Yahoo News The Winter Destroyed Your Lips. Here's How to Fix Them.
My lips, they are so chapped. What is the best old wives tale/witch potion/extremely expensive thing from Sephora that I should use to deal with my chapping problem?
Oh man, I was so stoked when I got this question, because it's not often that I get to deliver skincare advice over here at Esquire! Well, perhaps that's not exactly true ... But still, testicles aside, I don't often have the excuse to lay some skincare wisdom on you, and I'm psyched to have cause to do so now.
Maintenance
So yes, in addition to being a Clean Person, I also know this subject well: I grew up in Boston, so I know from snow and sleet and wind, my God, the City Hall Plaza wind. In terms of chapped lips, prevention and regular maintenance is crucial, and is something you should add to your daily routine. To put it another way, don't wait until your lips are already painfully chapped to treat them. For daily care, you can basically use the lip balm of your choice; I like Blistex Lip Medex and Smith's Rosebud Salve. Don't let "rosebud" scare you off—there's a light scent that doesn't at all linger, and it applies clear, so you won't look like you're wearing lipgloss. The other nice thing about the Rosebud Salve is that it's also great on chapped hands, and unlike other formulas, absorbs quickly, so you won't have a 20-minute wait before you can touch things with your greasy paws.
Sidebar: Trader Joe's Head to Toe Moisturizing Balm and Beard Balm is also excellent for dry, chapped and split skin. It's quite thick, so despite the "no greasy residue" claims, you'll want to allow time for it to absorb before you can go about your business. Oh God, I have so much more I want to say to you about lotions and balms! But we still have lipcare topics to cover, so I'll save my spiel on moisturizers for another day.
Triage
Inevitably, though, you'll end up with a set of wildly chapped lips that regular balm can't touch. No problem, you just need to exfoliate. Here's the trick to exfoliating lips: Use a soft-bristled toothbrush for the job. Wet it, so it's gentler on what is quite tender skin, and gently brush back and forth to loosen dead skin. You can up the exfoliation game by mixing up a mask of sorts by diluting baking soda in just enough water to make a thick paste (measurements are inexact, but start with a tablespoon of baking soda and add water in half teaspoon increments until the paste is the consistency of thick porridge). (Also: lol at the idea that any of us are regularly eating porridge and therefore are totally clear on its desired consistency). Apply the baking soda mask using the toothbrush, then rinse your lips with warm water. Post-exfoliation, apply a thick layer of your balm of choice.
So those are a few of the old wives tale/witch potion methods, but should you also want the pricier option, I can help with that too. I'm obsessed with Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask in Clear, which can be applied at night to treat your lips while you sleep, as well as during the day in place of your regular balm. Just as with the Rosebud Salve, overlook the fact that it's a product marketed toward women because, unless you buy the Champagne or Smashed options, which are tinted, it's a clear and scent-free product. Also, it's probably worth noting that, for the time being at least, women have more and better lip-care options than those marketed to men and you should avail yourself of the best of what's out there. (So don't scoff at Sephora.)
Before I wrap this up and pitch my editor on a regular skincare-for-men advice column, there's one last product I want to tell you about because I'm in love with it: Tarte Lip Facial Lip Scrub is incredible at sloughing off dead skin. It also tastes amazing, like you ate a sugared donut and get to lick the sweet residue off your lips. The same caveats as with the Rosebud and Bite Beauty products apply: Lip Scrub is designed for women, and the packaging reflects that, but the product itself is color- and scent-free, making it perfectly acceptable for use on your (very manly) lips.
Oh, and One More Thing...
You may want to kill me for this, but if you do opt to buy one of the above products at Sephora, take the extra five minutes to sign up for the Beauty Insider program, which is free. You'll rack up points that can be put toward purchases, but more importantly, you'll be eligible to receive samples, and you should take advantage of that offer. The samples are a great way to dabble in skincare without bankrupting yourself, which you'll be glad to know about when I start in on neck creams. You cannot begin to fathom how costly neck creams are, oh my God. Don't worry, though, I'll break you in slowly.
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