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Yes, we all know lips are special. However, the skin on your lips is different from skin anywhere else on the body. That means that in your skincare regimen and in your lip cream, you need to give the lips extra special treatment, not just “lip service.”
Unlike skin on other parts of the body, lips have no hair follicles, sweat glands, or oil-producing sebaceous glands. So, when it comes to naturally moisturizing themselves, your lips are on their own!
Lips are even more vulnerable to environmental aggressors like wind, sun, cold, and heat, so they dry out extremely easily. To get a better idea of the reason, let’s compare lips to skin on the rest of your body.
The skin on your body is made up of three layers, the stratum corneum, the epidermis, and the dermis. The stratum corneum is your skin's outermost protective layer, mostly composed of dead skin cells. The epidermis produces new skin cells and also melanocytes, which are the cells that give skin its color, and protect against UV rays. The dermis is the deepest layer, where structural proteins like collagen and elastin are located, as well as hair follicles, blood vessels, sweat glands, and sebaceous glands, which produce and release natural oils to help keep skin soft and moist.
The skin on your lips is similar, but oh so different. For example, the stratum corneum of the lips is about 75% thinner than facial skin. The epidermis of the lips is also thinner. Since the epidermis is so thin, the color of lips comes from the pink, red (or blue if you’re cold!) blood vessels and capillaries underneath the surface.
The dermis gets even thinner as you age, since the body produces less collagen to plump lips, and UV damage breaks down existing collagen in the lips. Overall, the skin on lips is thinner, redder, and dryer than the skin on the rest of the body. Think of lips as a type of sponge—when exposed to moisture, they plump up, but when lips are dehydrated, they crack, shrink, and no longer feel smooth and supple.
WHAT LIPS NEED
Unlike skin on other parts of the body, lips have no hair follicles, sweat glands, or oil-producing sebaceous glands. So, when it comes to naturally moisturizing themselves, your lips are on their own!
Lips are even more vulnerable to environmental aggressors like wind, sun, cold, and heat, so they will dry out even more easily than skin on the rest of your body.
Have you ever licked your lips and they just get drier? It's because they need lipids, not just water. Moisturized skin depends on a combination of water AND lipids, such as oils, waxes, or butter. To keep lips smooth, firm, and plump, you need to hydrate the skin of the lips, and then seal in the moisture.
What’s the best way to seal in that moisture? Choose products that contain natural lipids such as ceramides, omega fatty acids, phospholipids, and even cholesterol to seal in moisture, plump, firm and help protect skin on the lips from external damage.
LIP RELIEF: EYE & LIP CREAM
Give some extra love to your lips AND eyes with iridescent Eye & Lip Cream to plump, firm, and vanish fine lines and wrinkles around the eyes and lips. The rich, concentrated formula contains five skin-refining peptides that specifically treat these eye and lip concerns. The rich formula also contains rare exotic oils like kukui nut from Polynesian islands and bacaba pulp oil from the Amazon rainforest, which improve elasticity and smoothness. High levels of omega fatty acids fast track nutrients into skin cells, deeply moisturize, and protect against oxidative damage. The formula also contains ceramides, which work with omega fatty acids to seal in moisture to help improve firmness and suppleness.
MEET THE PEPTIDES
Eye & Lip Cream contains some of the most potent peptides in skincare to target and minimize wrinkles and other signs of aging around the eyes and lips. First, Matrikine is known as a collagen booster, made of potent complex of oligopeptides and protein fragments.
Next up: Matrixyl, another name for Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4, which fills lines, reduces wrinkle depth, and smooths out roughness.
There's also Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 to plump and firm skin. And when you pair Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 with Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, you get what is known as Matrixyl 3000 to improve firmness and reduce fine lines and wrinkles.
Finally, there's Acetyl Hexapeptide-8, also known as Argireline, which provides a type of needle-free "Botox" effect to minimize the look of lines and wrinkles around the eyes and lips, lines caused by facial expressions such as laughing, smiling, frowning, squinting.
Plus, the phospholipids in Eye & Lip Cream also play well with these peptides in protecting against irritants and oxidative damage, so they are important to help maintain the skin's essential moisture barrier.
THE BRIGHT SIDE OF CHOLESTEROL
It may come as a surprise, but in addition to phospholipids, Eye & Lip Cream contains cholesterol. But never fear! Foods high in cholesterol have a bad rap for clogging up your arteries, but skin care is a completely different story. Cholesterol, like phospholipids, work along with fatty acids and ceramides and are known for helping repair the skin barrier.
Cholesterol is naturally found in the lipid layer of the skin, cozying up with phospholipids, ceramides, and fatty acids that are also found there. They keep moisture in and harmful things out. That's why cholesterol is one of the barrier-repair ingredients in Eye & Lip Cream. Cholesterol, like phospholipids, works along with fatty acids and ceramides and is known for helping repair the broken gaps that dehydration causes in the lipid layer of the skin barrier. In Eye & Lip Cream, cholesterol also plays a role in plumping away wrinkles while improving elasticity, smoothness, and softness.
THE UNICORN CREAM
BONUS—that amazing iridescent color you notice in Eye & Lip Cream? It's a sign that cholesterol is there, working with the other lipids. As light passes through these multi-layered lipid molecules, it bounces off and separates into the spectrum of colors you see in every drop. Cholesterol and phospholipids help give Eye and Lip Cream its gorgeous iridescent glow before it goes clear and melts into the skin. Eye & Lip Cream is nicknamed the "unicorn cream" not only because of its gorgeous iridescent color, but also because it provides almost magical benefits for your eyes AND lips.
PRO TIP
If you’d like an extra powerful eye cream with a slightly thinner consistency than Eye & Lip Cream, blend a pea-size amount of Eye & Lip Cream with a dab of Eye Wrinkle Corrector until the mixture becomes clear, and pat into skin around the eyes and lips. The mixture absorbs instantly into thirsty skin for plumping, firming, and minimizing fine lines and wrinkles while improving elasticity and texture.
Whatever way you mix it, this magical-looking, skin-transforming iridescent eye and lip cream will help you give some extra special love to your eyes and lips… and will have all eyes on you!
Click here for more information on age-proofing the eye areas.
