When the temperature drops, many people suffer from dry hands or lips. The skin dries out and lips and corners of the mouth crack. To prevent or remedy this, many people put lip balm on their lips. But does this actually help or is it the cause of the problem?
Lips dry out faster than the other parts of the face. This is because this is a different kind of skin. This skin is a kind of mucous membrane – like in the nose and mouth – and dries out if you lick it. This is due to certain enzymes in saliva. So don’t do that if you suffer from dry lips.
Addicted
Applying lip balm doesn’t seem to help either. As with nasal spray, you can become ‘addicted’ to lip balm. This is because many people like the greasy feeling on their dry lips, while some balms actually have a drying effect. The more often you apply, the drier your lips become. This depends on the ingredients. Often there is petroleum in these lip balms. At some point, the lips would no longer produce natural oil.
Moisturizing lip balm
So choose lip balm that moisturizes the lips, and not lip balm that only applies a greasy layer and actually extracts moisture from the lips.
Also read: “You will get sick if you go outside with wet hair”
Conclusion
Lip balm does not necessarily dry out the lips, but if you buy a lip balm with the wrong ingredients, such as kerosene, it will. These greasy lip balms dry out the lips further and ensure that the lips themselves no longer produce oil. However, there is a workaround for this. Buy moisturizing lip balm.
By: Nationale Zorggids / Æde de Jong