They’re the sign of a happy woman. A gift left behind by smiles and laughter.
But lip wrinkles don’t make you feel very happy, do they? They make you look older, the total opposite of how you feel inside and you just want to get rid of them.
But no matter what you throw at them, they never seem to badge. Is there no hope?
Fret not. Lip wrinkles are a tough enemy, but one you can beat. Here are the best skincare weapons to get rid of lip wrinkles:
What Causes Lip Wrinkles?
All the usual suspects: unprotected sun exposure, genetics, pollution, smoking… Even your skincare products can play a part if they’re too harsh and irritating!
Some of them are unavoidable. As you get older, your skin loses elasticity and sags and wrinkles more easily.
But you can prevent others. Smoking is the biggest culprit. All that extra movement as you purse and pucker your lips eventually etches deep lines around your mouth.
Sun exposure is a second close. Just remembering to put sunscreen on every morning dramatically decreases your chances of getting lip wrinkles too early.
Different Kinds Of Lip Wrinkles
Did you know there are three different types of lip wrinkles?
- Marionette Lines: they occur in the corners of your mouth, turning them downwards. Blame them on loss of collagen.
- Smile Lines: they run from the bottom corners of your nose to the corners of your mouth. You get them when the ligaments around your mouth loosen up, causing skin to sag.
- Vertical Lip Lines: nicknamed “smoker’s lines,” they appear around your mouth. They’re caused by regular and repeated lip movements (that’s why they’re way deeper on smokers).
Doesn’t matter what type of lip wrinkles you have, the treatments are pretty much the same for all of them.
The key is to relax muscles so they won’t move as much, boost collagen to naturally thicken skin and add a little volume in the mouth area. Let me show you how...
How To Get Rid Of Lip Wrinkles
- Change Your Habits
Let’s get one thing straight: you can use the best skincare products in the world, but if you keep inflicting damage on your skin on a daily basis, it’s all for nought. Those lip wrinkles will keep coming back with a vengeance.
So start your days by putting on your sunscreen - and then reapplying it again throughout the day. A broad-spectrum, mineral-based sunscreen blocks up to 99% of UV rays, so they can never reach your skin and destroy its collagen. If you’re worried about the white cast, pick a tinted one like our SPF 35 Tinted Mineral Sunscreen.
If you’re a smoker, quit now. As long as you keep up the habit, there’s no way those pesky lip wrinkles will go away.
- Reduce With Retinol
Retinol is an antiaging superstar for a reason. It can reduce the wrinkles you already have - and prevent new ones from forming. It works in three ways:
- Antioxidant: it fights free radicals before they can wreak their damage and give you wrinkles and dark spots
- Pre-exfoliant: it stimulates cellular turnover, the skin’s natural exfoliating process
- Collagen-booster: it tells your skin to pump up the production of collagen, the protein that keeps skin firm and elastic
The catch? Retinol is so powerful, it can dry out and irritate your skin in the process. That’s why derms recommend you start with a small dose and work your way up gradually.
Can’t wait? Go for products with microencapsulated retinol, like our Night Renewal Cream with 2.5% All-Trans Encapsulated Retinol. Put simple, encapsulation traps retinol into capsules that break down slowly, releasing the retinol into your skin over a period of several hours instead of all at once. This allows you to enjoy the benefits of high retinol doses without the pesky side effects.
- Boost Collagen With Matrixyl 3000
Next step: firming skin. That’s a job for Matrixyl 3000, a peptide that makes aging skin behave like young skin.
It’s not magic. It’s science. Matrixyl 3000 stimulates the synthesis of 4 types of collagen (Collagen-I, -IV, -VII and -XVII). When you’re young, your skin can do the job on its own. But as you age, it slackens on the job, produces less collagen and makes your skin sag.
Matrixyl 3000 comes to the rescue. Studies show it increases the firmness of the skin and reduces the appearance of deep wrinkles by a whooping 68%! While it’s at it, it also prevents new wrinkles from forming, stimulates cellular turnover and improves the texture of the skin.
You can find it in our Peptide Potion with Matrixyl 3000. For best results, use it on clean, freshly-washed skin.
- Relax With Argireline
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had Botox in a bottle? That’s not a reality yet. But we have argireline and that’s close enough.
Argireline (full name: hexapeptide-3) is a peptide that mimics the activity of Botox. Like Botox, it relaxes the muscles, so they contract with less force. Fewer movements = fewer wrinkles.
But… yes, there’s a but. Studies show argireline works better for people with thin skin. They can see up to a 30% reduction in wrinkles.
If you’re skin’s thicker, argireline won’t be able to penetrate as well so the results will be less obvious.
In our Firming Argireline Serum with Matrixyl 3000, we’ve paired the two peptides together to fight those pesky mouth wrinkles on all fronts.
Most of all, be realistic. If you follow the skincare routine above, you will see a reduction in mouth wrinkles. But fighting them is an ongoing job. Keep at it and watch them grow smaller.