A fresh-looking face is essential to a good first impression. Whether you leave your house with make-up or not, one of the least pleasing sights to see is not your sleepy eyes, nor the lack of make-up, but the presence of chapped lips.

Dry lips that split, flake or crack are a painful sight mainly because many men and women have experienced the condition. Such lips can even bleed and cause severe pain and redness. In countries where there is a cold winter season, chapped lips are very common because the cold climate creates dry air that dries the lips as well.

If you watch a lot of MTV celebrity interviews, you will notice that many famous personalities never leave their homes without lip gloss, lipstick or lip balm. For many celebrities, chapped lips are a major no-no. Can you imagine Angelina Jolie with chapped lips? That would have been one of the most disturbing pouts in show business!

Causes of Chapped Lips

Your lips are actually skin, and chapped lips occur when the skin on your lips loses its capacity to retain moisture. This loss of moisture can be very intense and result in a very dry appearance of the lips, along with chronic pain. It will also give you a weird sensation that forces some people to peel the flaky skin off. This desperate peeling further aggravates the unsightly look because, aside from being very painful, the person will also end up peeling not just the flaky skin but most of the lip dermis itself. This is a bloody and embarrassing ordeal that may force you to cover your mouth with a handkerchief the whole day. It’s such a beauty bane!

The following are the known causes of chapped lips:

• The mannerism of licking the lips without any protection.
• An allergic reaction to lipstick dyes.
• Excessive exposure to dry air, wind, cold weather and too much sun.
• A symptom of vitamin B deficiency and lack of essential fatty acids.
• A sign of poor diet and dehydration.

Fortunately, there are two known ways to get rid of chapped lips. One is with balm and the other is without balm. The method without balm is perhaps the same method your grandmother did during her heydays. It’s a classic.

Petroleum Jelly

• Get petroleum jelly, scoop out a generous dollop and massage your dry lips with it. This might taste funky, but that’s OK – you’re not supposed to taste it anyway.
• When you’re satisfied with all the massaging, allow the jelly to work its magic by leaving it on for a couple of minutes to soften your flaky lips. Then, use a warm, damp facecloth to rub your lips. You’ll be surprised that the flaky skin will come off on your towel as you clean off the petroleum jelly. That’ll certainly free you from the “ugly lips” ordeal.
• To prevent this from happening again, smooth your lips with lip balm every time you wake up and every time you go to sleep.
• If you believe your cheap lipstick is the culprit, throw it in the dumpster and get one of those moisturizing lipsticks that are specially made to prevent your lips from getting flaky again during the daytime, when your face is more conspicuous.

This is indeed classified by beauty experts as one of the best remedies for chapped lips. Whether you have thin lips or full lips, this really works.

Castor Oil

If you have relatives who suffered from prostate infections, you might have seen them drink a bottle of castor oil. Well, that may be too extreme when it comes to chapped lips, but then again, desperate lips call for desperate measures.

Castor oil is a product that’s derived from the oil of the castor bean. It’s colorless, or sometimes very pale yellow, and has no odor or taste. It’s a great product for your lips because it is very mild. Unknown to many, conventional lip balms contain petroleum and sometimes alcohol, substances that dry your lips’ sensitive epidermal tissue.

You don’t have to carry around a huge, tacky bottle of castor oil. You just have to transfer it into a cute, squeezable bottle. When your lips start to dry in public, apply a small amount on your finger and rub it on your lips. This is enough to protect and moisturize your parched lips and is a good idea if you’re spending a lot of time under the heat of the sun.

Castor oil works best when you first use natural petroleum or alcohol-free balm (with SPF 15) on your lips and leave it for a few minutes before applying a protective layer of castor oil on top.

Treatment without Lip Balm

This is the best tip for guys who may cringe about using girly glittered lip gloss or are ashamed to roam around the Maybelline boutique to check out new lip balms for succulent lips.

Of course, chapped lips happen to everybody, and not all macho men out there are too brusque to suffer from it. Without further ado, here’s how you deal with it:

• Dip your toothbrush in warm water, or better yet, in unsalted margarine, and rub it on your lips. You must use unsalted because cracked lips hurt when exposed to salt. It’s a surefire tearjerker!
• Wet the corner of the toothbrush and rub your lips gently with it. You don’t want the bristles to perforate your flaky lips and cause wounds.
• Get a towel and wet one corner of it. Rub that moistened corner over your lips in one direction. Hold that part of the towel over your lips for about 20-30 seconds.
• To be sure it’s treated well, rub some unsalted margarine or moisturizer on your lips for added protection. If you can perform this process every night, you’ll have kissable manly lips, and girls might misbehave.

Reminders

• Over-the-counter antibiotic ointments may be used for severe cases of chapped lips. Seriously chapped lips can become infected and result in an aggravated condition.
• If symptoms persist, consult your doctor. This is especially true if your chapped lips don’t respond very well to self-care after a few days. There might be something wrong with you nutritionally.

Prevention

The only way to avoid chapped lips is to follow a daily regimen. In simpler terms, it’s called prevention. Here are some helpful ways for you to get rid of chapped lips once and for all!

• Avoid too much exposure to the sun’s blazing rays.



• Don’t live like Mr. Freeze: keep the air inside your house as humid as possible. Always apply lip balm or lipstick before you head out into the cold and dry weather.
• Wear lip sunscreen with SPF before you decide to soak up the sun at the beach.
• Beeswax and phenol are also effective when treating chapped lips. Thanks to Martha Stewart!
• Moisturize your lips before using lipstick. Dab a small amount of petroleum jelly or lip balm on your lips before applying lipstick.
• Avoid licking your lips. You’re not Cat Woman.

Many people are given credit for having beautiful lips. Unfortunately, many people are also noticed for having unsightly chapped lips. Take care of your lips. Brush them when you brush your teeth and perform the lip ritual that you like best. After a week, you’ll be surprised so see how much nice lips can work wonders.