Lips are the most attractive feature on a face, but dark, cracked lips can really be a big turnoff and make this attractive feature as your bad point. There are many causes of dark lips, excessive exposure to sun light, drinking tea coffee, and smoking. Excessive biting of lips also causes of darkness of lips.

What most of the women do to hide their dark lips is apply lip color of dark shades. They fail to understand that extensive use of lip color also result in black and dark lips. Infact lipsticks are one of the major reasons causing the darkness. Lipsticks that are high on lead percentage are harmful as lead is the main ingredient causing this darkness. So be careful when you pick your lip color; if you have dark lips do not hide them with bright colored lipsticks rather use mild colors or use lip balms with light tint.

Whenever you go out of the house, you should not miss applying sunscreen lotion. Lips are as important as the facial skin, so specially apply the sunscreen lotion on your lips. This will reduce the effect of the harmful UV rays of the sun. Make sure that your sunscreen is one with atleast SPF15. Sunscreen gives protection from pigmentation, another reason causing blackness of lips.

The other ways of treating your lips is by applying certain mixtures on the darkened lips. A mixture of glycerin, lemon juice and honey can work well if applied for a long period. People usually start strong with such remedies but leave it midway and so they do not get the desired results. Try it for three – four months at a stretch and you would see the results. Another remedy is to apply almond oil and milk mixed together and leave it on for an hour or two. This will also fight the blackening and make your lips soft and pink, but do not stop the practice mid way.

Another thing to do is exfoliate. While brushing your teeth in the morning use your brush on your lips too. Be gentle and with a light hand rub your lips with tooth brush (the bristles should be soft or else it will hurt you). This will remove a layer of skin and will be replaced by new fresh skin. After this, make sure you moisturize your lip well and not leave them dry.

Keeping yourself hydrated is also very important to have soft supple lips, so drink lots of water.