How to Deal with Chapped Lips

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who's suffering from dry, cracked and unkissable lips from time to time. These days, since I've been using matte lipstick, I feel like my lips are drier than ever. Of course that won't normally show when I'm wearing bright red lipstick, but if you actually look closer, you would see my lips peeling off or worse - bleeding. 

When I'm not working, I try my best to just get by with lip gloss or lip balm to give my lips a break somehow. When I was a teen, I almost never wore lipstick. I was fine with flavored lip balms. Little did I know that  even those innocent-looking flavored lip balms were actually not quite good for my lips. Several weeks ago, I got an email from one of the members of a research team  called Reviews.com and they shared with me a very helpful guide to choosing the best lip balm. Out of 177 formulas, they found out that 151 of them contained allergens and irritants. Ironically, some lip balms contain ingredients that dries out our lips even more. If you're wondering whether or not your current lip balm made the cut, please click this link. 

I've learned quite a lot from that research. But other than that, it got me thinking about the main causes of dry/chapped lips. So, I did what I do best - obsessively read about it!

Here's what I've found out! 

1. Habitual lip licking

Yup! I thought wetting my lips was a great way to keep them healthy-looking, but, turns out I was wrong all along. I have already warned one of my cousins who has the same habit (and has been suffering from the same problem) about this. I told her to avoid licking her lips too much since it does more harm than good. I wanna share this with you too! Apparently, saliva strips moisture from our lips. So, if you have that habit too, try to minimize or stop completely. 

2. Not drinking enough water

You know what happens to plants when we don't give them enough water, right? Unless you're a cactus, you definitely need to replenish the water that you use on a daily basis. 

3. Taking some medications (even vitamins!)

Unfortunately, some medications and supplements could cause dryness to our lips such as vitamin A, lithium, retinoids and chemotherapy drugs. 

4. Frequent sun exposure

If you like hanging out at the beach during summer season or if you basically live in a tropical country like mine, chances are you are prone to dry/chapped lips. I walk everyday going to work, so, I am SO guilty of this! 

5. Winter

If you think the summer heat is the worst, wait until you experience the harsh winter! Experiencing negative temperature is not a joke. Autumn was heaven, but winter...felt like frozen hell. There were times when I actually felt like most of my cells are frozen. Haha! Unless you have decent heating system, it's tough to survive winter months. Despite putting on moisturizer on my face at least twice a day, I still had super dry and flaky skin back then. Lack of humidity in the air can cause chapped lips too! Another important thing to remember is that our lips don't have oil glands unlike other parts of our skin. So, the lips have the tendency to dry out first.

I'm sure there are other reasons why anyone could have chapped lips, but these are the common ones. Reading that article from Reviews.com opened my mind a bit more. Now I know what exactly I should look for when I am checking out lip balms. Since I can't find their top picks in my country, I opted for the next best thing that is fortunately available at Watsons - Vaseline Lip Therapy Advance Healing. I have been using this for weeks now. I put it on before I apply lipstick and before I go to bed. 

Though I am not yet used to this unscented and flavorless lip balm, I have to psyche myself that this IS for the best. I have to stick with this if I want my lips to heal from the daily torture that I do - haha! 

Here are photos of me with and without Vaseline! 

Do you suffer from dry/chapped lips too? If you do, how do you deal with it? Let me know if you have other ways to deal with this. Would you like to recommend other products? Let me know in the comments section below!