Aging and the Lips

Taking Care of Our Lips

A common concern voiced by my clients is how to prevent lines and wrinkles around the lips.We use our lips everyday. We make expressions consciously and unconsciously. Have you ever been told that you make a certain face? I actually see the effect of this from working on people's faces on a daily basis, whether it be waxing their eyebrows or working their face muscles with microcurrent. Because we are constantly working our face muscles, the facial expressions of which we are largely unaware lead to lines and aging.I work with some of my clients specifically on exercises to relax and release the tension from their lips. Often while I’m trying to do microcurrent around the muscles of their mouths, particularly the marionette lines which allow us to frown, they involuntarily resist me as I try to lift those muscles by unknowingly pursing their lips, which in turn leads to more lines around the lips.Notice how often you lick or bite at your lips when you are stressed. Biting at your lips when you are stressed will cause the collagen in your lips to break down over time. We use our lips while we are drinking and eating. Overtime the constant use of our lips combined with our environment and lifestyle habits start to show when it comes to aging and the lips.

Interesting Lip Facts

1. Our lips are composed of skin mucosa and muscles.

The structure of the skin on our lips is different from the structure of the skin on the rest of the face. The skin on our lips is thinner being 3-5 layers thick while the skin on our face is about 16 layers thick. Another difference is our lips do not have melanocytes which are responsible for producing melanin (melanin is the pigment produced by the skin which protects us from harmful UV rays) making the lips are more vulnerable to the affects of the sun's harmful UV rays. This is the reason our lips are the first place to show signs of dehydration when we enter a harsh environment.A common occurrence in my treatment room seen over the last couple months is clients coming in with raw, chapped and sunburned lips. Because everyone has been enjoying all this snow we’ve been getting and have been engaging in lots of skiing and snowboarding, I've been treating a lot of damaged lips! Not only are cold and wind a factor in these cases, so is the high altitude; at high altitudes your lips are both closer to the sun and exposed to air where there is less moisture.

2. Our lips lack oil glands.

Along with the absence of melanin our lips are prone to oxidative stress from the environment due to a lack of oil glands.

3. A decrease in subcutaneous fats shows aging in the lips

As we age our subcutaneous fat decreases; subcutaneous fats are the "good fats" that gives us a youthful "baby face". Aging results in a decrease of these fats from our faces, giving way to the lines and wrinkles of aging.

So what are we going to do about all of this?

1. Try to reduce motions like pursing the lips together.2. Increase hydration by drinking more water and less caffeinated beverages.3. Use Nightly Lip Treatment by Dermalogica.

Nightly Lip Treatment by Dermalogica

Nightly Lip Treatment by Dermalogica is for the entire perioral area around the lips including the nasolabial folds. This will firm, hydrate and restore your lips as a nighttime-only lip treatment. Using ingredients to protect the barrier from moisture loss, oxidative stress, prevent collagen from breaking down and restoring volume and elasticity to the lips. It also calms and soothes any irritation around the lips.What’s in it?Advanced Volumizing Technology!Helps plumping and volumizing the lips!Advanced Volumizing Complex: a complex of glycerin and hyaluroic acid with apple fruit extract that helps retain moisture in the lips area.Hydration Agents: shea butter helps the barrier and prevents trans-epidermal water loss. We lose water as we sleep because our body temperature goes up while we sleep. Thats why Nightly Lip Treatment by Dermalogica is specifically used at night in order to prevent water loss and to keep hydrated and protected.Sesame Seed: Helps the breakdown of our subcutaneous fat tissue. It will work to decrease the depth of the nasolabial folds. NEW concept to treating nasolabial folds and marionette lines!Do it at home!Use the metal Applicator and apply all around the lip area, apply right after you have applied toner. Apply half a pump directly to the lips and then apply 3 dots of product to the upper lip area and 3 dots of product to the lower lip area. With the metal tip applicator lift up and out (out towards the ears) on the nasolabial folds.After application of the product, use the applicator to massage in circles around the mouth to relax the puckering motion around the lips that creates those feather lines. After that, if there is extra product, rub the rest in with your fingers and then apply your nighttime moisturizer to the rest of the face.You can now rest easy that your lips are relaxed, hydrated and protected!