Can You Get Addicted to Lip Balm?
Your lips are dry, so you apply some soothing from a tube, tiny jar, or one of those weird golf balls . Ahh, relief. But once it passes, you will need more. The cycle repeats throughout the winter. Do you practice responsible skin care or are you addicted?
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Let’s flesh out the word ” addiction” for a moment. Addiction involves reward mechanisms in the brain, usually when they respond to a chemical — the “substance” of substance abuse. True addiction will lead to withdrawal symptoms and is a problem if it interferes with your life and relationships, or if you are looking for this substance despite the detrimental effects on your health.
Even the most dedicated lip balm users probably don’t have this addiction. While there are people who use it dozens or hundreds of times a day, psychotherapist Daniel Mattila told Refinery29 that they are probably not suffering from drug addiction, but something like obsessive-compulsive disorder . For these people, “[applying lip balm] is a ritual and soothing effect, like washing your hands.”
But how much is overkill? Those of us with a more manageable lip balm habit can still carry a tube around with us every day in winter. (Hi, I have mine.) If you always wear lip balm and always experience chapped lips, could the balm be partially responsible for the problem? This would be very convenient for people who make money selling these things.
Rumors of lip balms have probably been around since lip balms were popular. Carmex, for example, has been accused of adding strong acids or ground glass to damage your lips and make you want more. There is no evidence that the company is doing anything this unethical, although there is some truth in the lip balm that can contain irritants. But first, let’s talk about how lip balms should work.
How lip balms work
Lip balms contain oils and moisturizers that soothe dry skin. Skin cells are born in the lower layers of the epidermis and migrate upward, contracting and flattening. The flattened, almost empty cells on the surface create an excellent moisture barrier, especially since they are glued to each other at the edges. This prevents water from leaking through the skin and the ingress of other substances.
When the skin becomes dry, the production of skin cells accelerates. This means that the cells reaching the surface are not fully matured, and the barrier is imperfect: dry skin also cannot protect itself and is even more susceptible to further drying out. ( This online dermatology textbook has a good explanation of this process.) If you can stop drying with some kind of artificial barrier, like lip balm, it could give your skin a chance to heal.
The skin of the lips is especially susceptible to this process because there are practically no sweat and sebaceous glands in it, which keep the rest of the skin soft and supple. When your lips dry out, there are not many ways to restore that protective barrier other than applying a balm. Waiting for the lips to heal may not work if the factors that caused them to dry out are still present. For chapped lips in winter, this usually means cold, dry air that isn’t easy to get rid of.
So yes: moisturizing the skin on your lips does make them plump, just like the lip balms promise. If you have chapped lips and have been using balm for a few days, they should get better. If not, it is most likely due to other factors. While it is true that moisturizers can temporarily cause your body’s skin to produce less of its own oils, this cannot happen on your lips because, remember, they don’t produce much of their own oil to begin with.
Why you need to keep reapplying
If your lips don’t feel better after a few days, there may be several other reasons.
Lip balm sometimes (not always) contains substances called counteracting irritants . They calm someone down, irritate someone. In truth, both of them.
This is how it works. If you hit your elbow on the table and quickly rub the sore spot with your other hand, then you are using the principle of collar pain . The nerve fibers connecting the elbow to the brain are limited, and by adding a new sensation – friction – you reduce the pain that may go away. The same principle is at the heart of the ingredients of Tiger Balm or Biofreeze : they use the bandwidth of the nervous system to lightly cool or warm, so that you do not feel muscle soreness as much.
I personally hate these foods; they just add irritation without relieving pain. But everyone is arranged a little differently. Those same people who swear by Biofreeze usually find medicated lip balms like Carmex “soothing”.
Menthol , phenol and camphor are typical counteracting irritants. Carmex contains all three. “Natural” lip balms often contain peppermint oil for the same purpose. These ingredients can have a side effect of causing mild dryness or inflammation .
If you’ve applied balm for that soothing tingling sensation and you have irritated lips as a result, your next step might be to reapply. For most people, this never goes beyond a very mild annoyance, but if you think this might have happened to you, try switching your brand name to something that doesn’t cause tingling or burning at all.
Counteracting irritants are not the only potential problem, but they are very serious. Other possibilities include:
- the balm contains something you are allergic to, such as oils or fragrances. If your lips are irritated and you think the balm is to blame, try switching to a simpler product – even plain old petroleum jelly – and see if the problem solves.
- The balm contains alpha hydroxy acids or salicylic acid, which are chemical exfoliators . This means they cause the outer layers of skin to shed – great for making healthy skin smoother, but quite the opposite of what you want for damaged skin.
- your lips are exposed to harmful environmental factors such as dry air, sunlight or frequent lip licking, which lip balm can only fix on a short-term basis.
Chances are, you need to keep applying the balm either with counter-irritants or one of those factors, rather than the moisturizing effect of the balm itself.
What to look for in lip balm
If your current lip balm isn’t right for you, it might be time to try a new one – with a little more attention to the ingredients. The main ingredients of lip balms fall into several categories:
- The occlusive ingredients are oily and sometimes waxy and form a barrier on the skin’s surface to prevent moisture from escaping. Vaseline is a classic example; many oils and waxes also fall into this category.
- Emollients fill in the gaps between skin cells, leaving skin smooth, not rough. These include some oils, alcohols, and esters. (You may have heard the advice to avoid using alcohols in lip balm, but they are not all the same: octyldodecanol, hexyldodecanol, and oleyl alcohol are excellent emollients and will not dry out.)
- Moisturizers absorb water, helping to transport moisture from deeper layers of the skin into the epidermis . Honey, glycerin and urea are effective moisturizers. (Yes, urea is found in urine, but it is also present in our sweat and helps moisturize our skin. Lotions containing urea are some of the best moisturizers .)
If your lips aren’t chapped yet, a balm with occlusive ingredients will help keep them healthy by preventing drying out. If they’re already dried, it’s probably a good idea to have something with all three types of ingredients.
The composition of lip balm and lotion is part art and part science. One study published in the British Journal of Dermatology found that certain oils unexpectedly caused the skin to shed rather than retain moisture. “It is necessary to identify the ingredients that affect the barrier function of the skin,” concluded the researchers. In the meantime, some trial and error is needed.
I have two favorites: first, Burt’s Bees Honey Lip Balm . It stays thick and stays in place; if honey is present in significant quantities – difficult to say – it can act as a moisturizer. It also smells amazing. The other is Burt’s Bees Ultra Conditioning Balm with kokum oil , which is almost entirely composed of cream and oils without any other additives . It has a milder emollient effect than most balms, but it also has some barrier function.
Choosing a lip balm is a personal matter; what one person considers soothing may seem drying to another. But know that if your ointment of choice feels like it is making your lips drier, not less dry, you don’t need to break the chapstick habit — a different formulation may be all you need.
Illustration by Nick Criscuolo.
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