The skin on your lips is soft, delicate, and sensitive. Which is why kissing feels so good! But it’s also why sudden temperature changes, dry air, and wind exposure can cause your lips to become chapped, crack and even split.
The skin that covers your lips is some of the thinnest found on your body. While certain parts of your face — like your cheeks — have as many as 16 layers of skin, your lips only have four or five layers. That’s why it’s so easy for your lips to become irritated almost any time of the year.
Your lips are also prone to flaking and peeling since they’re unable to produce their own moisture, and they don’t have the same protection from the elements as the rest of your skin.
Using a lip balm is a great way to hydrate and nourish your lips. Unfortunately, many traditional lip balms contain petrolatum, mineral oil, and hormone-disrupting oxybenzone that only further perpetuate the problem.
A better approach is to use a lip balm made from nourishing natural ingredients such as shea butter (or cocoa butter) and coconut oil.
Shea butter is fat that’s extracted from the nuts of the shea tree. Its high concentration of vitamins and fatty acids — combined with its easy-to-spread consistency — make it great for smoothing, soothing, and conditioning your lips. And coconut oil is a fantastic natural skin moisturizer that melts on your lips as soon as you apply it.
