Lip Balm Addiction: Our Silent Epidemic

I use some during the day, but I can't STAND sleeping with dry lips. I keep a tube of Burt's Bees by my bedside to use just before going to sleep, and if I wake up dry in the night.

That's in addition to the tubes at my desk, in my purse, on my makeup stand and in the kitchen. Just in case.

Burt's Bees is my brand too. Can't abide Chapstick though.

Reached for mah tube before posting in this thread.

I use lip balm when my lips are chapped, like now. Most of the time it's humid and warm here, though, and I don't get chapped lips.

My favorite is Avon Care Deeply. It's just luscious stuff and it smells good, too.

However, I like lip color so much that I got it tattooed on. It's only been a couple of months and already practically worn off, though. I'll probably get it re-done, and try not to move my lips so much. Flapping your mouth muscles makes it work its way off, apparently.

Second choice is lip stain because it stays on all day. I don't know why someone didn't think of it years ago. Didn't everyone know how Kool-aid stains your lips for some time? However, the stain is drying so then I do use more lip balm/gloss over it.

Sorry, off-topic.

Perks, I am hooked! Have been for years. I've got a box of mostly empty chapsticks that I won't throw out because in crucial times you can dig out enough with a toothpick or a safety pin to feed the monkey. I'm told that the only way to go is cold turkey, to suffer through a few days or a week of uncomfortably dry, chapped, even cracked and bleeding lips to come out the other side. I haven't had the guts to face it yet. I think I've needed a support group and this could be it.

Okay, now I want to know if the ones who are hooked on lip balm use it because it's just a habit, or if they have habitually dry lips, in which case it wouldn't really be an "addiction," because it would have a logical reason.

We must get to the bottom of this!

P.S. Does anyone want to hear about the fat I got injected into my lips, btw? The doctor took it from my stomach. I'm so glad he didn't take it from my ass, because then I might get called Buttlips. *Oops. Cover your kid's ears, Perks!*

Fruitbat, very oral

i run a 12 step program to get people off of carmex.



i'm sure it would work with other lip balms too.

Chapstick lover here! I'm with Myrea, I can't go to sleep with dry lips. And I've got Chapstick everywhere. In the car, in my purse, and like three next to the bed. I don't always use it, but if I go somewhere and realize I don't have it, I'm constantly thinking about how dry my lips feel.

Fruitbat said:

Okay, now I want to know if the ones who are hooked on lip balm use it because it's just a habit, or if they have habitually dry lips, in which case it wouldn't really be an "addiction," because it would have a logical reason.

We must get to the bottom of this!

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We have habitually dry lips because we were weak and self-indulgent enough to allow it to become a habit.

Fruitbat said:

P.S. Does anyone want to hear about the fat I got injected into my lips, btw? The doctor took it from my stomach. I'm so glad he didn't take it from my ass, because then I might get called Buttlips. *Oops. Cover your kid's ears, Perks!*

Fruitbat, very oral

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I'm so glad to hear that your ass is intact. But I'm not sure if I believe it. Pics?

Earlier this year, I fell in love with vaseline because it's the duct tape of personal products, and realized I could use it as lip balm, too.

I don't think it's an addiction, but I miss it when I forget it.

Chapstick. Every year, when the temps first start dropping below 0 (celcius), I get chapped lips for a week or two. And I use it when on the mountain. Other than that, it's not habitual.

When I first read the title to this thread, I thought, "How do they know about my son?" He's a recovering lip balm addict. And I do mean addict. He would apply the stuff every few minutes, and if he lips weren't caked with the stuff he'd claim that they were starting to chap again, even though there were no signs of chapping at all. He'd carry two or three tubes of the stuff with him at all times, have a couple more in his back pack, a few stashed in his room, and then several more hidden about in rooms through out the house.

It got so bad he started developing a red rash around his mouth. We confiscated his stash and forbade him to use any for a couple of weeks. He howled a great deal about how his lips (and us) were killing him, but the rash soon disappeared, and he had to admit in the end that maybe he had gotten a little carried away.

We let him have lip balm again, but only one or two at a time, and monitor its use. even so, every time I take him to the store he still scopes out the various balms and insists that he needs one more. "Just one more," he says, "and I won't ask again." And I give him the "who do you think you're kidding" look, which usually puts an end to it.

Maze Runner said:

I'm so glad to hear that your ass is intact. But I'm not sure if I believe it. Pics?

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Maybe this is just me but I have to say I have never wanted to see anyone's butt. I agree with the kid on South Park- How can it be cute? It's a butt.

When my son was little, I had to quit buying flavored lip balms because he kept eating them and getting diarrhea.

Fruitbat, TMI Specialist

Fruitbat said:

Maybe this is just me but I have to say I have never wanted to see anyone's butt. I agree with the kid on South Park- How can it be cute? It's a butt.

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So I guess ceiling mirrors are out of the question. Just joking of course.

Maze Runner, hopelessly inappropriate

Fruitbat said:

I use lip balm when my lips are chapped, like now. Most of the time it's humid and warm here, though, and I don't get chapped lips.

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I live at 5280-ish feet, in a near desert. We wouldn't know humidity if it slapped us in the face.

I don't need the stuff so badly at sea level or in wetter climates.

Myrealana said:

I live at 5280-ish feet, in a near desert. We wouldn't know humidity if it slapped us in the face.

I don't need the stuff so badly at sea level or in wetter climates.

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Yeah, my addiction didn't start until I moved from Pennsylvania to Southern CA. But for some of us, one application is too many and a thousand are not enough.

I have Blistex (the medicated kind in the little blue pots) with me at all times. I have one in the bathroom, one beside the bed (can't sleep if I don't put it on) and one in the kitchen by the key hanger by the door so I can put it on before I go out.

I can quit any time I want to though.

Another Burt's Bees fan here. Never leave the home without it. And now that we're entering the season of cold outside and forced-air heating inside, I run to the bathroom several times a day to apply another coat. My lips are beginning to sting as I write this, in fact.

Bear grease is said to be excellent.

"First, catch your bear..."

Yep. My preferred is the blue Chapstick, but I also use Burt's Bees and sometimes eos. I do not like the eos as much, but the shape is better for not falling off my nightstand and my desk at work.

I did look into it once and it is actually not true that you get physically addicted to lip balm--that is, your lips don't stop producing moisture or whatever. But it sure can be mentally habit-forming!

I also have to use lotion on my skin basically any time it gets wet, so I figure I just have a tendency to dry out.