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Best Skin Care Tips for Lips

Lip care should be an important part of your skin care regiment!

Heck, you smack em, pout em, plump em, lick em, bite em, chew em, pucker em, and contort them in all ways, shapes, and manners!

Lips can also be described in various ways, like moist, dry, parched, big, thin, full, cracked, chapped, and thick, but we just don’t think about them that often.

Angelina is best known for her big full lips! She wears them well, but even she can have dry looking lips from time to time. One great way to ensure that you're getting moisture to your lips regularly, is simply to use a lip moisturizer daily. Then use chapstick on them overnight. When you give your lips extra moisture, you can turn even so-so lips, into WOW lips fast!

Most women apply lipsticks, glosses, plumpers, shimmer, and moisturizers without giving it a second thought. Other than that, lips just don't get much attention! (Except when you're kissing someone really special...)

But what do you really know about your lips? Are they the made from the same skin that's on the rest of your body or are they something else?

Facts About Lips

Lips are mostly made of specialized skin but are capable of a wide variety of tasks, which makes them unique and special. Lips are used in consuming foods and drinks, kissing (and other intimate acts), the articulation of speech, and they are a sensory organ. Ultimately, their main purpose is to form speech.

Lips are the visible organ of your mouth. The skin of your lips is composed of up to five cellular layers, and is considered to be very thin compared to the 16 layers of the skin on your face. That's one reason they are so important in your daily skin care regimen.

The skin of the lips contains fewer melanocytes, which are the cells that produce pigment in your skin. Because of this, blood vessels are very close to the surface, which gives lips their blush color. However, darker skinned people have more melanocytes in their lips, which gives them a darker color and more protection from the damaging rays of the sun and other environmental hazards.

The border of the lips are characterized by a smooth ridge of collagen, called the 'vermilion border', along the upper and lower lip. This border is composed of firm collagen, which helps shape and hold their contour. The upper lip is formed by the 'philtrum', which are two vertical columns of collagen descending down the nose to the lip meeting in a cupids bow.

Lips have no hair, no sweat glands or sebaceous glands. Since there is no built in protection, lips need constant moisture to keep them soft and from becoming chapped. Licking your lips will actually dry them out faster, so moisturizers should be part of skin care, which helps to replenish their look and feel.

The muscles of the lips are considered part of the muscles of facial expression. Since lips have their own muscles and bordering muscles, they can move a lot! Lips are used for various eating functions and serve to close the mouth shut, to hold food and drink inside, and to keep out unwanted objects. When lips narrow like a funnel, suction of the mouth is increased. This is a necessary function that babies use to get milk through breast feeding or drinking from a baby bottle.

Lips are full of nerve endings, therefore play a large role in kissing or other intimate acts. Lips are very sensitive to touch, warmth, and, cold and therefore are an important part of daily skin care.

Lips have an important function in exploring unknown objects for babies and toddlers. (Part of the reason why babies stick everything in their mouth first!)

Lips also express a woman’s fertility. Psychologists have concluded that a woman’s facial and sexual attractiveness is closely linked to the makeup of hormones during puberty. Higher estrogen levels serve to maintain a more youthful appearance and facial structure. The more estrogen a woman has, the larger her eyes and the fuller her lips will be!

Men are more attracted to women with larger eyes and lips, as both of these are a sign of greater fertility. Lipstick and collagen treatments are used as a concealment for men into thinking that a women has more estrogen than she actually has and that she is more fertile and attractive!

One of the most frequent changes of the lips is cyanosis, or the blue coloring of lips. The blood contains less oxygen, and thus has a dark red to blue color, which shows through the thin skin of the lips.. In cold weather cyanosis may not be an uncommon sight. Lips can also temporarily swell. The reasons for this are varied and can be from sexual stimulation, injuries and side effects of medications, or misalignment of teeth. Cracks or splits in the angles of the lips could be the result of an inflammation of the lips.

Skin Care and Lips

There is no doubt that lips need extra protection and moisture. They must be protected from the elements just like your normal skin, if not more-so! Here are some tips to keep them soft, moist, and subtle.

Moisturize - Because your lips have no sweat or sebaceous glands need more moisture than the rest of your skin. Moisturize them several times during the day and before bed at night. Use chapped sticks, lipsticks, and lip glosses to help! If you've never tried them, try gloMinerals gloMoist Lip Treatment, Dermalogica Age Smart Renewal Lip Complex and Laura Mercier Lip Silk.

Protect - Lips need protection too! There are multiple products on the market that have UVA and UVB protection for them. Try Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream Lip Protectant Stick, NUXE Lip Balm, and Avon BEYOND COLOR Plumping Lip Conditioner, just to name a few.

Diseases of the Lips

Herpes - is a viral infection which appears in the formation of painful blisters on or around the lip area. Herpes breakouts on the lips are commonly referred to as cold sores. Many times, herpes can be cleared up quickly by simply using apple cider vinegar.

Carcinoma - is a malignant cancer that arises from epithelial cells on the lips and is caused predominantly by using tobacco and overexposure of sunlight. It can also come from lack of oral hygiene or poor fitting dentures. Alcohol appears to increase the carcinoma risk associated with tobacco use.

Although cracked lip corners are not a disease, they are undesirable and painful. The condition is usually caused by a deficiency of the B vitamin, Riboflavin or B2. If you get cracked mouth corners, start taking Vitamin B complex or Riboflavin to clear up the condition fast!