Problem: What should I do about my eternally chapped lips? No matter what I use, the chapping never goes away.
Solution: Whether they are responding to cold weather, an arid climate, or are just naturally dry, chapped lips are a pain. Cracking, flaking, and chapping are not only uncomfortable but also unsightly, and lipstick only seems to make the situation worse. You can solve those dry-lips blues with consistency and patience. Chapped lips are not going to disappear in a day, and missing even one day of treatment can drive lips back to dryness.
Lips are more vulnerable to the environment than any other part of the face. This means that keeping your lips moist and sealed against the weather is essential. There are lots of emollient lip products that do just that, and the more emollient they are, the better. Ingredients like lanolin, oils of any kind (including castor oil, lanolin oil, safflower oil, almond oil, and vegetable oil), and shea and cocoa butter are all excellent, especially if they are listed at the beginning of the ingredient list. However, many lip products are little more than waxy coatings that make lips feel thickly protected when they are applied (ChapStick is a great example), but they don’t really moisturize or provide adequate protection from the weather or from the dry heat and air-conditioning you find indoors.
Lots of lip products also claim to be medicated. “Medicated,” however, is at best a dubious term, and it has no regulated meaning when it comes to lip balms. These “medicated” products usually contain camphor, menthol, peppermint oil, and eucalyptus, but these are not medicines for dry lips! They mostly irritate and can actually make lips burn, which is neither disinfecting nor helpful for lips that are already dry and chapped. Products like classic Blistex, which includes 0.5% phenol, are the exception, because they truly are medicated; phenol kills anything that gets in its way. However, phenol is strong stuff and can actually trigger serious irritation and dryness all by itself. It is not something I would recommend for anything but extremely limited use.
You may have heard a rumor that lips can adapt to or become addicted to lip balm. It isn’t possible. But if the lip balm you are using contains irritating ingredients (and lots of them do), your lips will stay dried up. When a lip product contains irritating, drying ingredients, there is no way the other, more emollient ingredients can help. Likewise, if you are using a lip product that is just waxy, with no emollients or water-binding agents, it can only plaster down the dry skin; it doesn’t reduce the dryness.
At night you can apply almost any lip balm that contains some of the emollients I mentioned above, but no irritants. For daytime care, it is best to use an SPF 15 lip balm that contains either avobenzone, Tinosorb, ecamsule (Mexoryl SX), titanium dioxide, or zinc oxide. However, if you wear an opaque lipstick, it may not be essential to have that kind of SPF protection. Research has shown that women who apply lipstick more than once a day are at a much lower risk of getting lip cancer than women who apply lipstick only once a day (Source: Cancer Causes and Control, July 1996, pages 458-463). Theoretically, opaque lipsticks have enough sun-blocking protection to enable them to screen out the sun’s cancer-causing rays. Still, you may as well play it safe and use a lip balm or lipstick with sunscreen daily, especially if you are outside for long periods of time in the sun or if you live in a sunny climate. Chanel, Clinique, Neutrogena, and Paula’s Choice each offer very good lipsticks with broad-spectrum sunscreen.