Beauty Experts Warn This One Type Of Lip Balm Will Dry Out Your Lips!
Lips are exposed to the sun, intense cold, and licking habits so they deserve extra care. While a little bit of dryness is inevitable, you don’t want your lips to be completely vulnerable to the elements. That’s where a good lip balm comes in. But, the ingredients in bad lip balms may be to blame for the dryness and generally chapped appearance that you’re struggling with in the winter. In particular, there is one type of lip balm (and lipstick!) you should avoid because instead of hydrating your lips, they’re actually making them dryer: balms with hardening ingredients. Hardening ingredients include paraffin or beeswax.
To learn more about the downsides to this type of lip balm, we spoke with makeup artist Mary Winkenwerder about hardening ingredients in lip balms. She told us that, especially in the winter, ingredients like beeswax and paraffin will only dry out your lips further. Find out more below!
Lip balms with hardening ingredients
Hardening ingredients found in lip balms include beeswax and paraffin. Beeswax is a natural wax produced by honey bees. Paraffin, on the other hand, is a colorless soft, solid wax made from petroleum. Both of these waxes have many other uses like lubrication, electrical insulation, crayon wax, and candle wax.
Some popular lip balms with these hardening ingredients include Burt's Bees or Badger Balm. You've heard that these types of lip balms are the best at protecting your lips from environmental factors like wind, cold, and sun damage because they provide a solid layer between your lips and the outside world. However, this isn't always true.
"Paraffin and beeswax are ingredients used to bind traditional stick lip balm and help it keep its shape. A high concentration of these ingredients in any lip product causes the product to become hard," Winkenwerder explains. "Rubbing a hard surface onto chapped or weathered lips in need of care can cause further damage to the lips. While these types of lip balms may have essential therapeutic ingredients, they do not offer the creamy core binding ingredient that makes them capable of working into the skin." While these hardening ingredients create a physical barrier to prevent water loss, they can cause more damage than good if your lips are already chapped or sensitive. So, just be careful that you aren't overapplying balms with hardening ingredients or they may worsen cracked lips.
Healthy and hydrating lip balms
While there are many types of lip balms that are harmful to your lips, Winkenwerder recommends lip oils and lip serums as healthy alternatives. "Lip oils penetrate the surface of the lips quickly and address care issues. Sometimes these formulas are small amounts of therapeutic ingredients set in a core or base oil that binds well with a proprietary blend. They keep lips plump to their full natural potential (cosmetic) while addressing care issues," she notes.
Lip serums offer relief from irritations and provide deep hydration while helping with discoloration. "Serum lip 'balm' formulas often work quickly into the lips without leaving residue on the surface of the lips. They keep lips plump to their full natural potential (cosmetic) while addressing care issues," Winkenwerder adds.
Everyone wants plump, hydrated lips, but the truth is, dry lips happen to all of us at some point in our lives. However, even if you're tempted to reach for your favorite lip balm, Winkenwerder recommends always checking the ingredients to make sure it doesn't contain the hardening ingredients mentioned above. The good news is that there are plenty of natural, organic-based lip balms on the beauty market that contain no harmful chemicals and won't dry out your lips. It's also crucial not to overapply your balm, oils, or serums. Applying once or twice a day should be enough to keep your lips hydrated and healthy. Your skin is the largest organ in your body so it's important you take care of it!
READ MORE:
6 Winter Mistakes That Are Drying Out Your Skin
This Is The Best Serum To Combat Dry Winter Skin, According To Derms
4 Expert-Approved Tips For Banishing Dry, Chapped Lips This Winter
