As the mercury begins to display temperatures nearing 0°C, the time has come to boost your skin's hydration. But not only that. To avoid them becoming chapped, your lips also need protection against the dryness of the first frosts. Typology provides you with the right habits to properly choose your lip balm.
Library
All Topics
How to choose the right lip balm?
Summary
- Why do lips become chapped in winter?
- Targeting the specificities of your lips
- The active ingredients to prioritise
- The fragrances contained in certain moisturising treatments
- Mineral oils
Published March 3, 2021,
updated on October 4, 2024,
by
Stéphanie, PhD, Doctorate in Life and Health Sciences
—
4 min read
Why do lips become chapped in winter?
With skin that is more sensitive and 5 times thinner than the rest of the body, the lips are on the front line when it comes to external aggressions. Their fragility stems from two major factors. The first is physiological, in that your lips do not produce melanin, have no sebaceous glands or sweat glands that allow for sebum secretions necessary to protect the skin from pollution, the effects of smoking, temperature variations or even certain acidic or spicy foods which can also be drying factors.
Another culprit, often overlooked: saliva. While it's true that moistening the lips provides an immediate soothing sensation, it is quickly followed by tightness and chapping. As surprising as it may seem, wetting the lips leads to dehydration when the saliva evaporates. If you feel dryness and an urgent need to hydrate, the protective balm remains your best ally.
Targeting the specificities of your lips.
The first step before choosing your future lip balm is to assess what your lips truly need during the winter period. Tightness, redness, chapping, or even peeling... The lips are somewhat a "witness" area of the various needs of your skin. Therefore, be attentive in order to find the balm that meets their demands.
The active ingredients to prioritise.
Lips prone to redness, chapping or dryness have two distinct needs that must be met. Parched, they initially require hydration. To achieve this, the application of a balm enriched with aloe vera (an active ingredient composed of 98% water, which also has soothing, healing and moisturising properties) is ideal. But that's not all. They also need lipids to rebuild themselves and prevent water evaporation. A task tailor-made for plant oils and butters such as the shea butter or coconut oil, known for their high nutritional richness. So, don't hesitate to rely on them.
The fragrances contained in certain moisturising treatments.
At first glance, moisturising your lips at the same time as your skin doesn't seem to be a problem. However, the fragrances contained in your facial moisturisers are not suitable for the delicate skin of your mouth, which will dry out upon contact with them. The potent active ingredients found in moisturising creams should also be avoided as they cause a real imbalance when absorbed by the lips.
Mineral oils.
Paraffin, a star ingredient in lip balms, is ironically one of the worst cosmetic ingredients for the health of your skin. Derived from petroleum, it has no hydrating power and merely coats your lips with a greasy film that provides a misleading sense of comfort. As a comedogenic substance, it disrupts the natural mechanisms of the epidermis and only exacerbates skin dryness...
Diagnostic
Understand your skin
and its complex needs.
