Okay so I've been doing the leave alone using coconut oil, and removing dead skin using a lip mask if needed (more on my method later if it actually works), and today I got flakiness on the outer, non-EC parts of my lips, so I used a Sugar scrub only on the outer area to remove them, then applied a stick lip balm (which I haven't done for ages) because my lips were insanely crabby and I have an exam tomorrow and can't deal with the flaky situation.

My bottom lip has a layer of crust that seems like it is very very strongly attached to the lip, and refuses to come off (which is great by me, this means progress!).

While I put on lip balm, I noticed my top lip crusts were melting off (bottom layer was undissolved), so after half an hour I took the balm off and scrubbed my top lip with a soft wet towel. I had previously done this, but my lips just looked raw red and felt a little numb and slightly stung back then, but not too much. This time however, it feels like I took off LIVE SKIN and there are red cuts where the crusts came off and not the usual rawness. They sting and hurt like madness! I put coconut oil on my lips now.

This basically means the layer that forms now is like a replica epidermis layer, and underneath it, instead of raw inflammation, there is actual flesh. My bottom lip is untouched, but if I scrub any bit of it, I'm sure I'll get the same cut-like wounds. I'll update you all on how the whole thing goes soon!