What To Do When You Have More Lip Balms Than Friends (& Your Lips Are Still Chapped)

The latest installment of Ask Ugly is here!

The next installment of Ask Ugly, my monthly beauty advice column for the Guardian, is here!

A preview:

via Lola Beltran/The Guardian

Hi Ugly,

I’m struggling with a decades-long addiction to ChapStick. My relationship with lip balm started when I was a teen, using my mother’s ChapStick for my chapped lips. I’ve tried almost every balm out there: EOS, ChapStick, Burt’s Bees, Palmer’s Coco Butter Balm. I even dabbled in the menthol balms, much to my current self’s chagrin.

Flash to current day, and I am never not within arm’s reach of a lip balm. I’ve got balm “stations” – one in my bag, one near my bed, one in my desk at work, one in my car. I’ve ensured that I will never be without lip balm should I need it. I’ve come to realize that it isn’t in big balm’s best interest to let us break the habit, but I’m determined to cut down on my usage. But I absolutely cannot stand the feeling of dry and chapped lips. Is there any hope for me?

–Lip Balm Addict

Let us begin by acknowledging the wonder, the awe, the – dare I say? – beauty of the chapped lip. The chapping process is one of life’s tiny miracles. The thin skin of your lips senses a dearth of available H₂O in its environment, for reasons either internal (not enough water intake) or external (colder temperatures, drier air, excess exposure to UV rays or pollution particles), so it slows its cycle of renewal. It stops shedding dead cells. These dead cells build up and form a barrier. This barrier attempts to keep whatever hydration you do have left from evaporating into thin air, and that hoarded hydration keeps your cells functioning.

It’s the stuff of poetry, really. Flaky skin is evidence of interdependence, adaptability, resilience. Flakes are moisture persevering!

That said, flakes are also a cry for attention. The same goes for cracks, redness, inflammation – whatever your particular chapped lips look like. Chapping is the body’s way of saying, “I’m doing all I can here. A little help in the hydration department, please?” Help can come in many forms (I’ll get to those later), but because we live in a society that worships the industrial production of little plastic thingies, most people use a tube (or 12) of lip balm.

You describe your use as an “addiction”. I want to be clear that petrolatum, the main ingredient in ChapStick and other products like it, is not chemically addictive. It is, however, so ineffective at addressing the root cause of the problem it purports to solve that it can eventually worsen chapped lips by conditioning users to crave the short-term results it provides at the expense of exploring other, more practical solutions.

The rest of my answer includes:

• how lip balm works and why it isn’t effective

• how pollution causes chapped lips and beauty consumerism causes pollution

• this fun fact: the average American woman has more lip products than close friends!!

• seven ways to heal/protect your pout without beauty products

• what to look for when you do need/want balm (and what I personally use on my chapped lips)

• and more!

Click through to the Guardian to read the whole thing (and if you decide to share it with friends or on social media or whatever, please share it via the Guardian link).

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