Ask a Beauty Editor: The best products for nourishing lips

Get your pout in peak condition.

Sarah Tarca and Sherine Youssef are Australian beauty editors and the founders of Gloss Etc, a weekly newsletter dedicated to the best beauty reviews, news and tips. 

How are your lips feeling? Are they still on your face? That’s a good start. Winter can really do a number on your moisture levels, even if you are applying what feels like never-ending layers of lip products.

We like nosy people. Don’t be shy, head to our Beauty section for more. 

The good news is that as beauty editors, we’ve been lucky enough to try a lot of different lip-hydrating formulas. And as far as beauty concerns go, getting your pout back in peak condition is actually a relatively easy fix. If you’re looking for guidance, read the below, follow the steps and maybe no professional skiing anytime soon, okay?

Exfoliate tonight

It might seem counterintuitive but dry, flaky lips need to be buffed first. Just like your face (which, um, your lips are a part of), you want to remove that top layer of dead skin cells so that any moisture you apply has the best chance of making contact with skin and doing its job. Shift that dead layer by massaging your lips with a super-soft toothbrush, a dedicated lip scrub (we’re big fans of the Lanolips ones – Sherine likes Strawberry and Sarah prefers Coconutter) or by massaging lips with a damp washcloth after a shower (they’ll be nice and soft).

Whichever tool, the method is the same: be gentle gentle gentle, because you don’t want to cause any tears in the skin. And it goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway – no picking the flakes! Ever. We know it’s tempting but just don’t, please and thank you.

Nourish overnight

In skincare, ‘overnight’ and ‘sleeping’ masks are essentially souped-up moisturisers, with substantial textures and deeply reparative formulas. So before you drift off, slather on a thick layer of an overnight lip balm or mask, like maybe the Laneige (a cult favourite for a reason) or Dermal Therapy (if you’re looking for a cozzie lives alternative).

Hydrate tomorrow

If you’re anything like us, you’ve got 395 lip balms rolling around the bottom of your bags, desk, glove box and pockets. Which is fine –no judgment here – but are they actually doing anything to help your lips, or do they just taste (and feel) nice?

To answer that, keep two things in mind. First, the best lip balms feature the hat-trick of humectants (attract and retain water), emollients (add moisture) and occlusives (trap and seal moisture). If your lip balm hits two of these categories, that’s okay, but you’ll get your beauty gold star if you check off all three.

And second, despite the terms often being used interchangeably, there is a difference between ‘hydrating’ and ‘moisturising’. Lip balms that fall under the ‘hydrating’ category are usually chock-full of humectant ingredients, while ‘moisturising’ ones are generally made with occlusives.

Investigate ingredients

So how to know which is which? Flip the product and scrutinise the ingredient list. You’re looking for a mix of ingredients like hyaluronic acid or glycerin (humectants), shea butter, beeswax, ceramides or squalane (emollients) and lanolin or petroleum jelly (occlusives). (Side note: the need for all three elements explains why Vaseline alone won’t really help your poor lips.) A few of our forever-handbag favourites include The Ordinary Squalane + Amino Acids Lip Balm, Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment and Burt’s Bees Strawberry Lip Balm.

Also, our beauty editor licenses would be revoked if we failed to mention SPF. Lips are part of our skin and exposed to just as much UV as the rest of our bodies, yet somehow we all forget that fact when we’re smothering ourselves in sunscreen. That’s fair considering SPF balms used to be really gross, but with the likes of Ultra Violette and Bondi Sands rectifying that with excellent (and cute) formulations that glide on the lips, the only excuse now is… well, there isn’t one.

Can lip balms really make dry lips worse?

Did you read this article? Same. And as we said above, not all lip products are created equal! Always check the ingredients as some, like camphor and menthol, can further annoy already-irritated and dry lips. Basically, your lips shouldn’t feel like they need a layer of lip balm all the time. If they do, you may need to see a skin specialist to examine the cause of the chronic dryness.

For more on winter skin hydration, head here.