When Your Lips Keep Flaking, When and How Should You Apply Lip Balm?

If your lips keep peeling even though you apply lip balm, when and how you apply it often matters more than which lip balm you use.

Why lips tend to get dry so easily

Unlike the rest of the skin on your face, your lips have almost no sebaceous glands and a thin outer surface. They have a hard time producing their own oil barrier, so moisture can evaporate easily from wind, indoor heating, or even talking and eating. When the dry surface starts to flake, that’s what we see as “chapped lips.”

Habits to help prevent flaking

1. Apply right after washing your face or showering: Gently pat away moisture and apply lip balm before your lips dry out.
2. Apply a generous layer before bed: Apply more than you would during the day and leave it on overnight. You can’t reapply while you’re asleep.
3. Don’t wet your lips with saliva: As saliva dries, it makes your lips even drier.
4. Don’t pick at flakes: Picking with your fingers can peel off areas that aren’t ready to come off yet. Let them soften with plenty of lip balm and come away on their own.
5. Apply a thin layer often during the day: It’s easier to maintain moisture by reapplying a thin layer whenever your lips feel tight than by applying a thick layer all at once.

Which lip balm might work well for you

If your lips tend to flake, a lip balm with ingredients that both coat the surface and hold onto moisture can feel comfortable.

• Surface-coating ingredients: squalane, shea butter, waxes
• Moisture-binding ingredients: panthenol, sodium hyaluronate
• In the same family as skin lipids: ceramides

When to consult a dermatologist

If your lips are cracked and bleeding, swollen and itchy, or don’t improve after a few weeks, don’t try to manage it with lip balm alone; see a dermatologist.

About Gloshell Melt Lip Balm

A melt-formula lip balm that softens with body heat and spreads in a thin layer. It contains 200,000 ppm squalane along with shea butter, ceramide NP, panthenol, and sodium hyaluronate. It contains no fragrance in its full ingredient list and comes in an 11 ml size.

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