Top 3 Lip Balms – A Lip Balm Road Test

With the cooler weather, we find that our skin tends to dry out and we need to use more lotions and potions to counteract the dryness and damage that the elements do to our skin. The skin on our lips is no different. Lip balms and ointments tend to be our saving grace in these situations as our lips suffer from the weather just as much as the skin on our hands or the rest of our face. Often our lips crack or peel, sometimes they even bleed. Many of us even suffer the dreaded ‘wind burn’ that leaves a lovely red, dry ring around our mouths that extends past the line of our lips, and boy, does it sting!!

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those women who always has a tube of lip balm in her hand bag for such dry days. But lately, I’ve noticed I’ve had to reach for it more than usual. Which prompted me to wonder (and which became my criteria for this road test):

• Do they all work?
• Is there much of a difference between lip balms/ointments?
• Do any of them still use petrochemicals? (as that seems to be a rising trend with the population these days, not putting products derived from petroleum onto our skin, and I can’t say I blame them) and;
• What if you are allergic to things like nuts and coconut? Are there lip balms or ointments out there that are free of these common allergens?  (This last criteria was prompted by my ‘day job’ as a teacher. I often see kids with ‘wind burn’ and sometimes they have allergies to some of the ingredients in them. So I wondered what someone could use if they found themselves in this situation.)

I’m going take a moment to clarify here what I mean by a cosmetic petrochemical. A petrochemical is a petroleum-based product and the beauty industry is littered with them. It’s almost unavoidable. Some are deemed safe by industry standards but many would argue that anything petroleum-based is not good for you. I’m not going to make the call on whether they are good or bad, natural or not. I will leave that up to you. I will simply point out if they are included.

As a loose guide, cosmetic petrochemicals are:

• Paraffin Wax
• Mineral Oil
• Toluene
• Benzene
• Phenoxyethanol
• Anything with PEG (polyethylene glycol)
• Anything ending in ‘eth’ indicates that it required ethylene oxide (a petrochemical) to produce e.g. myreth, oleth, laureth, ceteareth
• Anything with DEA (diethanolamine) or MEA (ethanolamine)
• Butanol and any word with ‘butyl’ – butyl alcohol, butylparaben, butylene glycol
• Ethanol and word with ‘ethyl’ – ethyl alcohol, ethylene glycol, ethylene dichloride, EDTA (ethylene-diamine-tetracetatic acid), ethylhexylglycerin
• Any word with “propyl” – isopropyl alcohol, propylene glycol, propyl alcohol, cocamidopropyl betaine
• Methanol and any word with ‘methyl’ –  methyl alcohol, methylparaben, methylcellulose
• Parfum or fragrance – 95% of chemicals used in fragrance are from petroleum

These are what I looked for in the ingredients. If they were there, then I have said so in the results.

Now back to the road test…..

What I decided to do was put various lip balms to the test and satisfy my curiosity. I went out and bought a range of different lip balms and ointments (a couple were even gifted to me) to see which one really does ‘cut the mustard’. Obviously, there are so many out there that it would take me forever to road test all of them, so here is the cross section of market that I got to sample:

1. Lucas Paw Paw Ointment
2. Brauer Paw Paw Natural Ointment
3. Suvana Organic Certified Organic Paw Paw and Honey Balm [gifted]
4. Chap Stick Conditioning Lip Balm with Aloe Vera, Vitamin E and SPF 15
5. Blistex Ultra Lip Balm with SPF 30+
6. Norwex Timeless Lip Balm [gifted]
7. MooGoo Cow Lick Lip Balm [gifted]
8. Viraprox Triple Action Lip Balm [gifted]
9. Nutrimetics Nutri-Rich Intensive Lip Treatment*
10. Nutrimetics Ultra Care+ Lip Apeel*

Some of these are very popular, well known products. Some of them are from direct selling companies. Some I had to research a little to see if there was actually one out there that wasn’t going to react with the types of allergies I have seen in a classroom before. I deliberately steered clear of the good ol’ Vaseline due to the fact that it 100% petroleum jelly. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s not good (I actually like it and was brought up on it), but it was obvious it wouldn’t pass one of my criteria so I didn’t use it for this road test.

The best way to do this might be to give the results in tabular format (it’s the scientist in me!).

As I found it impossible to find a natural and preservative free product that doesn’t contain some sort of coconut oil or some questionable ingredient like a petrochemical, my top 3 lip balm or ointment picks became the Brauer Paw Paw Ointment, the Suvana Organic Paw Paw and Honey Organic Lip Balm and the MooGoo Cow Lick Lip Balm. I chose these because I would rather take natural ingredients (luckily I don’t have any allergies) over other ones containing preservatives or petrochemicals. But this is my personal choice.

I found this road test very eye opening and will be much wearier before blindly offering any of these products to people (in case they have allergies). I will point out at this stage that I am not saying any of these products are bad, just that in my opinion and on my body, these three performed the best on my lips. You might conduct a similar road test and prefer other lip balms or ointments.

So tell me, do you know of a lip balm or ointment that has all natural ingredients, works well and is nut/coconut free? If so, let’s hear about it! Leave it in the comments below so we can all test it out. Maybe you have a different lip balm or ointment that is your favourite? Tell me why you like it? What’s in the ingredient list? Let’s connect and help each other out.

If you liked the content of this blog post, or found it helpful in any way, please share it via social media or email with family and friends. You might also like my review on hand creams. Click here to enjoy that blog.

* In the interest of disclosure, I will advise readers that I do have my own Nutrimetics account. I did not receive any endorsement of any kind from Nutrimetics to write this editorial. This is purely my opinion. I am not seeking any sales from this editorial. If you wish to purchase this product, simply go to the Nutrimetics website and do a search for a consultant in your local area who will be able to help you with your purchase.