The delicate skin around your lips is prone to lines. All people, however old you are, have fine lines on your lips themselves, and age and dehydration can make these lines more noticeable. As you age, you may notice fine lines around your lips, marching along the skin above your upper lip and fanning out from the corners of your lips, too.
Types
There are several different treatments for the lines on and around your lips. Exfoliating scrubs can minimize the appearance of fine lines on and around your lips. Collagen stimulating creams and serums treat wrinkles around and above your lips. Injectable fillers can make the wrinkles above your lip line less noticeable.
Function
Exfoliating treatments, whether they're traditional granular versions or chemical exfoliators that use glycolic acid or alpha hydroxy acid, work by rubbing away your skin's top layer of dead cells, letting younger, healthier skin show instead, explains makeup artist Mathew Nigara in "Allure" magazine. Creams that contain retinoids and peptides can help your skin step up collagen production, plumping up the skin around your lips to make wrinkles less visible. Injectable fillers work best in areas where skin is thin, as they create a protective cushion beneath the skin's surface that stretches it smoothly to reduce wrinkles.
Misconceptions
You can't stop wrinkles from forming around your mouth, as years of smiling, drinking, talking, laughing and even kissing leave permanent marks, explains Deborah Sarnoff, dermatologist and associate professor at New York University Medical Center, in "More" magazine. Treatments can't prevent wrinkles from forming, but they can make the ones you have less noticeable, especially if they're combined with the regular use of sunscreen.
Considerations
If lines on your lips are a problem for you, try stepping up your lip moisturizing routine before resorting to other measures. Because your lips don't have an epidural layer to produce oil, they're even more prone to dryness than the rest of your body, especially as you age, and dry lips look thinner and more wrinkled than hydrated ones, explains Paul M. Friedman, clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, in "Good Housekeeping" magazine. Regular use of a moisturizing balm may be enough to make your lip lines vanish.
Warning
If your lips have regular dry patches, flaking skin or blisters in addition to lines, see a dermatologist or doctor. It's fairly uncommon, but these symptoms can be early indicators of a form of cancer caused by overexposure to ultraviolet radiation, says Patricia K. Farris, a dermatologist in New Orleans, in "Good Housekeeping" magazine.
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