Experiencing dry, flaky, and cracked lips? You’re not alone. Especially during those winter months, sandpaper lips are pretty much inevitable. Sure, lip balm comes in handy, but a bad formula can set you right back to square one once it dries. What you really need is a lip scrub, so we've picked these DIY lip scrubs to get you started.
1. The Benefits of Exfoliating
3. Harmful vs Helpful Ingredients in DIY Lip Scrubs
4. Recipes for 8 DIY Lip Scrubs
Unlike our face, our lips don't contain sebum-releasing oil glands that keep the skin soft and moisturized (1). To avoid textured lips, you can look to lip scrubs to really help eliminate dead skin cells on your lips that make them look rough and dry to make them smoother, softer, and a lot more comfortable throughout the day. Plus, lip scrubs are incredibly cheap and easy to make yourself with all-natural ingredients.
Before you start on making DIY lip scrubs, it’s crucial to know how to make them efficiently and properly, what ingredients to use and avoid, and how the ingredients can help your lips. On the other hand, it’s also important to consult the experts so you know how to avoid over exfoliating and harming your skin barrier.
The best way to keep your lips feeling and looking their best is to exfoliate properly. Any damage or dryness on your lips may be a result of excess UV radiation from the sun, cold air, incorrect care of the lips, or even stress (1). By exfoliating once or twice a week with homemade exfoliators like DIY lip scrubs, you can moisturize and nourish the lips to leave them looking fuller, supple, and more hydrated.
Overall, the reasons for exfoliating the lips include:
Now that you know the benefits of exfoliating, you should also know the three main steps of properly exfoliating your lips so you don’t cause harm with abrasive tools or ingredients (more on that below):
When it comes to making DIY lip scrubs, knowing which ingredients to reach for and which to avoid will help you prevent irritation on your lips. Luckily, a lot of ingredients that can be added to DIY lip scrubs can already be found in your pantry or refrigerator, but you don’t want to go overboard.
As always, using any fragrances, artificial colorings, or potentially harmful ingredients like essential oils is not recommended. These ingredients may disrupt the outer skin layer leading to dryness, irritation, and rashes. No bueno.
Instead, the key to creating a great DIY lip scrub is combining a gentle exfoliant with natural oils and fatty acids. You can make DIY lip scrubs using a variety of natural oils like olive, almond, coconut, or jojoba oil. Honey is also antibacterial, has skin hydrating and natural healing properties, so it’s often used as a liquid base for DIY lip scrubs as well. When it comes to the exfoliant, sugar, salt, finely ground nuts, and oats are often used as they are not too abrasive on the skin.
If you’re looking for your lips scrub to add fullness and suppleness to your lips, you can also add plumping ingredients to the mixture that will not add too much irritation or swelling. Ingredients like cinnamon, peppermint, or cayenne chili powder are great options. However, be sure to use these ingredients in small quantities to avoid over irritating your lips and the surrounding skin.
To prevent skin damage while exfoliating, dermatologists recommend the following tips:
Below are eight super easy homemade DIY lip scrubs made with natural and delicious ingredients you likely already have!
Written by Selena Ponton
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