What Are You Putting on Your Lips?

It's finally spring! I mean, technically it's been spring for almost a month, but it's finally starting to feel like it in Boise. Boise springs are fun! They're predictably unpredictable, and you never know when they're going to start or end (or start again or end again).

There is one thing about spring that I count count on. Not only am I sick of the cold from winter, but my lips are OVER it. Seriously, if winter was any longer, I think my lips would peel all the way off my face. Because of this, I know how important it is to take care of the sensitive skin on my lips to prevent that from happening.

There's a lot of controversy out there about lip care. What is the best thing to put on my lips? What ingredients should I look for? Many people don't realize that the biggest thing I put into the Handmade by Sondra family of products can't be listed on the ingredients label. It's research, as in hours and hours of research, and I want to share some of what I've learned with you. So in regard to this post's title, seriously, what's going on those kissers?

What is the main thing you look for when rehabbing your lips from dryness, whether it's from the weather, a cold, or often in my case, dehydration? Moisture that lasts! Moisture on it's own is fine, but forget it if your lip product doesn't stay on, right? If that's something that's important to you, then looking at the ingredients on what you put on your lips should be your first move. I've learned that the key to soft, healthy lips is a mix of humectant ingredients and occulusive ingredients.

Humectants are ingredients that add moisture (technically it prevents the loss of moisture); that is, they aid in retaining and boosting the moisture already in your lips. Humectant ingredients typically come in the form of oils. The problem with humectant ingredients alone is that there's nothing keeping them on your lips. When there is water in your environment, whether you're licking your lips, swimming, or out in the rain, that can dry out your lips. It gets on them and whatever moisture is on your lips will evaporate, and your lips can end up drier than when they started. That's where occlusive ingredients come in.

Occlusive ingredients prevent moisture loss. They form a barrier that prevents or slows moisture from escaping your skin, and that barrier also protects your skin from outside moisture like water which will dry you out over time. These can come in the form of waxes. Lately I've seen wax getting a lot of flak. The argument is that it suffocates your lips. Here's the thing. If you were putting straight wax on your lips, then yeah, your lips will probably suffer in the long run (plus they'll look insanely weird). But wax is a good thing when you're determining what products to use.

The sweet spot for soft lips is a mix of humectant ingredients (oil) to moisturize and occlusive ingredients (wax) to seal and protect. There are so many options when it comes to lip care, so you can use this article as a simple rule of thumb to narrow down your choices for the sake of the vitality of your lips.

If you need a good place to start, allow me to recommend NUNYA BEESWAX Smooth-Glide Lip Balm by Handmade by Sondra. NUNYA BEESWAX was my very first product and continues to be a best seller and fan favorite. It's made with 100% natural beeswax and includes coconut, grapeseed, and essential oils. It's all natural and super gentle, has a minimal sheen, and comes in over 15 flavors, so there's something for everyone.

So to bring this post full circle, if someone asks you, "What are you putting on your lips?" you can say, "It's NUNYA BEESWAX!" But you also truly know that you're using a natural product with both humectant and occlusive ingredients (and you can smile with your perfect puckerers because you know what that means).

And as a bonus for making it this far, here is an uncomfortably close view of my face so you can see NUNYA BEESWAX in action.