Kiss kiss chap chap

What does your lips go through?

Everyday people forget that your lips go through as much as the rest of your body, in fact your lips may go through the most, naming some of those are ;-

• Drinking/eating
• The weather
• Lipstick
• Kissing ( yes this can be dehydrating as you are passing water to whatever surface it touches)
• Smoking

And those are just a few, everyone has dry lips at some point, mostly in winter as the air is more dry and the weather is cold. Some people may not realise that what they eat also effects the lips, for example, if you eat too many food products that has been deep fried or oven cooked can be very dehydrating. It doesn't mean that we can't eat deep fried food or oven cooked food, it just means that we need to hydrate more. Too much salt can also dehydrate our lips and skin, as well as monosodium glutamate (MSG), most people don't realise that MSG is in a lot of foods, particularly take out, when you order that chinese, indian food, they can contain a lot of MSG. Just listing a few foods that can be dehydrating :-

• Chips/Fries
• Take out
• Crisps/Chips
• Spicy food
• Store bought cookies/biscuits
• Toast ( whole grain bread is fine, but white bread is pretty dehydrating)

Even though there are products in stores that say they are high in fibre and good for you, they still add additives and possibly have MSG, organic food is not always better, see the back of packets of some food products to find out if they hold a lot of salt (soduim = salt), a good way to counter balance sodium is hydrogen. Hydrogen is in a lot food products, it is the main element of water.
There is no need to cut out any of our favourite food just because it has a lot of salt or msg, it just means that we need to eat these things in moderation, if we eat anything that contains a lot of salt, counter balance by drinking plenty of water. Water is very good for our skin and lips, as it hydrates our body and cleanse our system.


Plenty of people will use lip balm to protect their lips from cracking, and this is good, as is vaseline or any other skin protection product. Lip balm is there to put a layer of protection, it's basically stopping your lips from losing too much water, instead the fluids that you could have possibly lost are locked underneath the layer of lip balm and is absorbed again into your lips, this may sound displeasing as most people would know that the fluids that are coming your of our bodies is 'sweat' and hearing that you are absorbing 'sweat' isn't exactly nice to hear, however our own 'sweat' is actually just water (more or less), it's a lot healthier for your own body and lips than having to absorb oil and grease from external sources. The job of lip balm is not to hydrate your lips, it's to put over a layer to protect your lips from losing any more fluids that will dry out your lips, lip balm is only there to soothe the cracks and to heal up any cracks that have shown, the rest of the work is within your own lips of absorbing in fluids.

Being around a lot of chemicals can also be very dehydrating, some may say that they're not around a lot of chemicals so it's fine, but what do you clean your house with? Cleaning products such as bleach, furniture polishing, even the spray that you scent your room with contains chemicals, this can be very dehydrating, it will also dehydrate your eyes. If you are exposed to these products a lot, such as cleaners may do, don't be afraid to wear a mask, you are protecting yourself from breathing the products in which can be harmful to your body. If you are exposed to a lot of these things, make sure to put eye drops in and drink plenty of fluids, as much as some people think eye drops are mainly for those that wear contacts or glasses, the purpose of eye drops is to keep your eyes healthy, if your eyes dry up, this can be very painful, our eyes naturally have a lot of water, so if you get dry eyes, best solution is to have eye drops.

No matter what time of year, summer is never far away, and even though it might be cloudy, the sun is always present in the day time, I'm not going to hop on the importance of UV protection too much, as there are plenty of other people out there already stating this case. When the summer comes around or if you live in a particularly sunny spot of the world, it is important always to remember to protect your skin from the suns rays, UV rays damages the skin but whats not talked about is the sun's rays. Exposure to the sun can be harmful to your skin, not just from UV but the sunlight will also dehydrate your skin. The first place to be damaged is our lips and our ears as these are particularly delicate areas, if you choose to use lip balm to protect your lips, try to choose one that protects from UV as well. Protecting from the sun in terms of dehydration is a very small step, but over the years it can make a big difference.

One of the first sign of dehydrating skin comes from our lips, then dry mouth and eventually hitting our skin, so when you start getting chapped lips, drink plenty of water, and keep those lip balms handy.