Lip service

We smile with them, we kiss with them, we speak with them and we eat with them, but lips are often forgotten about in our beauty regime. It’s only when we notice that they are cracked, lipstick  is bleeding or they are not as full as they used to be that we sit up and take notice of them.

Lips are a particularly vulnerable part of our face as they have no oil glands. As they lack any natural protective oil and are highly exposed to wind, cold, sun, central heating etc. they can become rough and dry very easily. The only way to protect the lips from these natural elements is to use some kind of lip balm. For women, lipsticks work very well, and did you know that lip cancer is far more prevalent in men than women as they rarely put anything on their lips to protect them?

The skin on the lips is also extremely thin. Having only 3-6 layers of cell compared to 16 layers found in other parts of the skin, and our lips appear red-pink because we can actually see the blood capillaries that lie under the mucus membrane. Due to the large amounts of saliva in the area lips are very susceptible to dehydration and they dry out faster than any other part of the body.

As we age our lips lose volume and start to create feather lines around the lip line which is also called the ‘vermillion border’. After the age of 30 we start to lose collagen at a rate of approximately 1% a year – that’s a lot of collagen loss by the time you reach my age! One solution is to have fillers in the area to restore volume and a perfect lip line. But for those you who don’t want to go down the route of Kristina Rei, the young Russian lady who has the biggest lips in the world due to multiple silicone injections, look out for new ingredients such as Apple Fruit Extract which has been show to increase tissue volume in lips to address thinning and ageing lips.

So how should be looking after them? Protection and restoring the barrier function of the skin on your lips is key.

As I mentioned above, using lipstick is a good method of protection. Choose lipsticks with a moisturising formula and preferably additional beneficial ingredients such as vitamin E. Lipsticks and lip balms with additional sunscreen protection are also a good choice to shield from damaging UV rays.

Using a a specific lip product to treat your lips and address areas of concern is a must for those looking to have luscious lips. Look for products with ingredients such as shea butter and Indian Gentian extract to restore barrier function to keep them soft, supple and protected. Sesame seed extract is a great ingredient for hydration and reducing roughness. Dermalogica’s new Nightly Lip Treatment is packed full of these beneficial ingredients.

You can now request the Nightly Lip Treatment as an ‘add on’ to your Dermalogica Microzone or full Skin Treatment or just book in for a 10 min Skin Solver Lip Treatment.

We are hoping that this is going to become the best lip treatment in Tarporley and Ellesmere Port!

Originally published July 26, 2017 10:07am, updated September 24, 2017