The cold and dry winter air can leave your lips cracked and chapped. And since most chapsticks only work for a short period of time, you have to reapply over and over again. But not to worry, we’ve got tips for how to keep your healthy lips in tip-top condition this winter season.

What Causes Chapped Lips?

The main reason people get chapped lips is a lack of humidity in the air, which in most parts of the country, usually happens during the winter time. But it can be caused by other conditions. These include:

• Taking certain medications or supplements (For example, vitamin A, retinoids, or lithium to name just a few.)
• Dehydration
• Using matte lipsticks constantly without moisturizing your lips.
• Vitamin B2 or B6 deficiency, which can cause constant cracking and drying around the lips.
• Sun damage on the lips caused by sunburns.

How to Treat Chapped Lips

While your first reaction might be to lick your chapped lips for immediate gratification, that’s actually the worst thing for them because it breaks down the top layer of skin on the lips, damaging them further. But there are some effective steps that you can take, including:

• Adding a humidifier to the room to put moisture back into the air.
• Protect your lips from cold air using a scarf.
• Avoid using lip balms with irritating ingredients, like petroleum byproducts or lipstick preservatives, that can actually deplete moisture.
• Drink enough water.
• Apply a lip balm with effective ingredients (see below) throughout the day.
• Wear SPF protection on the lips just as you would on your body.

How to Choose a Good Lip Balm

The best lip balms don’t contain phenols, which are used to kill the bacteria that can make their way into lip products. However, phenols actually dry the lips out. This is also true of camphor, alum, and menthol, which provide a nice minty tingle on the lips, but again, actually dry the lips out. Generally speaking, using synthetic chemicals on the lips depletes them of moisture.

Lip balms made with natural ingredients aren’t just better for you, they’re better for your lips. Some ingredients to look for include beeswax, shea butter, nut oils, and cocoa butter. In fact, while you can buy them, it’s better and less expensive to make your own. Try this recipe:

DIY Lip Balm

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. grated beeswax
1 Tbsp. virgin coconut oil
Dash raw honey
2 vitamin E capsules
several drops essential oil

Directions

1. Using a double boiler, melt down the beeswax and gradually add in the coconut oil, honey, capsules, and essential oil. Melt completely and combine.

2. Pour into a glass container or tube and let it harden up.

3. Apply throughout the day to moisturize and pamper your smackers. This is a great holiday gift for friends or family!

Recipe: Everyday Roots

DIY Lip Exfoliant

If your lips are chapped and need a little extra love now and then, this DIY lip exfoliant can remove that extra layer of dead skin that’s holding them back. The brown and white sugars help to gently remove dead skin while the honey and olive oil rejuvenate the top layer.

Ingredients
1 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. white sugar
1 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp olive oil

1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl using a whisk.

2. Make sure the combination is mixed thoroughly and then add to a glass container.

3. To use the scrub, apply gently to the lips before putting on lip balm or lipstick. Let stand for about 20 seconds and then use a warm washcloth to remove. Repeat daily if need be.

Recipe: The Wonder Forest

How to Choose a Lipstick

Solving the chapped lip problem is only one aspect of bright and beautiful lips. You also have to learn how to wear lipstick, which can be done beautifully–if you know your stuff. First, start by choosing the right lipstick with these tips:

• Avoid too much sparkle. It’s not cool and it makes you look like an amateur.
• Go bright or go home. Okay, not really, but if you are choosing bright lip color, choose a shade based on your natural lip color, not your skin tone. For naturally redder lips, choose a pinker color like hot pink, coral, or cranberry or for dark lips, try brick red.
• Skip the liner. The ’90s are on trend, but not its worst makeup trend: lipstick that requires a lip liner.
• Avoid blue-based shades. These can actually make you look older because they cause that vampire pale look.

How to Wear Lipstick

Lipstick doesn’t have to be intimidating. Especially once you know how to wear it. This holiday season, give into the urge to flaunt your gorgeous smackers!

1. Exfoliate your lips first. Using a sugar scrub with an extra toothbrush, remove the dry layer that makes your lips look unhealthy.

2. Apply your favorite lip balm first. Lipstick looks so much better when your lips are healthy, so make sure your bottom layer is moisturizing.

3. Starting from the center of the lips, begin to apply color.

4. Blot the lips with a tissue.

5. Apply one more layer of lipstick to fill in any spots you missed.

The Hottest Shades This Winter

Trying to stay up-to-date with the latest makeup trends? We’re here to help. Brighten up your smile this holiday season with beautiful shades of fuchsia, cotton candy pink, bright tropical coral, and “coca cola red.” Additionally, choose organic, cleaner lipstick brands that use ingredients that nourish your pout rather than sucking up moisture. These brands rock:

• Lotus Pure Organics (try espresso, plum berry, port wine, and rosebud)
• Lippy Girl Vegan Lipstick (try coral me maybe, ski bunny, fancy pants, and rosey posey)
• Eco Bella (try almond, mauve rose, pink rose, and sangria)

Do you have chapped lips? If so, how do you deal with them? What are your favorite brands of eco-friendly chapped sticks? We want to know! Drop us a line via Twitter @EcoSalon. 

Related on EcoSalon
Best Organic, Eco & Vegan Lipsticks
4 Liquid Lipsticks to Rock this Spring
6 Classic Lip Colors To Channel Your Favorite Female Icon

The post How to Have Bright, Beautiful, and Healthy Lips This Winter appeared first on EcoSalon.

What’s not to love about lip balm? In fact, a girl’s love affair with lip balm often starts very young. You were probably given a clear Chap Stick to soothe your dry lips, and naturally you pretended it was bright red lipstick.

Regardless, you got used to the feeling of soft, moisturized lips.

Cut to a couple decades later, and you’re frantically flipping through your organic cotton clutch for the lip balm you know is in there…somewhere. No one likes dry lips. Of course, we can technically live with dry lips, but who wants that?

Chap Stick was invented by Dr. C. D. Fleet, who decided that petroleum jelly would be the best short-term fix for dry lips. But petroleum doesn’t absorb into the skin, so it prevents the skin from breathing and makes your lips more chapped in the long run.

But not to worry! There’s a whole wide world of natural and organic lip balms out there, and we recently applied our lips to the best of them.

Here’s a look at our favorites, styled by category. It’s like a high school yearbook for lip balms! (They grow up so fast, don’t they?)

Most Likely to Be Tasty
Organic Root Beer Lip Balm by Bubble and Bee
This balm goes on smooth and yes, tastes exactly like root beer. The moisture lasts – a few hours later and my lips were still fully hydrated. (And tasty!). It’s made with organic beeswax, sunflower oil and cocoa butter. The flavoring is Stevia-based and all organic.

Pineapple Quench Lip Balm by Alba Botanica
This delicious lip balm tastes like a pineapple margarita over and over, but without the brain-crushing hangover. It does a great job keeping your lips initially hydrated, however you should keep it hand because the need to reply will arise in an hour or so. It’s made with organic coconut oil and apricot kernel oil.

Most Likely to Last at the Beach
Peppermint Vanilla Liplux SPF 15 by Coola
This light, peppermint-y balm goes on silky smooth, and one application lasts a long time. It has an SPF 15 which explains the slight sun block aftertaste. They also have an SPF 30 version for you serious sun worshippers! It contains certified organic flavors and is paraben free.

Lifeguard’s Choice Weatherproofing Lip Balm by Burt’s Bees
From what I can tell, this product does not contain an SPF but it goes on white and therefore acts like the old-time zinc lotions that reflected sunlight. It has a high menthol taste too, but that’s a good thing. It’s recommended for both “sun and snow” and contains a large amount of Vitamin E.  95.20% natural, this lip balm is made with coconut and sunflower oils.

Most Likely to Replace Your Lipstick
SPF 8 Lip Moisturizer by Juice Beauty
This lip balm offers a fantastic, subtle touch of color – a pretty hint of makeup beats lipstick, any day! However it fells slightly drier than some of the other balms and drags on your lip a bit when being applied. It may not be as silky as some, but the trade-off is color. It contains certified organic oils and natural fruit essences.

Mostly Likely to Make You Hungry
White Chocolate Lip Protector by Terressentials
This lip balm tastes exactly like white chocolate. Yum! It goes on silky smooth and provides excellent hydration, but you’ll need to reapply after a while. The ingredients are simple: certified organic cocoa butter, beeswax, vanilla and coconut oil.

And Finally, for the Best All Around”¦
Natural Beeswax Lip Balm by J.R. Watkins
This balm has a strong peppermint taste and really hydrates in all its good, silky smoothness. One application lasts a long time. It’s 100% all-natural (not organic) and contains premium beeswax, vitamin E and shea butter.

Organic Lip Treatment by EO Organics
Another outstanding lip balm, this one tastes great, goes on light and silky and leaves your lips hydrated for a really long time. While writing this article, I had all eight lip balms on the table in front of me, and this is the one I kept reaching for. It’s made with certified organic cold-pressed safflower and sweet almond oils, beeswax, vitamin E and more.

Find your favorite and pucker up!

Image: Aleera

The post Pucker Up for the Best Organic Lip Balms appeared first on EcoSalon.

Green girl Josie Maran has modeled for Glamour and Sports Illustrated and she’s appeared in films like The Aviator and Van Helsing. Now she’s an eco-entrepreneur whose eponymous cosmetic line is one of the best on the market.

What qualifies a model-actress to start her own makeup line? Models and actresses look fresh faced and makeup free for one reason – they are experts at applying makeup.

As Maran puts it, “When I began to land jobs, I discovered what a lot of girls already know: the power of makeup. I saw that a little could go a long way.”

After spending hundreds of hours in the makeup chair, she realized she was uniquely experienced to design her own line of healthy, natural cosmetics. And Josie Maran Cosmetics was born.

Recently, Maran shared some of her product and beauty tips from her fall line, exclusively for EcoSalon readers. Here’s what she had to say:

EcoSalon: A typical green girl might love makeup, but not love looking like she’s caked with it. What are your best tips for a natural look?

Josie Maran: You can achieve a natural look by using tinted day-cream instead of heavy foundation. Then, go in with a concealer to cover blemishes. For small areas use a pointy brush. This way you can place the concealer where it’s really needed.

Fall is here, bringing with it cooling temperatures and fading tans. What’s your best tip for transitioning our skin from the summer sun?

Smooth lips and hydrated skin are the ultimate foundation. Start your fall beauty routine with targeted moisture. This fall, balms are making a big comeback and my Argan Moisturizing Stick smooths chapped lips and hydrates dry, peeling skin. It targets areas that need moisture most, providing a smooth canvas to work with! And there are other fantastic balms to consider: Jurlique Love Balm and Burt’s Bees Replenishing Lip Balm with Pomegranate Oil.

What are the best eye shadow colors you recommend for fall? And more importantly, what are your tips for applying it?

This fall is all about a neutral color palette. Create a natural smoky eye with my favorite earthy shades (for this look think: soft brown, not harsh black). Start by sweeping a muted, light brown shade all over the lid. I love the Maple shade in my line of eye shadows.

Then blend a darker, smokier brown into the crease for a dramatic effect. Try my Eye Shadow in Smoke, or my personal favorite Chianti – it’s a rich brownish plum, perfect for fall Smudge a brown eye liner along the lashes to get the smoky effect. Finish the look with brown mascara.

Lastly, what do you recommend for lips?

Red lips, naturally! Red lips have been a huge hit on the runways. I wear mine naturally with paraben-free lipstick in Desirous and shine it up with Joie De Vivre lip gloss.

Josie Maran Cosmetics is made up of a 70-piece line for eyes, lips, cheeks, skin and more. It’s free of parabens, toxins and petrochemicals, and it contains a large percentage of natural and organic ingredients. The product line is available online, at Barneys in New York City and at Vert in Venice, CA. You can also find products at various Sephoras around the country.

The post Josie Maran on the Best Natural Makeup Trends for Fall appeared first on EcoSalon.

Most of us put lipstick on in the morning, but it doesn’t remain on our lips. You’ll see it on your coffee cups, your napkins and your food.  Did you ever stop to wonder how much lipstick you might eat up in a lifetime?

We can eat four to six pounds of lipstick throughout our lives. If you buy standard lipstick, you’re basically chowing down on artificial dyes, lanolin, sodium lauryl sulfates, colors derived from petroleum and even carmine that comes from the shell of a female beetle. Everyone say it with me: ewww!

But not to worry! We can help you find a great lipstick that doesn’t contain lady beetle (or fossil fuels). Check out our look at some of the best organic, vegan and eco-friendly lipsticks on the market.

Organic Lipstick by Nvey Eco

This product promises to deliver both vibrant and natural color selections that are smooth and creamy to the lips. And you know what? It totally does! This is the best organic lipstick you can find – in fact, it is my new favorite lipstick. The colors are rich, and they stay on your lips. It is hydrating and silky. You know how people say lip balm is addictive? You may feel the same about this lipstick. It contains safflower oil, organic castor oil and vitamin E.

Lipstick by Josie Maran

When you try on this lipstick, you’ll be struck by one thought: wowzers, this lipstick is like water! Or silk! Or watery silk! It goes on light and hydrating and offers up a flattering color that hangs around. I highly recommend this product if you’re one who likes a moist lipstick – it really stands alone in its ability to hydrate. It is free of parabens and fragrance, and it is made from organic jojoba seed oil, coconut cream, soybean oil, olive oil and other goodies. It also comes in a tube made from recycled material.

Shea and Aloe Lipstick by Earth’s Beauty

This product goes on smooth and really offers up a pretty shade. The Summer Quartz gives your lips a subtle, natural, lasting shade of pink. It is made from shea butter, candellila wax and aloe vera extract. While I can’t find any evidence that it has organic ingredients, it contains no formaldehyde, phthalates, parabens, synthetic colors or fragrances.

Sheer Organic Shimmers by Kiss My Face

If you want a subtle color, this is a good choice. But it has more of a lip balm vibe: it goes on light, smooth, and it has a nice, subtle minty scent and flavor. (This is the tastiest of the bunch, for sure!) It has a hydrating feel, but you will want to reapply an hour later. It demands almost constant reapplication to keep the color going. Sheer Organic Shimmers contains no parabens, SLS, phthalates, synthetic colors or flavors. Considered 91% organic, it is made with shea butter, sunflower oil and natural vitamin E.

Vegan Lipstick by Hemp Organics

This product offers up a rich, lasting color, but it probably works best as a lip stain. It goes on rather dry and has almost a powdery feeling to it. If you can stand it without gloss, it does work as a nice, matte base. It is certified organic and contains both hemp seed oil and organic beeswax. This vegan lipstick is free of petroleum, wheat and gluten.

The post Best Organic, Eco & Vegan Lipsticks appeared first on EcoSalon.