflammation is called cheilitis.
6. Lip Sores -Symptoms of medical conditions such as oral herpes, simplex virus infection, or syphilis may develop sores on lips and cause the lip barrier to weaken.
Factors Determining Your Lip Care Routine
1. Lip Conditions To Treat -The products in your lip care routine depend on the concerns you wish to target. Whether you are trying to reduce lip pigmentation or prevent sun damage, every lip condition requires products infused with different active ingredients.
2. Severity of Lip Chapping -If you have severely chapped lips, you may have to skip a few steps of the lip care routine. It will help repair your lips faster so that you can continue with a regular lip care routine afterwards.
3. Current Weather Conditions -Cold weather conditions call in for an extensive lip care routine and daily care. In summer, you may skip a day or two of your lip care routine and still be good to go. However, we don't recommend skipping lip care if your lips are prone to severe dryness.
How Can We Make Our Lips Pink Naturally?
If you wonder how to keep your lips pink, stimulating the lip region can promote blood circulation in your lips and make them appear pink and healthy. To stimulate blood flow in your lips and keep them soft, pink and hydrated all year round, you can try this simple natural lip care routine -
1. Cleanse -Cleansing your lips is an important first step in your lip care routine. Cleansing removes traces of pollution, lip makeup or tinted lip balm worn during the day. You can use a natural makeup remover for this step. If you do not use lipstick, then you may skip this step. After cleansing, proceed with the next step.
2. Exfoliate -Exfoliating your lips is the best way to remove dead skin. Lip scrubs are not only formulated for the delicate lip skin, but are also made with emollient ingredients to soften the lip barrier. Use a natural lip scrub with a light hand for 15-20 seconds, wipe it off gently and proceed with the further steps. This step is to be followed once a week. Skip this step if your lip barrier is damaged, prone to bleeding, inflamed or sensitive.
3. Mask -Masking your lips before applying a lip balm can help you in getting soft, plump lips. Apply a few drops of cold pressed argan oil or cold pressed almond oil on your lips and leave it on for 10 minutes. Wipe off with a soft cloth and proceed with the next step.
4. Moisturise / Hydrate -Moisturising your lips to condition and soften them is the next step of this routine. Lip balms are formulated to moisturise and prevent dryness caused by environmental factors. Moisturising oils and butters in natural lip balms help to repair and strengthen the damaged lip barrier.
5. Protect -Chances of sun damaged lips can be reduced by applying a lip balm containing sunscreen. Protecting your lips from sunlight is important, especially if you are heading out. This step is to be followed only during the day.
DIY Lip Balm For Pink Lips Naturally Made At Home
Ingredients -
- 1 teaspoon raw shea butter
- ½ teaspoon cold pressed sweet almond oil
- ½ teaspoon cold pressed rosehip seed oil
- A small empty tub
Procedure -
- Take some raw shea butter in a clean bowl and mash it up using the back of a fork.
- Pour the cold pressed oils into the bowl and blend the ingredients using a small whisk.
- Scoop the product into a clean container and use this buttery lip balm as required.
Notes -
- Shea butter nourishes dry lips, sweet almond oil strengthens the lip barrier and rosehip oil enhances the natural tone of your lips.
- To make an aromatic lip balm, infuse almond oil with 2-3 cardamom pods for a few weeks before preparing this recipe.
- To make a baby pink lip balm, infuse the almond oil with a piece of alkanet root to tint the oil pink. This will give you a ‘pink lips balm’.
- If you don’t have shea butter, skip it and simply mix the alkanet root infused almond oil with rosehip oil. This will give you a ‘pink lips serum’.
Juicy Chemistry Products For Moisturised, Pink Lips
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Lip Conditioning Serum - This is a certified natural lip serum made with licorice root and pink finger lime which is naturally rich in Vitamin C to improve lip pigmentation and keep your lips hydrated and soft.
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Blood Orange And Rosehip Lip Balm And Scrub - This lip balm and lip scrub duo is especially formulated with organic rosehip oil, organic blood orange essential oil and natural Vitamin E to reduce lip pigmentation and stimulate blood flow on your lips. Our Blood Orange And Rosehip Lip Balm is clinically proven to add moisture to your lips and improve the appearance of dark lips.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I get pink lips naturally?
Follow a well-balanced diet and practice daily lip care consisting of cleansing, exfoliating, masking and moisturising steps. Protecting the lips from sun rays also helps in enhancing baby pink lips by reducing lip pigmentation.
How to choose the best lip scrub for pink lips?
The best lip scrub for pink lips should be one that uses a gentle exfoliant like fine sugar to scrub your lips without causing damage to the sensitive lip barrier, and emollient ingredients such as organic carrier oils to moisturise and soothe your lips. Additionally, the formula must have herbs or oils that can reduce lip pigmentation and give you baby pink lips.
How to choose the best lip serum for pink lips?
The best lip serum for pink lips should be one that has active ingredients and herbs that can lighten dark lips overtime and humectants that keep your lips healthy and hydrated.
How to choose the best lip balm to get pink lips?
The best lip balm to get pink lips should be one that has organic plant oils and butters to strengthen your lip barrier and keep it moisturized. The ingredients in the formula must have brightening properties to improve blood flow in the lip region and enhance its tone and texture.
References
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301204451_Review_on_Natural_Lip_Balm
