As one of the busiest plastic surgeons in New York City and an expert on all things lips, Dr. Devgan was interviewed by senior Allure beauty editor Jessica Chia about the latest trends in lip care. See her article below.
Are Lip Peels Better Than Using Scrubs? A Plastic Surgeon Weighs In
BY JESSICA CHIA
APRIL 13, 2017
There are about a zillion ways to make your lips look as shredded as a pair of jeans — swiping on too matte lipsticks, licking your lips, using a sulfate-rich toothpaste — and only a couple ways to fix the issue (lip scrubs, a wet paper towel, picking at it by hand, esh). But lip peels might offer a softer, savvier solution.
In our never-ending beauty sleuthing, we recently came across an entirely new category of beauty product, heretofore known as a lip peel. Stacked Skincare’s Hydrating Lip Peel, which costs $26, is exactly what it sounds like: A gentle blend of acids (glycolic and lactic, to be exact) designed to gently slough dead skin off of the lips. “Lips see so much damage from talking and eating and environmental changes,” says New York City plastic surgeon Lara Devgan. “Glycolic and lactic acid are nice for creating a light peeling effect.” Here's how it works. We followed the directions and smoothed on a thin layer with the lip peel's built-in rollerball once a day (though Dr. Devgan says once a week should be enough to maintain results). It doesn't taste or feel like anything. Which is a plus — no stickiness, no residue, no nothing. And, thankfully for our forgetful selves, you don't even have to remove it! You can simply tuck the chapstick-sized peel back into your purse and go about your day.
And after all that, we were thoroughly impressed by how gentle it actually was. (The skin on the lips is some of the thinnest and most delicate; dosing it with high-test acid sounds like a bad idea.) If you use it daily for a few days, your lips will look smoother, but at no point did they molt the way your skin might after an intense chemical peel.
The biggest plus, though, is what they don’t do. “Lip scrubs can be damaging to the delicate mucosa of the lip; they can cause a little bit of abrasion, micro-injury, and even some bleeding if you’re not careful,” Devgan says. “If you’re too rough with exfoliation, you can get hyperpigmentation, and your lips will look a little more brown than pink.”
But although this lip peel is gentler than a rough scrub (and infinitely better than picking at your lips with your germy nails), there is a boundary to how much it can help. “The best way to stop the chapping cycle is by taking a little holiday from products,” she says. “No scrubs, no lip licking, no colors or glosses, just a simple emollient product like a hyaluronic acid serum or petroleum jelly.”
Click to read the full article in Allure Magazine
