Brighten Your Lips with These Splendid Tips

Lips take a lot of abuse and are the most often over looked part of our faces. We don’t protect them from the sun like we do our cheeks, don’t moisturize them like we do our faces and are not even gentle with them the way we are with the skin around our eyes. But the lips are exposed to more harmful elements than you think. Especially for women, they are often exposed to the chemicals in lipsticks. They are also exposed to the bacteria that are in your mouth, especially if you are fond of licking them. Like the nose and forehead, they are also a little protruded, making them more readily exposed to the sun. In fact, according to Skincancer.org, lip cancer is not at all uncommon but is quite often overlooked.

With the amount of care (which is nil basically) we provide our lips, it is no wonder so many of us suffer from chapped, dull or darkened lips! If you are looking to provide more tender loving care to your oft neglected pout, whether for health or cosmetic reasons, this article is for you!

What Causes Lip Damage?

From simple chapped lips to darkened lips there are many things that can cause lip damage. Below are just some of the following:

• Lifestyle Factor: The most common cause of lip darkening is lifestyle. Smoking and substance abuse are the most common culprits. The pink and reddish color of healthy lips is because of how thin the skin on the lips is, because it is a little translucent the red of the blood underneath the skin shows through as a rosy color. Smoking is known to constrict blood vessels making it harder for blood to flow eventually lessening the “rosy” color the blood imparts on the lips.
• Disease: Yikes! Dark lips are also a sign of disease or underlying health issues like anemia, cyanosis, and jaundice.
• Melasma: Severe hyperpigmentation associated with increased melanin production. While this is most common on the cheeks and forehead, melasma can also affect the lips.
• Dehydration: the lips are among the first parts of your body that reveal whether you are chronically dehydrated or not.
• Sun Exposure: Believe it or not, lips can also get sunburned. The burn can cause lips to darken irreversibly (melasma) or chap and peel off.
• Saliva: There is so much more bacteria in your mouth than your realize and constantly licking your lips is only introducing these bacteria onto a patch of skin that cannot protect itself (lips have no oil or sweat glands).
• Fungus: If you have perpetually dry and itchy lips, maybe it’s time to get your skin tested for fungus. Fungus can just easily grow on the lips as any part of your body.

How do Your Brighten Lips and Keep Them Healthy?

Thankfully, there are several ways to brighten lips and keep them healthy. Ways that don’t involve surgery or paying big bucks!

• Drink Water – granted, water is no miracle cure-all, but half of the time your chapped lips don’t need to be treated by a $30 tube of lip treatment. You’re just dehydrated, that’s all! There are some people however you just don’t enjoy drinking water. In order to make drinking water more enjoyable put basil, mint, berries or lemon into a water bottle with your water. Here’s a recipe we love.
• Protect Your Lips – As long as you’ll be putting makeup on your lips anyway, make it a formula that has at least SPF 15 on it. We are all familiar with the benefits of SPF on our skin and the skin on our lips is no different. Swiping balm, lip stick or lip plumpers with SPF on them can help prevent further darkening of the lips, which is super helpful for those who have genetically pigmented lips.
• Exfoliate Your Lips – There are many lip exfoliating products out there but some granulated sugar and olive oil will work just fine. As stated above, your lips don’t have sweat or oil glands which secrete natural protective and moisturizing oils for the skin. As a result, lips tend to dry out fast but don’t slough of dead skin cells as effectively. Give your lips a hand by using a moisturizing exfoliator on it.
• Drink an Anti-oxidant Supplement: We are all familiar with the benefits of anti-oxidants but how do they contribute to brightening lips? First of all, anti-oxidants can remove toxins that impede blood flow making your lips bright, pink and healthy again. Secondly, an anti-oxidant like glutathione has the ability to affect how melanin is created in the body which is perfect for those who have genetically pigmented lips. Glutathione has the ability to disrupt melanin synthesis from creating eumelanin (brown to black pigment), instructing the pathway to create pheomelanin (reddish pigment) instead, giving your skin (including that of your lips) a pinkish glow.

References:
http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/lip-cancer-not-uncommon
http://www.infusedwaters.com/grapefruit-rosemary-infused-water