Chapped lips are a sign of an unhealthy skin barrier. To repair the damage, dermatologists stress the importance of finding lip balms with humectants, occlusives and emollients.
No one is immune to chapped lips, even those who have oily skin. To prevent and treat chapped lips this winter, experts stress the importance of finding a lip product that works well for you. Below, we gathered dermatologists’ tips to consider when you shop.
To heal damaged lips, experts recommend looking for formulas that have the following types of moisturizers:
Occlusives: Moisturizing ingredients and waxes that form a physical barrier on the skin are the most important ingredients in preventing water loss from the skin in winter. The most common occlusives found in lip treatments are petrolatum (petroleum jelly), coconut oil and beeswax.
Emollients: Ingredients such as ceramides or squalane help strengthen the skin barrier, repairing damage. “Think of ceramides like the building block of your skin barrier,” says Mian. “Using a product with ceramides in it is going to help your skin to heal and going to help it to become nice and strong so that it’s less prone to moisture loss,” she says.
Humectants: Ingredients such as hyaluronic acid or aloe vera help to draw moisture into the skin by binding with water molecules.
To treat chapped lips, you’ll want to look for products with emollients and/or occlusives, says King. “Humectant ingredients need to be combined with emollients and occlusives to be effective,” she says. Without these key components, any water pulled into the skin by humectants can evaporate, leaving lips even dryer.
As a general rule of thumb, simpler is better. Paradoxically, many popular lip balms and chapsticks have ingredients that irritate lips and cause further dryness. “There’s a lot of products on the market and some of them can be very irritating,” says Castilla.
Added ingredients can increase the risk of putting your lips in contact with something that might be irritating to already damaged skin. Castilla says cooling ingredients like camphor and menthol (a type of alcohol) as ones to watch out for. “They give a nice cooling sensation but they can end up leading to more dry, irritated skin,” she says. If you have sensitive skin and/or skin conditions like eczema, Castilla recommends avoiding fragrances and certain irritating flavorings like cinnamon and peppermint, which are all more likely to cause allergic reactions.
Finding a nonirritating balm may require a little trial and error. “Some people might be totally fine using Burt’s Bees, which has menthol in it, but for other people, that product might cause more irritation,” says Mian. If you’ve been using a balm for several days and see no improvement (or worsening dryness), consider switching to something gentler.
For any product to be effective, you have to actually want to use it regularly. There’s room for personal preference in choosing the best lip treatment. Mian, for example, tends to like waxy, stick-based formulas that are easy to reapply throughout the day and don’t require the use of your finger, “which may or may not be dirty,” she says. Castilla, on the other hand, avoids chapsticks since they typically have beeswax, which can be irritating to some people. Appearance may also be important to you — choosing a balm with a matte finish over a glossy formula may make you more likely to reapply.
Frequently asked questions
Lip masks , lip balms and chapsticks can all treat and prevent dry chapped lips. While you can use them interchangeably, there are differences worth noting. Lip masks are typically the heaviest formulas and are generally designed for overnight use, says Mian. “Lip masks tend to have more occlusive ingredients that are going to act like a shield,” she says. Lip balms, which are designed to be reapplied throughout the day, are lighter formulas. Chapsticks tend to have a waxier texture.
It’s important to apply SPF every day, including on your lips. In fact, lips are particularly vulnerable to sun damage. In addition to lip skin being thin, lips have little melanin, which gives skin its pigment and protects it from sun damage, says King. That makes them more prone to UV damage, which can cause signs of aging, skin cancer and actinic cheilitis (a precancerous condition also known as “sailor’s lip” that creates rough, scaly patches on the skin).
“Skin cancers of the lip have a higher risk of becoming invasive compared to most other areas,” says King. She recommends wearing a lip balm with at least SPF 30.
Castilla recommends taking it a step further for optimal protection. “It's really hard to protect your lips from the sun by just using a lip balm that has sunscreen because we're constantly talking and licking our lips,” she says. “It's better to protect your lips using a wide-brim hat,” she says.
Below, experts list their tips for avoiding dry, chapped lips:
Don’t lick your lips. While it may be a natural impulse when lips feel dry, lip licking will only dry lips out more. “The saliva evaporates quickly and leaves your lips drier than they were before,” says King.
Avoid over-exfoliating. Exfoliating dry skin might also seem like a natural move when you have chapped lips, but dermatologists advise against it. “When you have dry skin, it's an indicator of damaged skin barrier,” says Castilla. It's more important to repair that skin barrier than cause further irritation by exfoliating.
Resist the urge to pick. “The more you pick, you're going to cause fissures and more trauma making it even harder to fix the underlying issue,” says Castilla.
Get a humidifier , which can help increase moisture in the air and prevent further dryness, says Mian.
Reapply every two hours or after eating and drinking.
One hack Mian frequently tells her patients about is lip slugging, which is the process of applying a thick layer of an occlusive moisturizer as a final step in your evening skin care routine to help seal in moisture overnight. Use lip balm with ceramides first and then apply a highly occlusive layer such as Vaseline . “What you're doing is you're using something with ceramides to help heal the lip barrier and then you're applying a protective layer over it to help lock everything in,” says Mian.
At NBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also take steps to ensure all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and without undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.
Dr. Navin Arora is a board-certified dermatologist and clinical assistant professor at the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He is the founder of Borealis Dermatology in New York.
Dr. Carmen Castilla is a board-certified dermatologist at the New York Dermatology Group in Manhattan specializing in both medical and cosmetic dermatology.
Dr. Hadley King is a board-certified dermatologist at her own private practice in New York City. Her areas of expertise include medical and cosmetic dermatology.
Dr. Kiran Mian is a board-certified dermatologist at Hudson Dermatology and Laser Surgery in New York City. She specializes in holistic treatments to target issues relating to hair, skin and nails.
Macaela MacKenzie is a journalist and former Glamour editor who has covered beauty and wellness treatments for over a decade. Mili Godio is an updates editor at NBC Select who has written about beauty and skin care for four years. For this article, MacKenzie and Godiospoke to dermatologists about the causes of chapped lips, behavior changes that can help prevent them and the best products for remedying dryness.
