How to Smooth & Soften Dry Lips

Your lips are highly susceptible to environmental stressors including the temperature, wind and sun exposure due to the fact that the skin on the lips is thin and doesn’t have as strong of a barrier function as other parts of the skin. This makes them prone to dryness, cracking or becoming chapped due to aggravation to your environment. Sensitivities to products in lip formulas or other skincare and makeup products or over-licking the lips can also cause dry lips. And because the skin of the lips don’t have self-moisturizing capabilities, it’s important to choose products that help nourish lips to keep them smooth, soft and feeling comfortable.

The lips are reactive to cold, dry weather due to their thin barrier layer and lack of protection from the environment. The lack of humidity during the winter months also increases the amount of water lost through the skin, or the Transepidermal Water Loss (TEWL), resulting in lips that can easily become dehydrated, dry or chapped due to the temperature, lack of humidity and wind exposure throughout the season.

Just as with the rest of your body, your lips need sun protection in the summer, and year-round for that matter! Lips can become parched and dry in the summer months due to sun exposure and lack of skin hydration. We recommend a lip balm with SPF protection to help protect lips from becoming dry during the summer season and throughout the year.

When you’re dehydrated, your skin is more prone to dryness, so your lips can be impacted by dehydration. We recommend drinking about eight glasses of water a day along with using hydrating lip products to maintain hydration.

Regardless of the time of year, you can replenish your lips with a nourishing and hydrating lip balm or lip formulas with replenishing ingredients. While the lips can be sensitive to certain ingredients and formulations, we recommend products with Shea Butter, Lemon Butter, Cocoa Butter, Squalane or botanical oils such as Avocado or Jojoba Oil along with SPF protection to help seal and protect lips. Try any of our gentle, yet efficacious formulas including our lip balm with SPF protection, our classic moisturizing lip balm or our no-shine lip balm for men with a matte finish to help nourish dry lips.

To care for dry lips, you can apply thick, nourishing lip treatments to lock in moisture and replenish dry lips overnight. We suggest trying our hydrating lip mask, which is an overnight lip treatment formulated with Fairly Traded Coconut Oil and Wild Mango Butter, to intensely hydrate and restore dry lips while you sleep.

Exfoliation can help keep dry, flaking skin at bay for softer, smoother lips. Given how sensitive the lips are, however, you should be careful not to over exfoliate. We recommend exfoliating up to twice a week, starting with once per week so as to not further irritate the lips. Gently exfoliating dry lips can keep them soft and smooth! If you exfoliate as part of your morning skincare routine, we suggest following up with our hydrating lip oil to replenish lips with skin-nourishing oils while providing a hint of color and shine. If you exfoliate as part of your nighttime skincare routine, we recommend sealing in moisture overnight with our hydrating lip mask.

Men who experience dry lips could benefit to adding lip care treatments to their daily routine. From exfoliating up to twice a week to locking in moisture with a protective lip balm, there are a few steps men can take to treat lips and keep them from getting dry or uncomfortable. We recommend our no-shine lip balm for men for daily use. To combat extreme dryness, during the wintertime, for example, you can also incorporate our hydrating lip mask to soothe lips overnight.

Babies can have dry lips for the same reasons adults have dry lips — including weather conditions, etc. But, a baby’s dry lips can also be due to dehydration or due to excess moisture around the mouth caused by the constant pacifying or putting things in and out of their mouth. Since baby’s lips are delicate, it’s important to care for them with a soothing and moisturizing balm that’s gentle enough for your baby’s skin. Nourishing lip formulas can also be used as a preventative measure for babies to help prevent their lips from becoming dry or chapped. Our Baby Lip Balm formula uses Shea Butter and Vitamin E to help moisturize and replenish baby’s dry lips.

Soothing and hydrating ingredients are recommended to help moisturize and protect dry lips. We recommend ingredients such as Shea Butter, Lemon Butter, Wild Mango Butter and Coconut Oil to keep lips soft, supple and moisturized. Products with sun protection are also advised, as lips can be extremely sensitive to sun exposure. Try our efficacious lip care formulas to help prevent dry lips for soft, smooth lips.

Just as it’s important to use daily sunscreen protection on your entire body, it’s also important to apply lip balm with SPF protection as part of your daily lip care routine. Even during the wintertime, it’s still crucial to wear daily SPF protection on the lips. The sun can not only cause lips to become dry, but it can also burn chapped, dry lips more easilyⁱ, so it’s important to keep lips hydrated and protected from potentially harmful UV rays. We recommend looking for products with broad spectrum sunscreen protection to help protect the sensitive skin on the lips from potentially damaging sun exposure and dryness.