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Ask HN: Best Solution for Chapped Lips?
Winter is approaching and I am reaching for lip balm once again. My problem is that most lip balms only help if you put them on continuously and I feel sometimes they even make things worse. Best I have tried so far was O’Keeffe’s unscented Lip Repair and Lanolin/Wool wax. Are there any other approaches? Supplements? Diet changes? Other products?
Cheers
- samarthr1 3y agoApply some ghee (clarified butter), drink water.
- mindctrl-org 3y agoApply coconut oil to your lips and drink plenty of water.
- Imanari 3y agoPure coconut oil is one of the things that actually make my lips more flaky. I feel it might help in hot and dry climates but not so much in cold climates.
- linsomniac 3y agoI have a lot of lip chapping problems, partly because it's quite dry in Northern Colorado, but I seem to have worse problems than those around me as well. What I've found best, after trying quite a few options, is: It's hard to beat making your own. For ~$20 you can get "lip balm container tray" (you want the tray, you need to overfill the tubes because they shrink when they cool). For around another $20-40 (but that'll make ~200-400 tubes) you can get bees wax, cocoa/shea butter, and coconut oil. Optionally add some lanolin and essential oils. Try a half cup bees wax, half cup cocoa butter, and a cup of coconut oil. I just heat this mixture in the microwave, heat for 30 seconds, stir, heat again, until it's liquid. Really easy, affordable over the long term, great to give out to friends and family with chapped lips, and it's been more effective than anything else I've used. You may want to make your mix, let it cool and try it for thickness. If it's too hard, add some coconut oil or shea butter, if it's too thin add some bees wax. Do this before your final fill of the tubes to get the exact composition you like.
- Imanari 3y agoVery interesting, thank you!
- brian_c 3y agoAquaphor's the best thing I've found so far. Just takes a tiny bit, so whatever's left over on my fingertip gets rubbed into my knuckles which are probably also chapped.
- Imanari 3y agoThe added vitamins are interesting, I’ll give it a go, thanks!
- matthewtse 3y agoI've been using unscented "Dr. Bronner's - Organic Lip Balm" for years. I have cripplingly sensitive skin, and this was the only brand that doesn't irritate it (love their bar soap too). I have basically bought a stick for every jacket I own, so I can reliably whip it out and apply whenever my lips feel chapped.
- Imanari 3y agoSeems to have very similar ingredients to the DIY solution from another poster. Essentially bees wax and some kind of oil and/or butter. I’ll give it a try, thanks!