So can coffee / tea make your lips dark and pigmented? Yes, most certainly it can! Just like how drinking too much of tea and coffee can stain your teeth eventually, it can also cause your lips to go darker over a period of time.
Downing several cups of caffeinated beverages such as tea and coffee can affect the texture of your lips and cause it to pigment.
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| Drinking too much coffee / tea can blacken your lips. |
Caffeine content in coffee / tea possibly causes dark lips
The caffeine in your tea and coffee is supposedly responsible for discoloring not only your teeth but also your lips.
The remedy
Sip water immediately
Sip some water immediately after drinking your tea or coffee. You can gently wipe off your lips by slightly wetting a tissue paper and wiping your lips immediately after taking coffee / tea.
While it’s not possible to give up coffee or tea completely, do make it a point to consume less than 3 cups of these beverages everyday.
Use straw
Some recommend to sip these drinks using a straw to avoid contact with the lips. While plastic straws are a complete no-no for hot beverages, you could try using bamboo straws (1) which are easy to clean and maintain.
Metal straws (2) such as stainless steel straws, though suitable for cold drinks are not advisable for hot beverages.
As steel is a good conductor of heat, the straw may get considerably hot and burn your lips or tongue and also your fingers while trying to sip.
Moreover sipping a hot drink through a steel straw may be more dangerous than having it directly through the cup as you cannot estimate the temperature and you may inadvertently gulp down the hot liquid.
Drink beverages with less caffeine
Coffee has the most amount of caffeine as compared to tea. But better than your regular tea or black tea, green tea has even less caffeine. On the other hand, white tea, has the least amount of caffeine among all teas.
So select your beverage accordingly, if caffeine content is an issue with you. Or go for decaffeinated coffee or tea.
Or limit your consumption of these beverages to just 2-3 cups per day!
Does high temperature of your coffee cause dark lips?
If you like your morning tea or coffee piping hot, remember it has every chance of of damaging the delicate skin of your lips due to the high temperature of the beverage. This can also lead to dry, dark and pigmented lips over a period of time.
The remedy:
Do try to drink your morning coffee at a bearable temperature (less than 600 C is fine.); don’t sip it when it’s too hot! Drinking extremely hot beverages is not just bad for your lips; it could also burn your oesophagus which could increase risks of major health issues such as oesophageal cancer (3) also in the long run .
And never use steel straws for hot beverages!
Can Coffee / Tea can dry your lips, cause chapped lips?
Coffee and tea have the reputation for being mild diuretics. That means they tend to cause dehydration resulting in water loss from the body. This can lead to dry and chapped lips also. And chapped lips look dull and lifeless, eventually leading to pigmentation of lips.
However here’s the catch. One needs to drink more than 7-8 cups of coffee for it to act as diuretic. So you are better off if you are consuming less than 3 cups of coffee or tea.
So drinking 1-2 cups of your favourite caffeinated beverage won’t make your lips chapped. You have to worry only when you are a coffee addict who drinks several cups during the day!
Coffee scrub for dark and chapped lips?
Ironically, though caffeine content in beverages can discolor lips, coffee grounds in fact, can act as good DIY lip scrubs. Use these 2 homemade coffee lips scrubs for soft and smooth lips.
1) Coffee lip scrub with olive or coconut oil
Mix coffee grounds or coffee powder with a few drops of olive oil or coconut oil and gently massage on your lips in circular motion for 1 minute. Let it stay for 1-2 minutes and then wash it off with water.
While coffee grounds exfoliate your lips to sweep off the dead skin, olive oil or coconut oil moisturizes them, thus giving you soft lips
2) Coffee scrub with honey
Another wonderful scrub that your lips will love is the one with coffee grounds mixed with honey. Honey, as you know is a good moisturizer and will nourish your lips well and also help remove discolorations and stains.
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If you hate doing DIY stuff or home remedies, you can go for these wonderful lips scrubs available on Amazon.
This post may contain affiliate links which means I may make a small commission if you purchase something via a link on the site - at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the complete disclosure policy to know more.
Callesta Tan Removal Edible Coffee Lip Scrub
With wonderful ingredients such as sugar granules, shea butter, grounded coffee beans, cocoa powder, chocolate essential oil, cold pressed coconut oil, olive oil, vitamin E etc, it claims to nourish and hydrate lips.
Rivona Naturals Chocolate Coffee Lip Scrub
An organic lip scrub which has 100% natural such as Chocolate, Coffee grounds, Sunflower oil, Wheatgerm Oil, Sugar, Shea Butter, Vitamin E, it is supposedly food safe, paraben and sulphate free. It claims to lighten lips, plump them and rejuvenate the skin on the lips making them kissable.
Conclusion
So have your lips become dark by consuming too much coffee? All in all, I can say is don’t obsess too much about the color of the lips. Just follow these basic tips.
- Use a good lip balm with SPF such as this or this to protect your lips from the sun.
- Cut down on caffeinated beverages.
- Don’t bother too much about using straws. It has been found (4) that repeated straw drinking causes people to purse their lips and this can form wrinkles from the repetitive muscle motion leading to what is called "smoker's lips". But using a straw once in a while is ok. It's only with constant usage that this can cause wrinkles around lips.
- However do remember to wipe your lips with water and rinse your mouth well after drinking tea and coffee.
- Use quality lipsticks and lip balms from reputed companies only. Avoid insipid and cheap products.
- Use scrub cum lip balms such as NicoLips Lip Scrub Balm or UrbanBotanicsAdvanced Lip Scrub Balm that claim to lighten and brighten dark lips effectively.
Follow these tips and your lips will be restored to their original color and look nourished and healthy!
Also read: Does Tea Make Your Skin Dark?
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