Lips are the main focus on your face when you start to speak, and this is unavoidable. However, they tend to get discolored and dry up quite easily. Getting the natural lip color back may take some time, but the condition of your discoloured lips are reversible. There are several reasons that cause dis-colored lips, here are a few of the common ones and how to avoid and fix it.
1. Drinking too much caffeinated drinks: Just like how it can stain your teeth, caffeine also make your lips darker over a period of time. Avoid letting it touch your lips by using a straw instead.
2. Keep yourself constantly hydrated: This is probably the easiest and best thing you can do in terms of health, skincare and to keep your lips looking moist and coloured. When you are dehydrated, the effect is almost instant on your lips. Drink as much water on a daily as possible, this is a great way to lay off the caffeine as well.
3. Sun protection: As much as our skin needs protection from the harmful rays, so do our lips. Use a lip balm with SPF (a minimum of SPF15) to protect your lips from damage caused by the sun.
4. Lipstick Removal: It’s important to remove lipstick throughly. This one is quite tricky as lipstick isn’t as easy to remove as most make up. Use a proper facial wipe or makeup remover to make sure you get all of it off. The chemicals in lipsticks can cause discolouring of lips.
5. Exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate: A lot of people don’t know this, but there are a lot of dead cells on the surface of your lips. Exfoliating up to two to three times a day will make it smoother and supple. Let’s not forget that exfoliating also helps circulate the blood in your lips, making it pinker.
There are several ways to exfoliate your lips to keep it’s natural colour. Here are a few of the easiest,and cheapest way to it
– Make an easy scrub (that’s also yummy) by mixing a little bit of sugar and honey, then applying it on your lips. Honey is a natural antioxidant that helps protect lips from damage while the sugar helps remove dry skin. Remember to massage your lips gently or you may cause bleeding. You can choose to wipe it off with a wet towel, or simply lick it off.
– Use a toothbrush and massage in circular motion around lips, again make sure you are doing it very gently, and then apply lip balm.
– Use lemon or orange peel, rub it on lip and apply lip balm. Just remember to rub lemon peel on your lips before the exfoliating routine. Otherwise, it will burn and may cause irritation.
