If you’re pregnant this winter, you’re probably suffering like I am (although I’m not pregnant) with chapped lips.
I seriously can’t believe how bad my lips are this winter. (Hint: they don’t look like the photo on the left, which is what I want them to look like.) I’ve never had such flaky, dry, peeling, gross lips ever (that I can remember, anyway). I don’t know what my particular problem is, but I’ve been working on it over the last 10 days because I do not want chapped lips for my wedding day on Saturday! If they crack or bleed, I’ll be a basket-case.
I ignored the problem of my chapped lips for months because I was doing so many other things–working out 5 days a week; whitening my teeth; shopping for my honeymoon; cooking and cleaning; scheduling hair appointments and nail appointments and bridesmaid appointments; writing thank yous for wedding gifts; tracking changes to our guest list. Oh yeah, and being a mom of a teenage daughter and managing a business. All right, they’re just excuses. I just was careless when it came to my dry lips and kept hoping they’d just get better on their own.
And honestly, I really don’t ever remember suffering with chapped lips like this. Part of the problem may be that my house is too dry. Part of it may be that I’m not hydrated enough. And part of it may be that I’ve been catching myself biting my lips and licking them a lot lately. Perhaps a sign of upcoming-wedding stress??
Anyway, here are the things I know to do to get help with chapped lips–pregnant or not. I’ve been doing some of them, but the rest I have to get on ASAP to get smooth, beautiful lips for my wedding day. These 6 tips are pregnancy-safe and will work for you, too!
1. Drink more water.
I’ve been trying to do this. Sort of. I’m sort of not succeeding. You, however, if you’re pregnant, should be trying harder than I am. You have a baby to keep hydrated, too. 64-70 oz a day. Let’s go re-fill our glasses now, shall we?
2. Be choosy with lip balm, lip gloss and lipsticks.
Almost every type of chapped lip product out there, from Chapstick to Carmex to Soft Lips to Blistex, has ingredients that actually dry out your lips. For real. Ingredients such as camphor, menthol, phenol and alcohol make moisture evaporate from your lips. So…not the best choice. Similarly, while lip gloss and lipsticks won’t have menthol in them, many do have alcohols in them. Avoid lipsticks that claim to be long-lasting, as the fixatives used in them will dry your lips. (And some lipsticks, if you’ve been paying attention to cosmetic news lately, actually have a host of really dangerous things in them, like the lead that the FDA found in major brands of lipsticks it tested this past December.)
A better choice for preventing or fighting pregnant chapped lips is to use a natural lip balm that’s based not in petrolatum (potentially carcinogenic) but rather in vegetable oils. We have several offerings from Mambino Organics and Earth Mama Angel Baby that are safe, natural choices for pregnancy lip care.
3. Moisturize before you apply lip color.
If you do have safe, lead-free lip color, moisturize with one of the above lip balms before you apply the color. Remember to re-apply before you go outdoors.
4. Exfoliate.
I haven’t exfoliated my lips in ages. I used to have a lip pumice that I would use to slough off rough spots, but I haven’t had it in years. My simple alternative is to use my toothbrush to gently exfoliate. And I’m re-committing to doing this, starting…..now.
5. Moisture masque your lips.
I need some serious healing of my dry, flaky lips. Lip balm alone has not been cutting it. Avoiding lipstick has not been cutting it. It’s time for serious moisturizing with a lip masque. If you’re not on a deadline (like me), apply this moisture masque a few nights a week after exfoliating: for 10-15 minutes, layer on olive oil and honey on your lips. I’m on a deadline, so I’m doing this daily for the time I have left before my big day. Already, after 1-2 days of doing this, my lips are looking and feeling a lot better.
6. Apply dry lip treatment.
Lip balm isn’t the same thing as lip treatment (or lip masque, for that matter). A lip treatment, like an eye treatment or acne treatment, is a specific formulation rich in therapeutic ingredients that provides intensive support to the target problem.
In this case, our target problem is dry, flaky, chapped lips. The treatment is Organic Two-Timer Eye & Lip Cream. The first three ingredients are aloe, vegetable glycerin and rose mosqueta oil–all intensively moisturizing and protecting natural substances.
I totally forgot I had this. I’m blaming it on “wedding brain.”
The final step in my battle against chapped lips is a night-time application of Organic Two-Timer Eye & Lip Cream (while I’m at it, I’m now going to use this on my eyes at bed-time, too).
The lips and eyes are both very sensitive facial tissues that are more vulnerable to the elements (wind, air, heat, UVA/UVB rays, pollutants) and more delicate than other skin. They both need to be treated carefully, which is why the pregnancy-safe ingredients in the Organic Two-Timer Eye & Lip Cream work for both areas.
Kiss those pregnant chapped lips goodbye and blow me a kiss to wish me wedding luck!
Love,
Tara
