Acne Treatments: Top 5 Natural Remedies for Dry Lips

There are a number of reasons why lips dry out. Chief among them is that they're located within reach of the

tongue; in other words, it's easier to lick our lips than our foreheads. Doing either would produce the same effect -- dryness. Human saliva contains two compounds that promote dryness in skin. Amylase and maltase are digestive enzymes that can actually strip away the sensitive skin of your lips, leaving it exposed to dry air.
What's more, when saliva dries on the lips, it actually leads to further evaporation of the natural moisture found in lips, which further exacerbates lip dryness [source: Gardner].
A common misconception is that lips dry out because they lack sebaceous glands. These glands are most commonly associated with hair follicles, which, in hairy regions of the body, deliver sebum to the skin. Sebum is a natural oil made of fats called triglycerides and the detritus of dead cells. Once it reaches the skin, it both moisturizes and waterproofs skin. Since lips are hairless, many people think they lack sebaceous glands. In actuality, lips have a specialized type of sebaceous gland, known as ectopic sebaceous glands [source: Bolognia, et al].
Clearly, the widespread existence of dry, chapped lips shows that the ectopic sebaceous glands that keep the lips moisturized need some help from time to time. If you like going the natural route to healthy, beautiful skin, we've included five natural remedies for those dry lips of yours.

Yikes! We've got some recommendations for natural remedies to cure those dry lips.

5. Coconut Butter or Oil

For the last several thousand years, people in tropical locales have used the coconut both for dietary and medicinal purposes. Modern research into the properties of coconuts, especially its oil, has supported ancient notions that the coconut is a healthy food.
It turns out that coconut oil is composed of an uncommon type of fat. Most animal and plant fats are made up of long-chain fatty acids. Coconut oil is made of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs), which our bodies metabolize differently than long-chain fats. Most notably, unlike fats composed of long-chain fatty acids, coconut oil doesn't increase cholesterol in the blood stream. In fact, it also decreases the presence of cholesterol in the tissues of organs like the liver, effectively lowering cholesterol [source: Fife].
Coconut oil has also been found to possess other healing properties, including boosting the health of skin -- including improving dry lips. Because of its MCFAs, coconut oil is easily absorbed by the skin. It serves as an emollient (a softening agent) and a moisturizer. Even more, coconut oil allows for easier absorption of vitamins, including the fat-soluble vitamin E, an antioxidant that reduces the formation of free radicals that damage cells.

In addition to being a super food, coconut oil and butter are top notch emollients for dry lips.

There are a number of reasons why lips dry out. Chief among them is that they're located within reach of the tongue; in other words, it's easier to lick our lips than our foreheads. Doing either would produce the same effect -- dryness. Human saliva contains two compounds that promote dryness in skin. Amylase and maltase are digestive enzymes that can actually strip away the sensitive skin of your lips, leaving it exposed to dry air.
What's more, when saliva dries on the lips, it actually leads to further evaporation of the natural moisture found in lips, which further exacerbates lip dryness [source: Gardner].
A common misconception is that lips dry out because they lack sebaceous glands. These glands are most commonly associated with hair follicles, which, in hairy regions of the body, deliver sebum to the skin. Sebum is a natural oil made of fats called triglycerides and the detritus of dead cells. Once it reaches the skin, it both moisturizes and waterproofs skin. Since lips are hairless, many people think they lack sebaceous glands. In actuality, lips have a specialized type of sebaceous gland, known as ectopic sebaceous glands [source: Bolognia, et al].
Clearly, the widespread existence of dry, chapped lips shows that the ectopic sebaceous glands that keep the lips moisturized need some help from time to time. If you like going the natural route to healthy, beautiful skin, we've included five natural remedies for those dry lips of yours.

5. Coconut Butter or Oil

4. Cucumber Slices

Cucumber slices have been associated with beauty regimens for awhile now. The image of a spa patron with his or her face covered with a skin mask and a slice of cucumber over each eye is a ubiquitous one. Cucumber slices have been shown to be effective in enhancing the beauty of skin by reducing the appearance of under-eye swelling. What works on the sensitive skin beneath the eyes can also work for dry lips.
Cucumber is composed of mostly water -- more than 90 percent -- which means it can serve as a delivery vehicle for H2O [source: Chow]. The water in raw cucumber slices can help restore moisture in lips on its own, but cucumber has other ingredients that can promote the health of lips as well. The vegetable has a significant amount of ascorbic acid, known more familiarly as vitamin C. Ascorbic acid promotes the production of collagen, a connective protein that gives structure and resilience to skin tissue. Cucumber also contains caffeic acid, an antioxidant that suppresses the generation of free radicals by ultraviolet radiation (UV) from the sun [source: Yamada, et al].
Combined into cucumber slices applied topically to the lips, the water and caffeic and ascorbic acids moisturize lips, promote lip fullness and protect from sun damage. Not bad from a vegetable you can get for less than a buck at the local market