Lip Wrinkles: Causes and How to Treat Them

As you grow older, your skin begins to wrinkle. And as beautiful as your lips look, the skin around your mouth is not exempted from this.

Lip wrinkles are lines that form both on your lips and on the skin of your upper lips. Take a look in your mirror. Look at the skin around your lips. If you have vertical lines on the top of your lips, and then upwards to your nose, then you have lip wrinkles.

These lines are usually stretched from one side of the mouth to the other, especially when they are directly on your lips. Also, the lines above your lips, that stretch upwards towards the nose are usually deeper and more pronounced than the wrinkles directly on top of the lips.

Lip wrinkles are also called lipstick lines, smoker lines, or lip lines.

Now, you know what lip wrinkles are, let’s talk about what causes them.

What causes lip wrinkles?

The major factors that cause lip wrinkles include:

1. Aging

As we get older, especially when you get past the age of 20, the production of collagen in your skin reduces.

Collagen is a protein in your body that keeps your skin thick, firm, and youthful. But as the production of collagen reduces with each passing year, your skin becomes thin, loose, and less elastic.

Also, the production of natural oils in your skin reduces as you grow older. This means your skin has less natural oils to keep it hydrated. This makes your skin prone to dryness, dull appearance, and wrinkles.

This is why your lips which used to look full and puffy during your youth begin to look shriveled and deflated.

2. Sun exposure

Exposure to ultraviolet rays of the sun makes your skin age quickly.

It furthers reduces the level of collagen and elastin in your skin. This causes your skin age prematurely. It also stimulates the action of free radicals that break down healthy skin cells and damage the skin.

It is worse for your lips than every other part of your face. This is because they are usually unprotected and very fragile. So, while you are even young, you begin to see those lip wrinkles.

3. Continous and repetitive lip movements

We all began to use our lips immediately we were born.

We eat, talk, laugh, smile, cry, pout, smirk, etc. Doing this for a lifetime takes its toll on your lips. These lip movements make the muscles around your mouth constrict. This creates wrinkles and permanent lines on your lips.

4. Smoking

Smoking is bad for a lot of reasons.

It does a lot of damage to different organs of your body and your skin is not left out. The repetitive act of taking a drag from a cigarette can cause lines to appear on your lips after a long period.

But that is not all. The oxidative stress caused by inhaling smoke can speed up aging and cause wrinkles to appear prematurely.

Other factors that cause lip wrinkles include a poor diet, not having enough sleep, not exercising, etc.

With that being said, let’s get down to exploring how you can treat lip wrinkles.

How can you treat Lip Wrinkles?

  1. Prepare for Aging

You are going to age, whether or not you like the idea. So, start preparing for it now.

Start by boosting the production of collagen and elastin in your skin. There are foods that can help you achieve this. You can also get supplements that will increase the levels of these proteins in your skin.

Also, get anti-aging lip products. They help to fight against anti-aging signs, hydrate your lips and maintain that youthful look for as long as possible.

2. Take good care of your lips

If you have been neglecting your lips, you have to stop that now.

Just as you take care of your eyes, neck, hands, and your face take good care of the lips. Exfoliate your lips twice a week. You can use a homemade scrub mix of honey, coconut oil, and sugar.

Always keep your skin moisturized. Do not be frugal with your lip balm. Make sure that your lips are never dry.

Also, protect your lips from the sun. When you go shopping for a lip balm, get one that has SPF in it (SPF 15 or higher). Pamper your lips and you will notice reduced lines on them.

3. Consider a cosmetic procedure

If you want fast results that are really effective, then you need to see your doctor. There are several treatment options that will make your lips fuller and look younger.

You can try out derma fillers, chemical peels, laser resurfacing, microneedling, etc.

These in-office procedures are quite expensive though, but you get your money’s worth from them. If you cannot afford them, then stick to taking good care of your lips and the right anti-aging products for your lips.

4. Make the necessary lifestyle changes

This is also important.

There are changes you need to make like quitting smoking. Smoking is just bad news for your skin. Also, reduce your intake of alcohol. All these allow aging signs to appear on your skin sooner than they should.

But more importantly, protect your skin from the sun like your life depends on it – not just your lips now, but every other part of your body.

Bottom line…

We all will have wrinkles at the later stage of our lives – thanks to aging.

However, you can prolong the appearance of wrinkles for as long as possible. All you have to do is start taking good care of your skin now. If you already have lip wrinkles, try out any of these tips and you will see changes in no time.

If you have any questions, leave a comment and let’s talk.

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