Oh. My. Gawd. My lips are so hideously chapped. Like it hurts to smile chapped. Cracking, tight, awful. I've been using Softlips chapstick non-stop for the past few days. I hate chapstick. It's nasty, but right now I can't be without it because the second it wears off, the cracking comes back. WTF?
Anyone have any solutions to this? Better chapsticks? Vasoline? Anything? Help! I think I'm dying!
Try scrubbing off the dead skin with an old toothbrush. I like Burt's Bees better than chapstick. It has this tingly peppermint in it that always helps my lips when they are chapped.
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I love chapstick! I wear it everyday and apply it several times a day. ChapStick brand in cherry. I love the smell and texture. Keeps my lips smooth and shiny. I haven't used any other brand that has had better results. Make sure you apply it thick at night and have a good layer on before you go outside so you can get your lips back to normal.
theotherjess wrote: Try scrubbing off the dead skin with an old toothbrush.
2nd this. I like Carmex to help soothe dry lips, but make sure you get the tube (non-chapstick style) & not the pot. Also, as hard as it is, don't lick your lips. I read somewhere that it actually promotes the dryness.
i have to use petroleum/petrolatum free products or my lips won't heal. So no rosebud salve, vaseline, chapstick, softlips, carmex, etc. It is in most chapsticks, but in a lot of what i've read, its supposed to actually dry out your lips more. I don't think everyone has a problem with it on their lips, but maybe its a huge corporate conspiracy to make your lips addicted to it. hehe. I don't know if petroleum serves just as a moisture shield, or actually moisturizes. Seriously, my lips were always chapped while i was using anything with petroleum- they only felt okay for the 20 mins or so right after i applied the chapstick.
I've had the best luck with 2 chapsticks- Kiehl's Baby (which uses up fast and is $8 a tube) or Ganache for Lips ($4 at anthro and lipmedic.com) I've bought probably 20 tubes of the ganache- i always have it in a different purse. I like choc. raspberry and choc. mint. Drinking a lot of water helps me too- i notice a difference when i have 8-9 a day versus 6-7.
I second vaseline and the toothbrush scrubbing. When I'm at home, sometimes I just have huge gobs of vaseline on because of chapped lips. I like using vaseline as lip gloss even every once in a while, but the absolute best "chap stick" I've ever used is Aveeno. It's like $3.50 a tube, but I won't use anything else now that I've tried that.
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Try straight vitamin e oil (it's at the drug store, but you can also find it at health food stores). I put it on at night and it makes a HUGE difference. Softlips was weird for me. It worked really well for a while, then it stopped working. I don't know if they changed their formula or it's because I moved to a somewhat more dry climate.
I used to use softlips because I really liked the feel when I put it on but I soon found out that it wore off qucikly and made my lips dry and crack more than if I never put it on. I have been using nutrogena's lipglosses. They are fabulous, make my lips feel great and I don't feel like I NEED to put it on constantly!!
Dizzy wrote: Try straight vitamin e oil (it's at the drug store, but you can also find it at health food stores). I put it on at night and it makes a HUGE difference.
yes! vitamin E is nothing short of a miracel. I put it on the sides of my nose at some time that they were chapped to the point of bleeding, and I saw a huge improuvement overnight. If you can't find the oil for expternal use, you can break one of the vitamin capsules and use that
Yeah, I've done the toothbrush thing also, works pretty good, I also like Vaseline. Burt's Bees is OK, but I love Carmex. I've also tried cocoa butter cream, works pretty good. I also HATE chapped lips!!!
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Like JaymieK, I swear by Aquaphor. It's kind of like Vaseline, but somehow more moisturizing. Derms recommend it a lot for patients who take Accutane. It's the only thing I can use that actually moisturizes my lips and keeps me from having to reapply lip balm all day.
Edited because I checked my tube of Aquaphor and it actually is petrolatum-based. So I don't know exactly how it is different from Vaseline. It does have lanolin in it--maybe that's what makes it so good?
-- Edited by ejc423 at 20:53, 2007-03-18
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I have a pot of palmer's shea butter with vitamin e that I use all the time on my lips, and sometimes even as a moisturizer at night during the winter if my skin is really dry.
I've had mixed results with this brand's other "chapstick"-like formulas, but the little white tube always works. I've got a bad case of chapped lips right now, and I plan on applying it throughout the day... with luck, by tomorrow, I should be back to my soft self!
Carrie Bradshaw: The fact is, sometimes it's really hard to walk in a single woman's shoes. That's why we need really special ones now and then to make the walk a little more fun.
Vitamin E sticks available at drug stores are the BEST! I buy mine from Puritans Pride on line - all my vits actually - and they usually have BOG2 free deals. They are very cheap.
I use the stick on my lips, around my nose when it is chapped (like now from allregies), under my eyes, around my cuticles - everywhere. There are tubes all over my house, office, car in my purses. It is the best. (I have even used a few smears on my fingrers to tame fly away hair.)