Dry, chapped, and flaky lips are inevitable. For many people, it’s an all-year-round issue and doesn’t just occur during harsh winters. If you find your lips need some extra TLC, it might be useful to know how to use sugar scrub on lips.
Using a sugar lip scrub is pretty straightforward. First, cleanse and remove any traces of product on your lips. Leave them wet or damp to reduce friction. Then, gently massage the product on your lips for about a minute to exfoliate. Remove any excess scrub product on your lips. Lastly, seal in moisture with a nourishing lip balm.
Of course, different sugar lip scrub products from different manufacturers have their own set of instructions for use. Always read your pick’s guidelines and instructions first before applying.
In this article, we’ll go over a detailed guide on how to apply sugar scrub on your lips. We’ll also go over everything you need to know about sugar scrubs including why you should use one.
What’s Up with My Lips?
Who doesn’t want smooth, plump, and healthy lips?
In an age where everyone obsesses over how their lips look, lip augmentation treatments and procedures are more abundant than ever. Makeup tips and hacks to enhance how the lips look have also made a huge comeback to help many to achieve their personal lip goals.
Another simple yet effective method to get your lips looking their best under your favorite gloss or lipstick is by taking care of them the way you do to your face with your skincare routine.
The lips have thinner, more delicate skin than the rest of the face. Unlike the rest of our body, our lips don’t have sebaceous oil glands that give them natural and continuous moisture and hydration.
Because of this, the lips tend to dry and crack more than the rest of the skin. And when they’re exposed to the environment’s natural yet damaging conditions, they can suffer the consequences.
Whether be it the dry and cold winds of winter or the extreme heat during the summer, all these can affect the health of your lips, especially if you don’t take proper care of them.
Dry, chapped, and flaky lips are inevitable and many find themselves dealing with the issue no matter the time of year. The worst of it all is it can leave the lips inflamed, swollen, and painful.
All because of these things, it is imperative that anyone should know how to properly take care of their lips – starting from exfoliating them properly.
What is a Sugar Lip Scrub?
A sugar lip scrub is a physical exfoliator for the lips. What it does is slough off and remove dead skin cells from your lips to reveal smoother lips underneath.
Unlike your typical body scrub, lip scrubs are formulated specifically for the delicate and thinner skin of the lips. This means they do their job with a much gentler formula.
Lip scrubs can come in small jars where you have to scoop out the product, a tube to squeeze out the scrub from, or a bullet stick form you apply as you would with a regular balm.
Regardless of the form it comes in, all lip scrubs will do the same thing: scrub off flaky dead skin cells from your lips.
Though different brands and manufacturers (and your own DIY lip scrub recipe as well) have their own signature lip scrub formulas and recipes, all lip scrubs come down to two basic ingredients: an exfoliant and an emollient.
Exfoliant
An exfoliant is a grainy substance, typically sugar granules, whose primary concern is to exfoliate the lips’ topmost layer. It’s what sloughs off dead skin cells off lips and gets rid of that flaky, dry appearance.
Emollient
An emollient is a moisturizing agent that leaves the lips soft, moisturized, and hydrated. Exfoliating can leave the lips dry so the emollient brings back that moisture for healthier lips. This is often in the form of shea butter, coconut oil, or sweet almond oil.
Why You Should Exfoliate Your Lips: Benefits of Using Sugar Lip Scrub
Now you might be thinking, isn’t exfoliating my lips completely unnecessary? Wouldn’t this just add time to my already lengthy skincare routine?
Sure, exfoliating the lips is an additional step to your routine but it’s an extra step your lips will thank you for. Here’s why you should regularly exfoliate your lips:
Lip scrubs buff away dead skin cells
A physical exfoliator, lip scrubs buff away and slough off dead skin cells on your lips, often a sign of dry skin. This reveals soft silky smooth lips underneath.
Lip scrubs increase blood flow and encourage cell turnover
The exfoliation from lip scrubs temporarily increases blood flow and thus encourages cell turnover. This, in turn, refreshes how your lips look and give them a plumper look immediately after exfoliating.
Lip scrubs help lip products apply and absorb better
When you achieve smoother lips after exfoliating, your lip products, lipsticks, gloss, and lip balms apply evenly and better across your lips. This is an especially helpful benefit if you’re a fan of matte lipsticks.
Lip scrubs improve discoloration on lips
Regularly exfoliating your lips can help get rid of dark spots and discoloration developing on your lips. These layers slough off of the lips and are replaced by newer and even-toned lip skin cells.
How to Use Sugar Scrub on Lips
If your lips need some extra TLC, give lip exfoliation with lip scrubs a try. Here’s how you can exfoliate your lips with sugar lip scrubs:
- Cleanse lips
To properly exfoliate your lips, you need to start with a clean base and canvas. Remove any traces of lipstick, lip balm, lip gloss, or any lip product off your lips.
Wash your lips to remove any traces of product, dirt, and debris. You can also opt to use a wet and damp washcloth to remove anything on your lips.
Then, leave your lips wet or damp as dry lips invite more friction between your lips and the scrub which could be painful.
- Apply lip scrub
Scoop a proper amount of lip scrub into your finger. A pea-sized amount should be enough for your entire lips.
- Gently scrub and exfoliate lips
Using a circular motion, gently massage the lip exfoliator onto your lips. Do this for about one to two minutes.
- Remove lip scrub from lips
Wash off any remaining scrub on your lips. You can also instead use a washcloth to remove any leftover ip scrub on your lips.
- Hydrate with lip balm
After exfoliating your lips, seal off moisture by applying a hydrating and nourishing lip balm on your lips. This also creates a protective barrier after sloughing off dead skin cells for the perfect supple lips. If you’re interested in more natural moisturizers, consider almond oil or coconut oil.
Over-Exfoliating: How Often Should You Exfoliate Lips?
Just like your face and the rest of your body, you can over-exfoliate your lips.
It’s generally suggested to exfoliate your lips and use lip scrub only once a week.
If your lips need it, you can do it as often as twice a week. But remember, exfoliate your lips no more than twice a week or you will be risking even more damage to your lips.
Conclusion
While we put much of our energy into our face and body, our lips may sometimes feel left out. When you have dry, flaky, chapped lips, it’s time for some intervention with the fan-favorite sugar lip scrubs.
Using sugar scrub on your lips is pretty simple. First, cleanse your lips to remove any traces of lip product. Leave your lips wet or damp to lessen the friction. Then, with a circular motion, gently scrub and exfoliate your lips with the sugar scrub for one to two minutes. Remove any excess product left on your lip and seal off moisture with a hydrating lip balm.
And that has been our detailed guide on how to use a sugar scrub on lips. Hit us up below for any more of your queries!
