March 16: Lips appreciation day

Today is Lips appreciation day. Here are some fascinating facts you might not know about lips.

1. There are names for various parts of your lips. The lower lip is called the Labium inferius oris, and the upper lip is called the labium superius oris. The fleshy bump in the middle of your upper lip is the tuberculum labii superioris.
2. Even the area where your lips meet the rest of your face has a name - the vermilion border. The vermilion border of your upper lip has a colloquial name - Cupid's bow.
3. Ever wonder why your lips dry out and become chapped and cracked so easily? It's because your lips have no sweat glands to keep them moisturised.
4. Lips have millions of nerve endings, making them 100 times more sensitive than fingertips.
5. A person's lip print is as unique as their fingerprint.
6. Lips appear redder than the rest of the face because they only have three to five layers of cells whereas the skin elsewhere has sixteen. That means you can see the Blood vessels underneath.
7. Lips are formed of the same mucous membrane that the inside of your mouth is made from.
8. Lips pay an important role in sexual attraction. Scientists believe Kissing helps determine the suitability of potential partners because they get close enough to smell, and taste, each other's pheromones. In some cultures, a woman's lips are considered a secondary sexual organ, and must be covered up.
9. Studies have found that waitresses wearing Red Lipstick get bigger tips - but only from male customers. Men are attracted to large (within reason) lips in women. Women prefer men to have medium sized lips.
10. Kristina Rei from Russia may have the world's biggest lips, because she had any number of silicone injections in an attempt to look like the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit.

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