Lip care is often regarded as – apply a bit of Vaseline or any other cold cream to make lips softer or choose a cosmetic that already has agents to make lips softer and look fuller. However, if you define this as lip care, it is not lip care at all. Facial care and lip care are quite different and products you use for facial skin are not appropriate for lip care, some moisturisers may make your skin soft but that is it. Vitamin C lip care in combination with many other formulations help in keeping lips healthy, soft, supple and pretty.
So when it comes to lip care, there are several problems that you need to keep in mind and the care would be according to those. Firstly, there are the seasonal problems
- Winter: Cracking of delicate lip skin, cold weather constricting blood vessels so nutrients reach slower, angular cheilitis meaning saliva collecting in corner and causing bacterial sores in creases, now such seasonal problems are common and care would be richer, buttery lip balms that can rest on the lips and protect from cold winds and cover lips adequately with the fat even when outdoors.
- Summer: Hot season brings its own problems for skin as well as for lips, in direct sunlight, it is problems like sunburn causing peeling, dehydration, soreness, rough lips is common state. Inflammation can lead to darkening of lips, increased dehydration can lead to chapped lips because of the thin lip membrane. In such a case, using SPF and nutrient and moisturizer enriched formula for lips would work better.
- Monsoons: Increased moisturizer in the atmosphere and high humidity can trap bacteria and fungi against li line. Also, increased humidity may trick your system to drink less water causing dehydration, in turn causing dry and chapped lips. It is ideal during this time to use tube based balms that are lighter in fat base and ensure you have proper water intake.
- All Year Round: Most of the times, problems of your lip health is not seasonal rather care needs to be taken about other aspects like pigmentation, loss of collagen, decrease in elasticity, problems like lip licking causing enzymatic irritation and trans epidermal water loss. All these problems or rather common occurrence in lip care are in addition to the season problems.
How does Vitamin C work into all of the lip care?
Lip skin is much thinner and therefore needs better care. Most traditional methods were butter and oils, Vitamin C includes all those methods and in combination with them, tends to stimulate lip skin, where lips can absorb nutrients and collagen efficiently to create fuller, healthier and beautiful. Beautiful lips are damaged by the following factors:
- Evaporation of Moisture during the day, or transdermal evaporation, this is the most common factor for chapped, cracked lips. This especially happens if you have not applied appropriate balm or an occlusive like some sort of a fat to the lips. This forms a layer and prevents moisture from evaporating. – Vitamin C strengthens skin barrier thereby reducing evaporating and helping retain moisture.
- A habit of licking the lips, this is also called Enzymatic Irritation or the lip licker’s dermatitis. It ends up forming a ring along the border of the lips which look swollen and irritated and because of constant depletion of natural moisturizer, it can also cause cracking of lips or even bleeding. Vitamin C causes barrier so you do not lick moisture away, makes skin repair faster by increasing speed of collagen synthesis and repairing damaged skin faster.
- Hyperpigmentation: This is caused by several different factors, UV rays, caffeine, smoking are just some of those, there could be also exposure to certain chemicals, etc. These factors stimulate the melanin production, this in turn leads to darkened lips, which should be taken care of soon otherwise it could become a normal factor. Vitamin C inhibits the pigmentation causing enzyme Tyrosinase, thereby slowing pigmentation, helping lips turn to normal colour after a few days of regular usage and increases cell turnover while inhibiting trigger damage from smoking or lip licking.
- Collagen Depletion: This is an unavoidable instance of lip beauty depletion, basically, it is collagen loss faced by all males and females over the age of 40. At 40, this is a slower process but after 50 this process accelerates causing lips to lose elasticity, collagen and the plumpness. This also causes lip to become a different shape than earlier. Vitamin C tells cells to produce collagen faster, helps create stable collagen and also helps in enzyme activation which helps in combining amino acids to help in collagen formation.
Vitamin C does not yield fast results like the lip plumper, however, these results are long lasting and can help you retain shape and health of your lips even as you age. Vitamin C can be applied or used for your lips in several different ways. However, it is always better to know that the face cream with vitamin c will not work for lips because facial skin is thicker with oil glands and sebaceous glands. Lips have thinner skin and it is more sensitive, therefore, you will need a more delicately balanced vitamin c serum or a cream which will get absorbed better. Also, you will need to follow a strict skin regimen. Lips require, cleansing, moisturising and nourishment just as skin does. Here are 3 main ways you can apply vitamin c to your lips:
- Cleanse: This is a must before applying any product to your lips, cleansing removes any overnight residue, even if you are having a bath.
- Apply Vitamin C: Application of vitamin c can be as a serum or a balm which is designed for day wear.
- Protection: For day wear use SPF 30 protection for lips and overall facial skin, this is important especially if you go out a lot into the sun.
However, for nighttime, it is a different routine altogether with one extra step that is e
- Exfoliation: This is done by using an exfoliant or a scrub which is rich in vitamin c and with complementing other ingredient like turmeric, hyaluronic acid, etc.
- Apply a vitamin c concentrate or a peptide which helps in deep tissue collagen synthesis.
- Applying a thick mask like shea butter, ceramides, etc. This will seal in the vitamin c and peptides and start helping with collagen repair and build density, this will also reduce loss of moisture or dehydration of lips, thereby preventing any damage like chapping or cracking overnight.
So use Vitamin C serums, balms or scrubs especially crafted for lips for lip care and wishing you happier, healthier plumper lips.