Lip saga

[SQu]

Since childhood I've used lip balm constantly. I keep it on me and am very uncomfortable without it. Night and day. I live in a very dry climate but other people manage without or use it occasionally. I weaned myself off it once in my twenties, and got used to that feeling, but my lips looked like those of a very old lady and for that reason alone I started using it again. I cannot bear the feeling of dry lips. I don't like most lip balms. Most are too thin and light. Most are too fake smelling and tasting. I need a thick waxy layer but petroleum based popular ones which I used for years, now don't work because underneath them my lips feel drier than ever.

It's a saga .... as a child I used the popular petroleum based lip balms. Then I got a dramatic one off case of cold sores that blistered and left my skin raw from nose to chin. Couldn't put anything on them till that was healed up and didn't want to use the old kind again. After that I switched to a calendula cream in an 'ointment base' whatever that might be. It was a bit light but very soothing and I used it for a long time. Since then I've made my own from beeswax, coconut oil and vitamin e which I abandoned after about a year for feeling too solidly waxy. I couldn't get the right texture. I used lanolin for a few more years, and it is perfect in terms of that coated sticky thick waxy feeling, but recently it's been making my lips itchy especially on the margins and I wonder if it has some pufas that go rancid.

I've searched the forum on 'lips' and found that these could be responsible for some people's improvements:
progesterone
vitamin E
vitamin A in eggs or liver
raised metabolism

Ideally I'd like not to need that coated soothing feeling but for now I'll be happy with a lanolin texture that does not irritate my lips. In terms of the above I'm already doing all that, except progesterone and/ vitamin E actually applied to the lips not just taken. I'm having 2 eggs a day, but I'm overdue for some liver.

Anyone familiar with this kind of journey? Any suggestions? It's a little thing but it would be nice to get a breakthrough and, inspired by Dr Peat's clever progressively brewed cup of coffee, I feel a creative solution for lips could be just around the corner!

 

[Amazoniac]

I don't know if it's popular where you live, but where I live cocoa butter lip balms are very common. Plain cocoa butter..
While you don't figure out what's behind that dryness, it could work.
http://www.amazon.com/Certified-Unrefin ... butter+lip

 

[tara]

I've not been prone to severe dry lips, but sometimes they bother me. I've been using my general moisturizing mix (same one I'm using for rashes on ankles etc) intermittently on my lips for a few months, and they seem to like it. Coconut oil, cocoa butter, beeswax, lanolin, vit-E. I've used plain cocoa butter previously, and they liked that too. Sometimes I smear butter on them before bed (when I'm craving a little butter with my supper anyway:) ). Plain coconut oil alone seemed a bit drying. Don't know how to get free of balms altogether if they suffer, though.

I had to leave off for a few months last year when I got recurring angular cheilitis.

 

[SQu]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm considering retrying my recipe but adding cocoa butter which I know is lovely stuff.

 

[Attakai]

Tallow pretty much cured my dry skin and lips, I rarely even use it anymore. You can make your own, or buy some premade here:
http://www.vintagetradition.com/

 

[SQu]

Tallow is a great idea. I used to render down fat from the butcher for cooking so could easily follow this up. Thanks!

Just made some with beeswax, coconut oil, cocoa butter, then later when cooler added a bit of progesterone and vit e. We'll see!

 

[SQu]

That mixture is fine. Not amazing but fine. The breakthrough today was putting it in an old glue stick (I would have preferred an old lip balm stick but it's all I had) which works well seeing as it's a bit too thick and hard in the cold weather to use any other way. But this works well and I will try to be discreet when I use it so as not to make too many people stare - embarrasses my teenagers.
Haven't yet got tallow to add to it but planning to.