Lip balm
Vaseline Lip Therapy Original
Petroleum jelly and a yellow color, nothing else. No fragrance, flavor, menthol, camphor, or lanolin. Petrolatum is the first ingredient dermatologists recommend for chapped lips.
Worth knowing
- Make sure it says Original. The Rosy, Cocoa Butter, and other versions add fragrance or flavor.
- No sun protection. Use an SPF balm outdoors.
Ingredients
Petrolatum, Yellow 5 Lake.
What we ruled out
'Medicated' balms with camphor, menthol, or phenol. They tingle but can dry and irritate lips, so you keep reapplying. The AAD and Cleveland Clinic dermatologists both say to avoid them.
Scented and flavored balms. Fragrance mix and balsam of Peru, a fragrance ingredient, were the most common relevant allergens in North American patients with lip dermatitis.
Carmex Classic Lip Balm. Petrolatum base, but adds camphor, menthol, phenol, salicylic acid, lanolin, and flavor: most of the AAD's list of lip ingredients to avoid.
ChapStick Classic Original. Contains camphor, fragrance, and lanolin.
Also good
Plain petroleum jelly from a tub. The same thing as the default, cheaper per ounce, and usable on hands and dry patches too. Less handy to carry.
Sources
- How to heal dry, chapped lips, American Academy of Dermatology
- Signs your lip balm use is just a bad habit, Cleveland Clinic (2023)
- Patch testing North American lip dermatitis patients: data from the North American Contact Dermatitis Group, 2001 to 2004, Dermatitis 19(4):202-8 (2008)
- Carmex Classic Lip Balm, Original Jar, Carma Laboratories
- ChapStick Classic Original Lip Balm, ChapStick