Kiss Dry Lips Goodbye! Our 2024 Winter Natural Lip Balm Guide
If your pout is dry, chapped and painful, you can blame that harsh, winter air and even harsher indoor heat! Sadly, lip care products can contain harmful chemicals (which is particularly concerning since we eat our lip products!) and, in some cases, are just perpetuating the dryness. Here’s our Winter Natural Lip Balm Guide to help you keep your lips happy and healthy all winter long.
How To Find A Natural Lip Balm This Winter
Ever wondered why your lips get so dry in the winter? There are some specific reasons why your lips actually do dry out faster than your face. Our lips are often exposed to the elements and are composed of a different type of skin than our facial skin that doesn’t have the same tough outer layer to protect them. And get this – our saliva also contains enzymes used to break down food, so licking our dry lips further damages the skin and increases that painful, chapped sensation. So, what can we do about it?
What’s So Bad About Conventional Lip Care Products
Skin and lip care products can contain hazardous chemicals that can build up in the body over time and cause serious health issues. Because we actually ingest some of the products we use on our lips, it’s even more important to avoid those that contain contaminants.
Top 3 Ingredients To Avoid For Natural, Non-Toxic Lip Care
- Fragrance and Flavor
Sorry Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker, as delicious as you are, you’re dangerous, too.
The term “fragrance” on a label is a catch-all term that can potentially hide hundreds of hazardous ingredients, allowing manufacturers to hide ingredients without disclosing them under that single word. Similarly, the term “Flavor” is nonspecific, so it’s hard to know if there is an allergen or irritant (or worse!) hiding under that unassuming phrase.
While we always recommend choosing fragrance-free products, which is different from unscented, by the way, if you do want fragrance and flavor, do your research so you can be sure you’re choosing the safest option possible.
- Oxybenzone (for Sun Protection)
Taking care to protect our skin from the sun is so important, but, sadly, many conventional products contain harmful chemicals. Oxybenzone is the most common chemical sunscreen ingredient and has been shown to cause health effects like endocrine disruption and organ system toxicity. Other ingredients to watch out for are Octinoxate and Homosalate – also endocrine disruptors.
- Pigments & Color
Lipsticks and tinted lip balm can be laden with chemicals including heavy metals like lead, cadmium, manganese, and aluminum that are used for pigment. There is no safe level for lead in our bloodstream, and we ingest and absorb the products we use on our lips, so it’s important to use products that do not contain poisonous materials.
- Petrolatum
Petrolatum (look for petroleum jelly, mineral oil) is made from petroleum (yup, like what your car runs on!) and some of the compounds used to refine it are linked to serious health problems like breast cancer. - Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)
BHA and BHT are preservatives used to increase the shelf life of products. They’re linked to endocrine disruption, organ-system toxicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity, cancer, and respiratory irritation.
Natural Lip Balm Quick Picks
To get you started, here are a few products we think are worth checking out for safer, natural lip balms this winter.
- A Natural Lip Balm With Sun Protection: Badger Clear Zinc Lip Balm SPF 15
- A Tinted, Natural Lip Balm We Like (with Sun Protection, too!): Suntegrity Skincare Lip C.P.R.
- A Fragrance-Free, Natural Lip Balm We Like: Babyganics Lip & Face Balm, Fragrance Free
- A Vegan, Natural Lip Balm: Biossance Rose Vegan Lip Balm
- A Natural Lip Balm For Sensitive Skin: isoi Sensitive Skin Moisture Lip Balm
Learn More
Get educated on the ingredients that manufacturers are using in lip care products, so you can make the safest choices for natural lip balm for your family. To help you get started, check out the EWG’s Skin Deep results for lip balm. Once you get into the habit of learning more about your products, you’ll find it’s easier to make the same changes in all areas of your life. Our passion is helping families avoid hazardous chemicals at home, which is why we created our fragrance-free, toxin-free cleaning system Force of Nature. We’ve harnessed the power of simple, household ingredients to create a powerful, EPA-registered disinfectant that is gentle enough to use around your family – even on a pacifier or highchair.
