We all desire to have soft, juicy, pink lips. However, for some of us, this seems like a farfetched dream. Your lips are among the most sensitive parts of your skin and will sometimes appear dry and chapped even when the rest of your skin is glowing.
That said, they require some extra pampering to keep them moisturized and bring their natural smoothness and softness back. While lip balms will certainly help, home remedies like aloe vera have proven quite effective too, in soothing chapped lips.
Experts recommend aloe vera for lips because it doesn’t contain harsh ingredients like some of the commercial lip care products we have today. Read on to find out why aloe vera is better than your current chapstick.
What Causes Chapped Lips?
Lips do not contain sebaceous glands like the rest of your skin, which means, they do not produce oil of their own. This makes them more vulnerable to drying out and cracking.
The problem gets worse when they have insufficient moisture due to certain weather conditions or due to a lack of proper care. For instance, during winter, when the air is less humid, your lips are more susceptible to becoming chapped. Similarly, frequent sun exposure during summer can result in cracked lips.
Another cause of dry, flaky lips is habitual licking. The saliva from your mouth can further absorb moisture from your lips, resulting in more dryness.
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Why You Should Use Aloe Vera For Lips
Aloe vera gel, the liquid extracted from the leaves of an aloe plant, has amazing healing, soothing, and anti-inflammatory properties that make it perfect for treating various skin conditions including cracked lips. It is also a moisturizer, which makes it ideal for chapped, dry lips.
Applying aloe vera on lips regularly keeps them healthy and moisturized. It also soothes any bleeding cracks and speeds up their healing.
How aloe vera works is that it strips water molecules from the surrounding air and attracts them to itself. These water molecules then seep through the skin pores on your lips into the inner layers of the skin, leaving your lips juicy and soft.
Aloe vera is also rich in polysaccharides and hormones that stimulate the growth of new cells. Polysaccharides help lock moisture in and growth hormones accelerate the healing of wounds.
Another reason aloe vera benefits the skin on your lips is its high content of antioxidants. These stimulate the blood circulation to your lips, which makes them more pinky. Antioxidants also help prevent damage from environmental toxins.
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How To Use Aloe Vera For Lips
You can make aloe vera gel at home or purchase off-the-shelf gel from any pharmacy retailer. The first option is way better because you can be completely certain that whatever you are using is 100% pure.
Just cut a fresh aloe leaf off a mature plant, crack it open, and squeeze the gel out. Apply on your lips two times a day.
You can also get more creative on how you apply aloe vera on lips. For instance, you can DIY a lip balm that heals, protects, and hydrates chapped lips. Look for ingredients that are beneficial to the skin and work well with aloe vera. Be careful with ingredients that have caused you allergies before.
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How To Make An Aloe Vera Lip Balm At Home
You will need:
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon of shea butter
- 1 teaspoon of aloe gel
- 8 drops of almond oil or jojoba oil
Method:
- Put shea butter and coconut oil in a boiler and heat over medium heat until everything has melted. Make sure to stir as you heat to blend the ingredients. Turn off the heat and pour the ingredients into a clean bowl.
- Add aloe vera gel to the mixture and stir to blend.
- Add your almond or jojoba oil and keep stirring to form a smooth lump-free paste.
- Transfer the mixture to a small glass jar and store it in a refrigerator to solidify. Once it has firmed, you can use it on the go.
Coconut oil, almond oil, and jojoba oil have impressive anti-inflammatory and healing properties. They also seal moisture into the skin, making them the perfect remedy for dry, chapped skin’s surface. Shea butter infuses your skin with healthy fats and proteins.
Using these ingredients with aloe vera for lips will help soothe inflammation, heal cracks, and leave your lips looking luscious and succulent.
To get the most out of your homemade lip balm, apply at least twice a day. Increase the number of applications when in windy or hot weather or when your lips feel particularly dry.
FAQs
Q: Is It Safe To Put Aloe Vera On Lips?
Topical use of aloe vera is considered safe, so yes, it is safe to put aloe vera on lips. However, if you are allergic to tulips, garlic, or onion, you may want to do a patch test on a small area of the skin before using aloe vera for lips. If you experience burning or reddening, do not put aloe vera on your lips, as this part of the skin is more sensitive and the allergic reaction could be more severe.
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Aloe vera has an abundance of antioxidants that enhance blood circulation in the applied area. When used on lips, aloe vera increases the supply of blood to the area, leaving you with pinkier, juicier, lips.
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When you put aloe vera on your lips, it absorbs water molecules from the air around it. This water penetrates the pores of your lips, adding moisture content into your lips. As a result, your lips become hydrated and feel much softer.
The healing, soothing, and anti-inflammatory properties of aloe vera also act on the chapped and flaked areas of your lips, relieving pain and accelerating healing of bleeding cracks.
Q: How Do You Make Lip Balm With Aloe Vera?
To make lip balm with aloe vera, the first thing you need to do is obtain aloe vera gel. This could be from a drug store or fresh leaves of an aloe vera plant.
Then look for ingredients that work on dry, flaky skin like coconut oil, jojoba oil, almond oil, and shea butter and mix with aloe vera to make a paste. Transfer the mixture into a small lockable glass jar and put it in a freezer for a few minutes to solidify. Once it has hardened, you can use it just like the normal lip balm.
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Using aloe vera for lips is inexpensive, simple, and has almost no side effects. The plant has excellent anti-inflammatory, healing, and moisturizing properties that help soothe itching lips, treat fresh and old cracks, and keep lips hydrated.
If you have chapped lips, aloe vera gel or a combination of aloe vera with a few ingredients from your kitchen can help get your succulent lips back. Just make sure the ingredients work well with aloe vera and are safe to use on lips.
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