Chapstick Addiction

I am trying to beat my addiction to lip balm. Unfortunately my lips like to peel like dry onions and only the compulsive reapplication of Blistex Herbal can sooth my desire to bite the dead flesh off mouth.

Blistex Herbal is exactly like Aveda Lip Saver which runs $15 a tube. However it still costs about 2 bucks (and I believe is unnecessary). There are cheaper lip balms out there but unlike shampoos, the manufacturers do a bang-up job making their low-end products waxy and unappealing. Generic ChapStick is vile.

There's two kinds of things people put on their lips and contrary to popular belief neither actually help with chapped lips. There's the medicated cold sore stuff like blistex and carmex-- this actually eats away at healthy lips because it's for eating away cold sores and raw dead skin. If you have chapped lips from skiing you'd probably want this. Then there's lip balms which are just moisturizer that helps your lips not feel like sandpaper. It takes care of the symptoms but not the cause.

The cause for chapped lips for most people is ..... Lip-licking. The saliva dries on the skin and causes it to peel and flake. It becomes a viscous cycle because many people think that licking helps, or at least soothes. I'm making a conscious effort not to wet my lips and it's surprising to note how much I actually do it, especially when I'm thinking away at something.

But I'm determined damn it. My lips, probably like the rest of my face, were not meant to be constantly moist and juicy. In the mean time I'm trying not to lick and weaning myself off my (hopefully last) tube of Blistex. After that experts recommend Vaseline because it doesn't dry as quickly.

Everything you wanted to know about (yet another) Cosmetics Industry Conspiracy:

http://www.kevdo.com/lipbalm/