Winter can be a brutal time of the year for your lips. During the cold winter season, there are various skin problems which emerge like dry cracked lips and skin. Besides drinking water it is important to use coconut and argan oil based products like lip balms, scrubs, lipsticks with the natural oils as its base to save your lips from chapping, suggest experts.

Don’t lick your lips

This common practice is quite harmful for your lips as when you put saliva on the lips, it dries out and make our lips even more dry.

Use coconut oil

Coconut oil is very good for lips as it acts as a good nourishing moisturiser and will give you cracked free lips. For a deep hydrating result we recommend butterstick lip treatment which has coconut oil and lemon butter and comes with SPF.

Use argan oil

The thin skin of your lips loses moisture rapidly, especially in the winter. So make sure lips are covered with lip balm as often as possible. Argan oil is your lips best friend. Make sure you use lipsticks with argan oil or shea butter so that your lips don’t crack in the cold.

Try lip scrub

Our lips are not protected by hair or sebaceous glands (oil glands), so they start to chap, therefore weekly exfoliation is a must. Lip scrub works great to gently exfoliate dry lips. For a homemade lip scrub, mix brown sugar and honey and gently scrub lips until the sugar crystals melt. Wash and pat dry.

Keep a gloss handy

If you’re a matte enthusiast, and your lips begin to feel dry, always keep a gloss handy. Start your make-up routine by moisturising your lips for which you can use the good old Vaseline. Keep it on for a minute, blot the excess and go ahead with the lipstick application.

Use a lip balm

This will lock in the moisture and help to heal cracks and splits in the skin. Look for a healing ointment that contains petrolatum, essential oils or glycerin. Another important ingredient is sunscreen —  there still is sun in the winter.

Avoid lip balms containing camphor, eucalyptus and menthol. These substances actually dry out your lips and make the problem worse. In response, you apply more of this kind of lip balm, and the cycle continues.

Avoid brushing or rubbing your lips when they are flaky or peeling. “It’s better not to scrub your lips or pick the peeling skin off with your teeth or your fingers. That just creates cracks and sores on your lips and can make things worse,” Dr. Piliang says. “Instead, apply a very heavy ointment-based balm that will be soothing and help to heal your lips.”

Treat cracks right away

If you let them go, they can become worse and possibly get infected or lead to a cold sore.

At night, apply lip balm before you go to bed. Many people sleep with their mouths open. Eight hours of breathing in and out through your mouth can dry your lips, Dr. Piliang says. Also consider using a humidifier at night if the air in your house is dry because of being heated.