7 Tips For Soft Lips - Secrets to Soothe and Heal Dry Or Chapped Lips Naturally - Nurse's Guide

If you're looking for a way to heal chapped lips or dry lips or just want to have softer beautiful lips, I have a few tips for you.
If your lips are red, scaly, chapped, cracked, sore, painful or dry or if you just want to have softer lips I have a few natural solutions, treatments, remedies, warnings and tips for you.
Lip problems can have many causes. In the wintertime or cold winter months you may find you have more lip problems than in the summer months and the wind, the sun, and the cold and dry air can take their toll on your lips. When your lips get dry you may lick them more. You can end up with dermatitis of the lips and all around your mouth. Another cause is breathing with your mouth open. Or just getting dehydrated can cause them to be dry and cracked.
Also your lipstick, lip gloss, moisturizers and even your lip balm can cause irritation. There are many different types of chemicals in lip balms, and some people actually get addicted to them.
Here are a few tips for your lips:
1. Remember that whatever you put on your lips you are eating. Whether it is lipstick, lip gloss, moisturizers, or lip balm you are eating it throughout the day. There have been many estimates of how many pounds a day of lipstick women eat but they also consume other cosmetics and lip balms.
2. You may no doubt have read in the past to use Vaseline. But Vaseline is petroleum-based and do you really want to eat petroleum? Petroleum is crude oil. It will give you shiny lips but may also cause zits or breakouts as well. Two of its relatives - mineral oil and petrolatum do not penetrate the skin on top of your lips and they will seal in any bacteria that are present. I would not put petroleum on my lips.
3. Make sure to drink plenty of pure, filtered water or spring water throughout the day. Eat lots of fruits because they are high in moisture content. Water will hydrate you from within and keep your lips wet on the outside.
4. Avoid using any lip balms with phenol, lanolin, parabens and anything with a fragrance. No botanicals either. People can be allergic to many ingredients- even those from plants. Phenol is often used in lip balm. It feels soothing when you first put it on but it can be irritating and cause the skin under the lips to peel.
5. Many people become addicted to lip balms, so it's best to avoid them. There are even lip balm addiction anonymous groups set up for chronic, addicted users.
6. The secret to soft lips is natural, cheap, healing and easy to do. All you need to do to have the best soft lips with no exposure to irritating chemicals is to make your own lip balm by using virgin coconut oil. You can easily find coconut oil in whole food stores. Get the kind of coconut oil that smells like coconut and has not been bleached, refined or processed. You can put some in little jars and carry them with you in your car or bring to your office. Coconut oil becomes liquid at 77 degrees so don't keep it in your purse. A little will go a long way and you won't have to constantly reapply it. It is edible so there is no harm if you swallow any or lick your lips.
7. If you have a serious lip condition that doesn't respond to coconut oil for any reason make sure you see your skin specialist or dermatologist.
These are a just a few of the lip tips and secrets that helped many overcome their lip problems, whether it is a simple case of chapped lips, dry, red or scaly lips or a more serious eczema of the lips, dermatitis or skin condition. You should be able to enjoy smoother, softer, beautiful, healthy lips. Make sure to apply it around your lips on your skin at night.
By Helen Hecker 

Chapped Lips – Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Chapped lips are the result of our lips being too dry. Chronic chapped lips can result from nutritional deficiencies and dehydration, or over exposure to sun or cold and windy conditions. The explanation for severe and chronic dry lips is that our skin has lost its moisture retention capacity. As a consequence, our lips become easily chapped. The chapping further reduces the moisture retention capacity and this vicious circle results in the problem becoming chronic and increasingly severe Avoid licking your lips.

Saliva evaporates rapidly and digests the slim membrane protecting lips, leaving lips drier than before you licked them. Because sunlight vulnerability can dry and blow the rind, take a lip ointment or salve containing sunscreen to defend the lips from detrimental rays. Medical care should be sought if symptoms continue without advance. Your doctor may select to dictate antibiotics or may regard prescription handling for dermatitis.

Primary Causes of Chapped Lips
Exposure to the seasonal elements - Dry air, wind, sun and/or cold temperatures can wreck havoc on sensitive, unprotected lip tissue.
Contact dermatitis should be considered and may be stemming from allergies and/or topical irritation.
Medications could be a factor. Suspect any newly started medications as the potential source of irritation.
Signs and symptoms of chapped lips

Your child's lips may be:

· Dry
· Red
· Cracked
· Peeling

Treatment of Chapped Lip
Some common treatment of Chapped Lip :
Apply lip balm or petroleum jelly. You can also try coating your lips with skin moisturizer, vitamin E oil or aloe vera gel. These greasy products help keep your lips properly moisturized.
Drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration.
Keep in mind that cracks at the corners of your mouth can indicate riboflavin deficiencies; you can treat this with vitamin B-2 supplements.
Use a humidifier to moisturize the air in your home, helping to prevent both dry lips and skin.

Use an oil-based lubricating cream, such as Aquaphor Healing Ointment, or lip balm containing petrolatum or beeswax.

Choose a lip cream or balm that contains sunscreen. Sun exposure contributes to chapped lips.

Treat chaffed, chapped and scaling lips overnight with a homemade ointment mixed from 1 tsp glycerine, 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp castor oil. Spread on lips overnight, refrigerating the leftovers for future use.

Add humidifier(s) to your home. Lips, hair, nails and skin all thrive in humidified air.
Add a coat, when you wear a coat - Keep lips shielded against the elements with a coat of petroleum jelly, balm (non flavored, without phenol or camphor) or Aquaphor ointment (a celebrity favorite).

Seal in the moisture. Right after the compress, apply a thick coat of an emollient ointment like Vaseline or a lip balm containing waxes or lanolin to hold the moisture in.
Step up to cortisone. If a week of compresses and emollients don't do the trick, you can add over-the-counter 1 percent hydrocortisone ointment to your regimen. Use the hydrocortisone under your emollient ointment, he suggests. Try this for two weeks.

Corwin Brown