There seems to have been a lot of questions asked lately to magazines and online forums about lip balm addiction. People are worried that they are relying on their lip balm and confess to reapplying it up to 50 times a day! Some people find when they wear lip balms they are constantly licking their lips or chewing off the flavor from the balm.
Lips become dry quite easily because they are so thin and tend to get a lot of indirect moisture from your mouth – even if you don’t lick your lips moisture will get onto your lips. So the need for lip balm is a necessity for most. You don’t have to stop using it if your lips are dry but here are some tips on how to beat an addiction.
First of all, make sure you are not using a lip balm that contains a lot of mysterious ingredients. Some of the generic and popular brands can contain ingredients that actually irritate your lips – therefore you apply your lip balm, get irritated and dry, and feel that you have to keep reapplying. Look for a more natural lip balm that doesn’t irritate your lips and contains healing ingredients such as cocoa butter, beeswax, and shea butter. Common irritants for the lips include alcohol and menthol so try to avoid these.
You also have to be mindful about not licking your lips. This not only removes the lip balm but moistens your lips and leads to more dryness. If you are using a flavored lip balm this commonly leads to licking so switch to a tasteless formula. Lip balms commonly contain chemical ingredients that generally aren’t hazardous to your health but if you are ingesting quite a lot it could lead to stomach upset or mild mouth sores.
If you find you cannot find a good lip balm, or absolutely cannot stop licking your lips it’s probably best for you to use something completely natural such as pure Vitamin E or Olive Oil. These will greatly help with keeping your lips moist and will not irritate them – plus if you do happen to eat them they are actually good for you!