Winter Lips!

It's cold outside, dry and overheated inside! What this means is that my lips are getting dry, tend to crack and peel. Ouch!

Now that's if I don't do anything. It's not an option for me not to treat them. For years I was able to keep smooth lips without the use of lip balms due to lipstick. Whether the formulas I was wearing where more moisturizing or my lips got dryer with time I have no idea. These days I have to use lip balms period!

Plus I do want to keep them looking as plump as possible for as long as I can. Lips don't have oil glands so we have to give them some. No collagen either so for anti aging an SPF lip balm of at least 15 reapplied several times during the day is a must if you spend a lot of time outdoors. For loss of volume nothing topical will make any difference. Lip plumpers will only work temporarily due to the irritants they include in their formulas like cinnamon, ginger, menthol and forms of capsacin (the spicy chemical found in chili peppers). For a more permanent solution only a surgical procedure will do.

The price range for good lip balms go from $1.00 to $100.00. You can get them at the Dollar store or you can go for brands like La Mer, Sisley or La Prairie. It's really up to you. Go for the ones you love. I'm just presenting you my own favorites.

Personally I don't go much for high end any more for skin care and that includes lip care. I've been able to find effective products that are more budget friendly.

My 2 favorite lip balms

Nuxe Rêve de Miel

New lips overnight! When I apply a good layer of this at night before bedtime I wake up with soft deeply moisturised lips. In fact by morning, I can still feel the balm on my lips. Most brands just disappear overnight but not Rêve de Miel. It contains among other ingredients, honey, plant oils, shea butter and grapefruit essence.

Although I use Rêve de Miel mainly at night, it's great to apply over certain colors of lipstick to make them appear more matte giving lips a more natural look. This works great with shades like Clinique's Tenderheart.

Caudalie Lip Conditioner

The one I use in daytime. Also quite matte it helps keep peelies at bay. Although it almost feels dry at first, in no time you feel the moisture. The stick form makes it easy to carry. I love this one under lipstick and keep one in my coat pocket. Grape-seed polyphenols (have anti oxidants properties), Shea butter, Castor oil and beeswax are it's main ingredients. Since I started using this balm I've rarely sensed the need to exfoliate my lips because I do feel it helps with the skin's renewal process.

For UV protection

Neutrogena, La Roche Posay, Avène, Bioderma as well as several other brands make good lip balms with an SPF of 15 or more. Simply chose the one you like. I find that Neutrogena is pretty good myself and wears well under lipstick.

Other options

Avène, A-Derma, Weleda (Everon), Estée Lauder, Clarins..... Every company makes one and yes, it's ok to have a few. I have several and my daughter has an extended collection. We have them all over the house and each have our favorites. My daughter's is eos for now while hubby goes for a homemade balm made of half unrefined Shea butter and half coconut oil flavored with vanilla extract. I myself sometime simply reach for the tub of Vaseline Cocoa Butter Petroleum Jelly which tastes so yummy. Not as effective as my 2 favorites I still enjoy using it to give my lips a bit of shine.

Along with petroleum jelly another good option to keep handy is Aquaphor in the tube. Many actually prefer it to Vaseline. It is a little thicker but I honestly don't see much difference between the two. They are both good versatile options to keep handy because they are not only for lips but also for skin that is exposed to the element. Great for protecting the skin of young children when the weather gets really cold.

Both petroleum jelly and Aquaphor are great for exfoliating lips. You can apply a little to lips and wait 10 min or so then gently rub away dead skin with either your fingers or a baby washcloth. You can also add a bit of sugar or brown sugar to make the process faster but just be careful not to rub too hard and avoid the skin around the lips. Sugar is a no no as a facial exfoliant. It can non only irritate the skin but cause micro tears.

Reviews for Nuxe Rêve de Miel Lip Balm:

Retails for about $15.00

MakeupAlley: 4.2 / 5 lippies for 273 reviews.
Beauté-test: 4 / 4 stars for 656 reviews.

Nuxe Rêve de Miel ingredients (from frenchcosmeticsforless)
INCI formula: Cera alba (beeswax), Olus oil (vegetable oil), lecithin, behenoxy dimethicone, prunus amygdalus dulcis (sweet almond) oil, Butyrospermum parkii (shea butter) extract, mel (honey), Butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), dimethicone, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, citrus grandis (grapefruit) peel oil, caprylic (capric triglycerides), hydrogenated vegetable oil, glycine soja (soybean) oil, rosa moschata seed oil, tocopheryl acetate, tocopherol, citrus merdica limonum (lemon) peel oil, candelilla cera (euphorbia cerifera) (candelilla) wax, allantoin, calendula officinalis flower extract, BHT, citric acid, citral, limonene, linalool. 


Reviews for Caudalie's Lip Conditioner:

Retails for about $12.00

MakeupAlley: 3.8 / 5 lippies for 140 reviews.
Beauté-test: 4 / 5 stars for 478 reviews.

Caudalie Lip Conditioner ingredients (from Beauté-test)
Macadamia ternifolia seed oil*, ricinus communis (castor) seed oil*, caprylic/capric triglyceride*, cera alba (beeswax), copernicia cerifera (carnauba) wax*, cetyl palmitate*, acetylated glycol stearate, butyrospermum parkii (shea butter) fruit*, euphorbia cerifera (candeulla) wax*, vitis vinifera (grape) seed oil*, cetearyl alcohol*, cetyl alcohol*, parmitic acid*, stearic acid*, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil*, hydrogenated stearyl olive esters*; hydrogenated vegetable oil*, prunus armeniaca (apricot) kernel oil*, jojoba esters*, isopropyl myristate, parfum (fragrance), tocopheryl acetate*, palmitoyl grape seed extract*, ammonium glycyrrhizate*, hypericum perforatumextract*, tocopherol*.
* origine végétale


If you want to read more on the subject there are a few good articles on Discovery Fit & Health, source of some of the information given in this entry.

One final note, when I started this blog my very fist post was about lip balms. I revisited it and it was fun to see how much I've grown into this blogging thing. You can have a look at it here. Warning, the writing is not that good but the list of products is. :D

Memories, a bit of history & sunscreen

Sorry for the long absence! Life got in the way and so, I was less inclined to research, less inclined to write. I will try to be more diligent, and dare I say, more disciplined....

You may be noticing some changes. More will come for I am still trying to figure out how blog stuff works. I haven't really taken the time yet to organise the presentation properly. Hopefully I'll be able to create something that will seem slightly more pleasant to readers. For now, here's what I've been working on, thinking about...

Memories

As a child and early teen, my mom used to take me to Miami Beach every winter. We would spend the month of January there and stay right across from Bal Harbour Shops. I can still remember buying my first Chanel nail polish at Neiman Marcus. Now in those days, January was a quiet month and so it would be dreamy to take long walks on the beach. This was at the start of the South Beach revival. I would walk from our little Art-Deco hotel to the star of Miami Beach in those days, the magnificent Fontainebleau and back. I can't remember how long it took but it was what I liked to do. I was always a bit of a loner, probably due to the fact that I was an only child. In the morning I would do my school work and spend my afternoons walking. I was never one to lie in the sun. I had to “do” something.

Beside the gorgeous Art-Deco Architecture of the little hotels on the beach there wasn’t much to see except admire the ocean, the pelicans, the palm trees and...

The leathery dark skinned elderly people on the beach.

Argh!!!

Let's just say that none of them looked like this!

Some where so dark and burned that you could swear

that this is what they where doing. 

Lying in a frying pan!

Today I'm wondering if they where really “elderly”, realising now that some of them where probably in their 40's and 50's. The overdose of sun tanning was, most likely, what made them look older, like worn leather. Seems like I can still smell that Hawaiian Tropic Coconut oil that in all likelihood, had an spf of -2!

Hand Creams

It would be great if we could all have beautiful looking hands. On the narrow side with long fingers & even shaped nails. We would all love to have even complexioned hands with no marks like we see in magazine adds. Utopia for most of us! If we can't change the shape of our hands, we can at least help make then comfortably smooth with, hopefully, strong nails.

This category is so large, with so many options, that it makes it hard to chose. Price is also to consider. You can get sample sizes at the drugstore of about $1 as well as high end ones in the $100 range.

Once in a while on Makeup Alley's Skin Care Board, we get questions like “What is the best of this or that?” This implies most of the time, on the expensive side. Often there will be no answers. The reason being that once you start to get interested in ingredients, their purpose & actions on skin, you figure that they are all similar & some “lower” end products are in fact superior. But again, for some of us, the presentation, or, just the fact of saying we use Dior, La Prairie or Chanel makes us feel good. It's like owning a pair of Gucci sunglasses or a nice Guerlain compact. Most of them are good & so it only depends on how much you're prepared to spend.