The Skin Nerd: What to look for in a lip balm
You know that your lips have skin, but do you treat them like that? I’m not pointing fingers, but the majority of people out there are much more inclined to ensure what they’re using on their face is high-quality but will whack nearly anything onto their lips.
Your lips actually need more care and assistance than your skin for a number of reasons. The skin on your lips is much thinner than other skin, and your lips neither produce sebum (oil) nor sweat. Our skin produces sebum to hydrate itself, and the reason lips tend to become so dry is because they aren’t producing their own hydration.
The thinness of the skin on the lips also makes them more delicate and prone to irritation than other areas. Additionally, your lips, like the rest of your skin, can fall victim to the visible and physiological effects of UV damage, such as pigmentation, and a loss of plumpness due to collagen degradation.
Thankfully, there are thousands of lip balms on the market that work to boost our lips not just temporarily but protect and treat them long term, as we do with the rest of our skin.
If you’re looking to invest in those smackers, look for the following in your lip balms: SPF protection, antioxidants, nourishing plant butters like shea butter and plumping hyaluronic acid, for example.
The ASAP Skincare Hydrating Lip Balm (€15.00, from ASAP stockists) checks all the boxes, with antioxidant ginger extract plus hydrating and plumping niacinamide, as well as SPF 15 and alpine rose extract that ASAP Skincare claim helps to reduce cold sore occurrence. It is a nourishing lip balm that instantly takes the soreness out of overly dry lips without feeling too thick.
The IMAGE MD Post-Treatment Collagen Lip Enhancement SPF 15 (€38.00, from selected clinics and salons) is designed by plastic surgeons for the maximum protection and best results post-procedure. Regardless of whether you are having lip treatments done or not, this lip balm is phenomenal. With SPF 15, antioxidants and a peptide complex to boost the production of collagen, it helps to keep your lips plump, supple and hydrated.
If you don’t have more than a tenner to spend on a lip balm, the MooGoo SPF 15 Lip Balm has you covered. With mineral SPF ingredient zinc oxide, plus antioxidant vitamin E and shea butter, it gets the job done on the daily. This is a bit waxier than the more lightweight ones listed above, but a small price to pay for lips that will look more luscious in the decades to come.
If there is anything to avoid when it comes to lip balms, it’s petroleum jelly. The best-selling lip products out there are predominantly made up of petroleum jelly. The issue I have with it is not because its a petroleum byproduct, because mineral oil is a petroleum byproduct in skincare brands that I endorse and has tonnes of skin benefits, but that it tends to clog pores around the lips, leading to a lip line of blackheads or whiteheads.
They also tend to only provide softening rather than deeper hydration, so you end up using more and not getting as much bang for your buck as you think. So there you have it: spend a bit more on a lip balm for healthier (and better-looking) lips down the line.
The Nerdie Pick
(€19.00, sculptedbyaimee.com and selected pharmacies)
It’s not often you see a non-skincare product as my Nerdie Pick but I love the concept of Sculpted’s Lip Duos, as one side has a dreamily creamy lipstick and the other side has a matching lip liner.
Gone are the days of endlessly swatching for a match, or losing your liner in your handbag. There are five shades, and in each, the lip liner is slightly darker so as to make your lips appear fuller. Both the liner and the lipstick glide on without dragging or tugging — a must in my books.
