My lips are far milder than Daniel Miller's, that's for sure. But I wouldn't undermine the condition of my lips. If I let my lips past day 4 they would soon begin looking pretty horrendous. Unfortunately the pictures I had of that time have been wiped from my phone.
I really like the moisturiser I use, not that I've tried so many but it's the only thing I've used that doesn't give any shine. The brand is called Dr Organic. I think I started with using the Vitamin E one, but have been using the Tea Tree one for over a year, and in the past few weeks changed to the Manuka version just because I've seen Manuka mentioned a few times as I've skimmed round here. These are all of the Dr Organic brand, I get them from Holland and Barrett.
I can't really comment on how it relates to aquaphor as I've never used it.
My lips are more red just after exfoliation. But they are certainly a lot larger than they should be.