Why won’t my lips stop peeling?
puchongian
- posted on
- 11 Comments
I have this lips peeling condition for as long as I remember. Kindergarten age.
I am 30 years old this year and it still troubles me.
The skin peels off in large flakes, especially bottom lips. There are times I don’t do anything about it, but I am now a working woman, so I trim the excess flakes with scissors in the morning.
1. I drink enough water
Someone would assume I am dehydrated and that includes my parents. Since I was a kid I was told to drink plenty of water. The highest point I down 5-6 litres water per day. It was until the toilet trips go unbearable, I drink 2-3 litres per day now.
2. I live in a tropical country
Malaysia. There’s no cold season here. The temperature is around 27°C to 35°C.
3. No, it doesn’t hurt
The peeling lips are 90% painless. However, few times in a year it will hurt, usually followed by mild bleeding. Those are the days I cannot smile.
If i did nothing with the peeled skin, it will eventually dries up and fall off by itself. I had to cut if off with scissors for lipstick application, or when I eat. Else, a big flakes of hanging skin is annoying, one time I thought it’s part of the noodle and bite & pull it, bleeding follows.
4. The peelings are only on the lips
The peeling occurs on the lips, it never go beyond where the lip liner doesn’t cover.
5. I am allergy to Vaseline and most lip products
Whenever I put on Mentholatum products, Vaseline, papaya ointment, to beauty brand Dior, Chanel, YSL, Marc Jacobs, it never helps. On the contrary, a tightening sensation develops and followed by worsen peeling, usually a painful one.
The worse one had me go to clinic because there’s pus discharging on my lips. Transparent to slight yellowish pus.
6. I’m not allergy to all products though…
I am currently using only Clinique Chubby Stick
Clinique offers great customer service when I first bought a lip product from them. My lips reacted to it, badly. I later emailed them and said even though their products are 100% allergy tested, I am still allergic to it. So Clinique had me return to their store and exchange for another range of lip product, there I got their Chubby Stick. And I stay with it since. I later tried their Pop Lip Colour, Quickliner for lips, and one of the lip gloss, all turns out with allergies too.
7. I went to skin specialist in KL
And I reacted badly to the doctor prescribed ointment . I stopped visiting because each trip to the clinic would cost me around two hundred ringgit. I was a student back then, the bills were unnecessary expenses for me.
I went to government hospital too, and since it wasn’t a critical illness, I was advised to go back to skin specialist.
8. I tried to avoid plastic water bottle
Once someone advice me to avoid plastic ware, I tried drinking out of glass only for weeks. It didn”t help.
8. Chinese doctor
I just started going this year. So I can’t see any immediate results yet.
9. There are good days!
Generally, my Monday to Saturday goes like this:
I took these photos during the Covid-19 lock down months, where I did not put any lip products on for 1-2 months.
10. Suggestions that I’ve tried
- drink plenty of water (5-6 litres)
- do not drink/eat from plasticware
- do not lick my lips
- do not pick/cut/trim my lips
- do not apply anything
- do not drink coffee
- apply natural remedy such as
- aloe vera
- coconut oil
- butter / margerine
- scrub with brown sugar
- brush with toothpaste
- various supplements
- amway protein
- vitamin C
- sangobion iron pills
- Vitamin B executive
- folic acid
- multivitamins
- probitotic
- apply assorted balms
- papaya balm, lucas papaw
- beeswax
- all the lip balms sold in drugstore (Nivea, mentholatum, vaseline)
So far, nothing works.
11. Am I the only who’s experiencing this?
From all the people I met, no one is having similar conditions with mine. If someone is experiencing this, they are either having eczema or been to a cold season country.
elvis
you are not the only one, same here since I was 12 and I’m 25yo now, I was use to peeling my lips till it got like that and didnt heal..am applying coconut oil every 5 to 10 mins and it helps to merge the flakes with the lip and letter it peels off and I watch away the big flaskes away with coconut oil and brown sugar. I recommend you stop peeling cause it will only get worst…brush with fruit juices..avoid certain toothpaste containing methanol and fluorine. best you use fruit juices to brush,
Before eating, brushing, drinking of water always apply coconut oil, or castor oil, and before sleep apply your oil
emi
The same thing is happening to me since i was 4 years old ( I am 30 years old now). I have no diagnosis or treatment but i m going to the doctor every month. The next time they are going to do a biopsy of my lips
puchongian
Wow. Will you share with us the outcome of your biopsy? My lips are still the same, still trimming them with scissors every day.
Darya
No you’re not alone i have the same condition miles away from you. I don’t remember when it started but i am diagnosed with OCD and i always pick skin in my mouth and lips, i still do it but less than before, after i startes getting medication. It’s actually a condition named skin picking. I think the problem is that i never let my lips heal! Whenever this skin grows i peel it. After looking for the reason and solutions which i found nothing, i think the one my therapist said is the right one. It’s going to be really hard but i want to try letting it be this way until it heals. I hope yours heal too
Ext
Same issue with me
Simon Chong
Try taking natural vitamin B complex supplements consistently for at least 3 months. Do drink more water during the initial phase of supplement intake as your body adjust to the added nutrients. My wife’s lip dryness was cured from this method. Good luck.
Valentin
Same here. I live in France and I don’t know what to do about it. Thanks for sharing. I also use coconot oil and vaseline to cover it up.
Shwetha
Try easting few fresh grapes or raisins soaked in water overnight. Eating more nuts or butter also helps.
Anthony
Eat lots of fruits and vegetables for about two to three weeks and DO NOT peel or pick the dry skin off of your lips and try not to get it wet either. Apply EXTRA VIRGIN COCONUT OIL every day after skin peels off on its own. Now that the skin has peeled of and you are applying the coconut oil to the lips, you should go on THE CANDIDA DIET, and you will see that it stops, plus you get a lot of other benefits from the diet. That is what worked for me, and it hasn’t come back since and this was years ago, and I live in the Caribbean by the way where it’s always hot. I hope this helps or at least look into the candida diet. Good luck
ANA_48
Hey can you please tell what did you eat in your Candida diet. My lips gets extremely dry after a week or 10 days automatically and then it becomes yellow and peel off on its own. I am Muslim so we need to pray 5 times in a day and make easy so I cannot avoid getting in contact with water but what I have observed that when my lips gets in contact with water the new skin which is formed starts forming a white kind of layer around it and as soon as it’s dry it’s normal. I went to dermatologist and she gave me lots of medicines but that didn’t work either. My skin has been peeling from over an year. It started because I used to pick and peel but I stopped doing it long ago but since then it hasn’t cured yet and the reason is unknown. Can you please suggest something
Zeynep
Hi i’m from Turkey and i have the same condition. I have peeling lips for like 5-6 years and i believe it started because i was licking and picking my lips. I tried various remedies yet nothing seems to be working 🙁 Lately i had an allergy test and result is i’m allergic to nickel. Right now i’m trying nickel free diet and using bepanthen plus cream. I’ve been using bepanthen plus cream for a year now and it is the only cream fixes the appearance of my lips. But still it doesn’t heal my lips. If the diet won’t work i probably have to get biopsy from my lips which makes me sad 🙁