Lip balm ‘addiction’ – how does it arise?

Many questions about lip balm addiction have been received in response to an online article Jan Magazine. Below we provide more information about this phenomenon.

Your lips, the diva of your face, define the lower part of the face. Full and hydrated lips evoke a feeling of health, youthfulness and sensuality.

The skin of the lips is delicate and very thin compared to the skin on the face. Compared to the skin, the upper horny layer (stratum corneum) of the lips is 4-5 times thinner than the skin. d of the lips is fragile and is very thin compared to the facial skin. Even though there are no pigment cells, sweat glands, hair follicles in the lips, there are (ectopic) sebaceous glands, also called Fordyce spots. The function of the sebaceous glands is to produce a skin oil that ensures that the skin is protected against dehydration, among other things.

What is the cause of lip balm addiction?

It’s more of a lip balm dependency, there is no ingredient in a lip balm, like nicotine in cigarettes, for example, which is physically addictive. Due to the unconscious excessive use of lip balm, a dependency can arise.

There are different triggers and different factors. Earlier mentioned, the lip skin is very thin. Because the stratum corneum consists of 3-4 layers, the skin barrier function is poor and the capacity to retain moisture between the stratum corneum layers is low. This makes the lips dry out faster.

There are triggers or stimuli such as weather influences ( sun, wind and temperature fluctuations such as indoor and outdoor temperature in the winter period, can irritate or dry out the lips even more. Smoking and certain medications can also cause dryness, making the lips flaky and dull in color. Smoking and certain medications can also cause dryness, making the lips flaky and dull in color.

Due to this, the low hydration capacity of the lips, triggers that make the lip skin more irritated, people consciously or unconsciously try to counteract this by moistening the dry lips with saliva. The digestive enzymes present in saliva and evaporation of saliva cause the lip skin to dry out even more. This leads to a vicious circle, which eventually provokes and maintains what is commonly referred to as ‘addiction’.

How long does it take to get rid of this addiction when you stop using it? The ingredients that can cause lip irritation disappear from your lips pretty quickly once you stop using lip balm. And if you are aware not to always moisten your lips with your saliva, you will soon get rid of this ‘addiction’.

What does lip balm do to your lips? Primarily it is intended to form an occlusive barrier to combat dry lips. However, the question is whether the occlusive effect of a lip balm makes the sebaceous glands in the lips ‘lazy’. It is possible that the closing effect of a balm temporarily slows down oil production in the sebaceous glands. There are no known studies on this. It is known that as we age, sebum oil production generally decreases, causing us to slowly dry out.

Are there lip balm ingredients that are good for your lips?

There are very few studies that have properly investigated the treatment of dry lips. Vaseline is a widely used ingredient in cosmetics, including lip balm. Vaseline is water-repellent, occlusive and the advantage is that it does not cause skin irritations or eczema. Nadeel van vaseline is dat het zwaar aan kan voelen en deze sensatie kan een trigger zijn. The lips need more. In addition to a good occlusive effect, preventing moisture loss from the lips, you also want to retain and attract moisture. Ideally, a “breathable” lip moisturizer that both attracts and retains moisture.

Which would you recommend? There are certain ingredients in lip balm that cause lip skin irritation. Preferably an unscented balm with as few added ingredients as possible, which feels light on the lip skin, does not irritate or cause eczema, attracts and retains moisture in the lips. That’s a lot of wishes. There are some substances that come close to these expectations. Ingredients such as ceramide, shea butter, sunflower oil (which is suitable for the skin), jojoba oil, dimethicone, hemp seed oil. For ultraviolet (UV) sun protection for the lips, look to the combination of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. This combination protects against both UVA and UVB sun rays and is hypoallergenic.

Which ones would you avoid? Lip balm have different ingredients, especially especially fragrances such as menthol, peppermint and spearmint oil, cinnamaic aldehyde, citrus, eucalyptus, anethole and L-carvone.

This can your prompt to “taste” the fragrances that make your lips come into contact come with your saliva with as consequence that the lips further dry out.

In addition can UV filters (oxybenzone, octinoxate), castor oil, ricinoleate, gallate, lanolin, salicylic acid carmine, oleyl alcohol, sesame oil, stearates, colophony and shellac (dye) ingredients lipirritations or even lip eczema cause.

While you are here

A common problem is dry skin (in Greek xerosis cutis). The causes of this are inclement weather conditions, low humidity due to air conditioning or heating, frequent showering and use of soap. In addition, various physical conditions such as kidney function problems, a slow thyroid gland, heredity (such as atopy and ichthyosis vulgaris) and certain acne medications such as isotretinoin can make the skin drier. In a mild form there is often only flakiness without complaints, but in addition to flaking you can also develop redness, a tight feeling and even eczema (asteatotic eczema). More about: Xerosis cutis