Sunburned Lips: What to Do

About a week ago I wrote a piece on the importance of using a lip balm with an SPF to protect your lips, then I go and get sunburned lips myself. How? Lip gloss. I rarely ever wear lip gloss and when I do it's usually when I'm going out with friends and when the sun is low. I had an interview and decided to do something I almost never do, skip my lip balm and wear lip gloss instead for color. I did that two days in a row and woke up one morning with very dry, red lips. I've had chapped lips before but this was different. My lips literally looked like sunburned flesh. It was red, cracking at the corners and taunt. It was painful to say the least. I had to deal with that for almost a week before my lips went back to normal. So the following is what I did to remedy my painful problem.

Coincidentally just a few days after my lips had recovered the DJ on one of my favorite radio stations mentioned how her husband had gotten sunburned lips over the weekend. So yes, sunburned lips are a very real possibility. How the DJ's husband recovered from his sunburned was how I recovered from mine, with an SPF lip balm.

I've been a devoted Blistex girl for years because it's always worked for me and I haven't had any bad reactions to it like I did with Chapstick, however, Blistex didn't do much to help with my sunburned lips. I can't be positive but I think it actually made them worse or slowed down the healing process. So I tried something else, Carmex. Had I been able to find something with aloe vera for the lips I most definitely would've tried that first.

Now, I wasn't actually sure switching lip balm would work and maybe it didn't, maybe my lips just healed over time. The last time I used Carmex was during a very cold winter in which my lips were so chapped my regular lip balm wasn't doing anything to help. Carmex now comes in a tube. I was skeptical because it was oilier than Blistex, but after just a day of using it my lips felt better, and I didn't have to reapply frequently. By day two of using Carmex, which also has an SPF by the way, my lips were looking better and pain free. And by day three my lips were completely back to normal.

So my advice is to do your best to avoid getting sunburned lips because they are no fun, probably even worse than getting a regular sunburn. But if it happens try using a lip balm with an SPF like Carmex. If you can find something with aloe vera that would be even better. Most importantly, don't forget to drink lots of water and keep your lips moist and well protected. The last thing you want to do is expose your sunburned flesh to more UV rays.