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How to Heal Chapped Lips – Expert Tips and 11 Proven Home Remedies

Do you suffer from Chapped lips? Has the skin on your lips become dry, brittle, and cracked? Do you want to know the remedy for it? If so, this article is for you.

In this article, let’s discuss the causes of Dry lips, the home remedies for Cracked lips, and when to consult a doctor regarding dry lips.

Chapped lips

Before that, do the home remedies for chapped lips work, or are they just another myth? Is consulting a dermatologist the only cure for chapped lips? Kindly read on to find out. 

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My lips are constantly dry. What can I do to solve this?

Chapped lips are caused due to a plethora of factors. The most common ones are:

  • Cold and dry weather.
  • Spicy foods.
  • Vitamin deficiencies.
  • Certain types of cancers.
  • Licking one’s lips with one’s tongue. 

Dry lips

Sometimes, contact with allergic substances can also cause chapped lips, although such instances are rare. The most ordinary cause of chapped lips is cold and dry weather. 

Our lips have a very thin (only five layers) stratum corneum layer. This reduces our lips’ capacity to retain water. Hence, water evaporates/escapes easily past the stratum corneum layer and causes our lips to become dry and cracked. 

 

How to get rid of chapped lips naturally? 11 Proven Home Remedies.

These home remedies are cost-effective but effective in curing chapped lips. They are:Chapped lips remedy

1. Coconut oil

Coconut oil has good fatty acids that moisturize your lips and cure the cracks that have developed on them. Coconut oil makes your lips soft and healthy.

Chapped lips

Coconut oil also has anti-bacterial and antifungal properties.
So if certain harmful bacteria cause your chapped lips, coconut oil can cure that as well.

2. Honey and Vaseline

Vaseline moisturizes our lips, and honey helps our lips to retain that moisture for a long time. Hence, honey and Vaseline are the perfect combinations.

Dry lips

Honey also has anti-bacterial properties. So if certain harmful bacteria cause your chapped lips, honey can cure that as well.

3. Rose Hips

Rose Hips, the amazing fruit of the wild rose plant, is rich in Vitamins C and E. They hydrate and nourish our lips and help them retain their red color. Rose Hips also contains Lactic Acid.

Peeling lips

Lactic Acid helps us get rid of (peel off) the white, dead skin cells on our lips easily. Rose Hips helps control the symptoms of chapped lips but does not address the root cause of the problem, minimizing water loss through the lips.

4. Cucumber

Cucumber does a very good job of hydrating our lips and body. Hence, it heals dry and cracked lips.

Cracked lips
Cucumber, however, cannot prevent or minimize water evaporation/loss via the lips. Hence, you have to eat cucumbers regularly during the winter months to keep your lips in good health.

5. Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera has a substance that acts as a natural glue. It binds the cells in your lips together and cures their flaking or shedding.

chapped my lip bad
It also moisturizes your lips and curtails the symptoms of chapped lips. You can apply Aloe Vera gel or cream to your lips.

6. Green Tea

Green Tea is abundant in polyphenols that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It does not cure chapped lips but reduces the burning sensation caused by it. It heals cracked and bloody lips.

Peeling lips

7. Cocoa Butter

Cocoa butter has essential fatty acids that nourish and moisturize the skin/lips. It will make your lips soft and red. However, cocoa butter cannot minimize water loss from the lips via evaporation.

why are my lips so dry
Hence, you have to apply it regularly to your lips during the winter months to keep your lips in good health.

8. Sugar syrup

Sugar syrup is excellent at moisturizing your lips and minimizing water loss via evaporation. Apply some sugar syrup on your chapped lips to make them normal again.

best lip balm for chapped lips

It will almost be like lip balms. Beware, though, do not go to bed with sugar syrup applied to your lips. You don’t want ants to snog you now, do you?

9. Vanilla extract

Vanilla extract is amazing at moisturizing your lips and minimizing water loss via evaporation. Vanilla extract will make your chapped lips normal in a few weeks.

How to get rid of chapped lips
Again beware. Do not go to bed with vanilla extract applied to your lips. Ants and roaches like vanilla too.

10. Petroleum Jelly

Petroleum Jelly such as Vaseline moisturizes your lips and minimizes water loss via evaporation. It forms an untapped protective layer on top of your lips and keeps them hydrated and healthy during the winter months. They are commercially, widely available, and cost-effective.

why are my lips so dry

11. Beeswax

Beeswax contains essential fatty acids and anti-bacterial properties. It will moisturize your lips and cure chapped lips caused by a bacterial infection like Angular Cheilitis. Beeswax, however, is not effective at minimizing water loss via evaporation.

How to heal chapped lips

So you need to apply it frequently to your lips during the winter months to keep your lips healthy. Applying beeswax will give you smooth and highly red lips.

 

What causes chapped lips? What are its symptoms? As per Dermatology.

The causes of dry lips are thus:

Dry lips

1. Cold and dry weather

As our lips have a very thin stratum corneum layer, they cannot retain moisture during the cold and dry winter months. As a consequence, they become very dry and cracked.

2. Low water levels in the body

Low water levels in your body will upset your body’s mineral balance and wreak havoc on your skin. Your lips, being a type of skin, will become dry and cracked due to dehydration. So drink more water during the winter months to keep your lips in good health.

3. Licking your lips

This might sound controversial but licking your lips smothers it with saliva. Saliva evaporates faster than water. It also takes some of the water on your lips with it as it disappears. This causes your lips to become even drier.

Saliva is packed with digestive enzymes. They crack the surface of your lips badly. So stop licking your lips whenever you feel like it. It will only make things worse.

Also Read: Benefits of Eating Healthy and Exercise (Follow a Proper Diet Plan)

4. Certain harmful bacteria

Certain harmful bacteria can soak up the moisture on the surface of your lips and cause them to become dry and cracked. You must apply an anti-bacterial and moisturizing cream in such a case.

Cracked lips

5. Certain foods

Spicy foods, especially those containing artificial coloring agents, dry up the moisture on your lips quickly, causing them to become dry and cracked. So avoid spicy foods with artificial coloring agents as much as possible, especially during the winter months.

6. Contact with allergic substances

Contact with certain substances that you are allergic to can wreak havoc on your skin, amongst other body parts. Your lips, being a kind of skin, will become dry and cracked if you contact these substances.

7. Vitamin deficiency

Certain vitamins like B1, B2 (riboflavin), and B6 help your body retain water better. A deficiency of these vitamins can cause dehydration and dry up of our lips. So get these vitamins from any source/s you desire to help your body retain more water and keep your lips healthy. 

Chapped lips remedy

You can tell that your lips have become chapped if you experience the following symptoms:

  • Your lips have become dry.
  • They have become flaked and cracked. White flakes of skin may peel off from your lips. 
  • They have become scaly and slightly swollen. 
  • Blood is oozing out from the cracks on your lips. 
  • They have become numb.

 

Is Vaseline good for dry lips?

Vaseline is a famous brand name associated with relieving your dry skin. It is the most affordable option easily available in the grocery store. Since there are no oil glands, your lips are prone to drying out.

Vaseline is one of the effective moisturizers applied to ward of chapped lips. It is especially useful in cold and dry climates as there is little moisture in the air.

Why are my lips dry and burning? What deficiency causes lips to peel?

Quite a few diseases and deficiencies can cause chapped lips. They are:

chapped my lip bad

1. Thyroid diseases

Thyroid disease or an inactive thyroid gland can cause dryness of the mouth and lips and chapped lips. When the thyroid glands are affected, saliva production diminishes. Hence, our mouths and lips become dry and cracked, and we get chapped lips.

Chapped lips remedy

 

2. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies

Certain vitamins like B1, B2, and B6 and certain minerals like Zinc and Iron maintain proper blood circulation and help our bodies retain water better. A deficiency of these substances can lead to chapped lips or, sometimes, even dehydration.

3. Angular Cheilitis

Sometimes, certain diseases like Angular Cheilitis can also cause chapped lips. Angular Cheilitis is inflammation at the ends of the lips.


Diseases like Angular Cheilitis are caused by harmful bacteria that soak up the moisture on the lips’ surface and cause skin damage.

4.Actinic Cheilitis

Sometimes, overexposure to the sun can also cause chapped lips. If our lips become dry and cracked due to exposure to the sun’s UV rays, such a condition is known as Actinic Cheilitis. For reasons yet to be discovered, Actinic Cheilitis affects the lower lip more than the upper lip. 

Also read 10 Effective methods for removing coconut oil from your hair

Cracked lips

Why are my lips so dry even when I drink water? According to Internet Research and Interview.

Drinking water does hydrate your lips and reduces their dryness and cracking but only to a small extent. Trace amounts of water do remain on your lips after you’ve had a glass of water. However, this trace amount of water is not enough to hydrate your lips, and they become dry soon.

How to heal chapped lips

Even if water reaches our lips via blood circulation, our lips have a very thin stratum corneum layer, which cannot prevent or lessen water loss through evaporation. Hence, even after drinking a glass of water, our lips become dry soon due to the thin stratum corneum layer.

If you want your lips to keep up their moisture even during the cold and dry winter months, apply some lip balms, beeswax, or petroleum jelly on your lips. They act like an overprotective layer on top of your lips and minimize water loss through evaporation.

Also Read: How to Get in Shape Fast Without Being Miserable – Best Exercise for Weight Loss as Per Research in 2021

 

How do you treat severely chapped lips? Is there any best lip balm for chapped lips?

Whenever you face chapped lips, apply these world-renowned lip balms to your lips and get rid of your chapped lips.

Chapped lips

1. Burt’s Bees 100% Natural Medicated Moisturizing Lip Balm

The pros of this lip balm are:

  • It contains 100% natural ingredients.
  • It is free of detrimental chemicals like parabens, phthalates, and SLS.
  • It comes in cocoa, kokum, and shea butter flavors. 
  • It also helps to remove the dry skin flakes caused by chapped lips easily. 
  • It is cost-effective and widely available in most countries.

2. Neosporin Lip Health Overnight Renewal Therapy

The pros of this lip balm are:

  • It hydrates the lips and makes them soft and red.
  • It helps in easily removing the dry flakes of skin on the lips.
  • It is odorless.
  • It contains Vitamin E and antioxidants that nourish the lips. 
  • It is widely available and cost-effective.

3. Blistex Daily Conditioning Treatment

The pros of this lip balm are:

  • It moisturizes the lips and minimizes water loss via evaporation.
  • It helps to remove the dry flakes of skin on the lips easily. 
  • It is odorless.
  • It is free of deleterious chemicals like SLS and has a high Sun Protection Factor (SPF).
  • It is widely available and cost-effective.

4. Aquaphor Immediate Relief Lip Repair

The pros of this lip balm are:

  • It moisturizes the lips.
  • It helps to easily get rid of the dry skin flakes on the lips. 
  • It contains ingredients like Vitamin E and shea butter which nourish the lips. 
  • It is odorless and free of harmful chemicals. 
  • It is cost-effective and widely available.

5. Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm SPF 25

The pros of this lip balm are:

  • It moisturizes the lips and minimizes water loss via evaporation.
  • It has a high Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 25.
  • It is long-lasting.
  • It is free of pernicious chemicals like parabens, sulfates, and phthalates. 

When to contact your doctor? What do doctors prescribe for dry lips?

Even after applying home remedies and lip balms to your chapped lips, kindly consult a doctor if they do not get cured. It could indicate that you are affected by a serious disease like cancer or Actinic Cheilitis.

Doctors usually prescribe reputed lip balms and antibiotics in some cases for chapped lips.

 

Conclusion

Your lips deserve as much attention and care as any other part of your body. Kindly do not ignore them. If you get chapped lips, try home remedies or lip balms to cure them.

After all, people like other people with smooth and rosy lips and not people with chapped lips.

If the home remedies and lip balms do not cure chapped lips, kindly consult a doctor. It could indicate a severe disease like some cancer or Actinic Cheilitis. To conclude, I would say, “Be healthy and play it safe.”

 

People also ask

1. How long do chapped lips take to heal?

Chapped lips take two to three weeks to heal if you apply home remedies, but they can get cured in a few days if you use reputed lip balms.

2. Deficiency of which vitamins lead to chapped lips?

Deficiency of vitamins B1, B2, and B6 leads to chapped lips. Deficiency of the minerals, Zinc and Iron also contributes to chapped lips.

3. Are dry lips a sign of diabetes?

You cannot say for sure, but dry lips are one of the high blood sugar symptoms.

4. Can anxiety and stress lead to dry lips?

Yes, anxiety and stress affect the thyroid gland negatively. They choke the production of saliva, leading to dry lips and mouth.

5. Are dry lips a sign of diabetes?

Dry lips are a common symptom of people having type 1 and 2 diabetes. But anyone can have a dry mouth as well.

 

Have you ever suffered from chapped lips before? If so, please let us know your experience in the comments section below.

Joshua Gabriel
Joshua Gabrielhttps://www.whitedust.net
I left PC-MAG in 2015 and joined WhiteDust Team as a manager and an author. I fascinated by the idea of doing all time blogging and having a dream to become a great entrepreneur in my upcoming days.
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