best oil for lip balm for severely chapped lips

[jadelilly]

HI Everyone! I've been reading all the incredible info you all have posted on this forum for months...it's been an incredible resource...thank you!!!

My son has severely, severely chapped lips right now. I made him a lip balm with coconut oil, beeswax, honey, vit e. Those have helped a LOT since this happened but it's so bad I feel we need something more. He even has a "mustache" of red/purple irritated skin above his lip all the way across. Poor baby!

So my question for you all... is there an oil that might be more beneficial for him right now? I just bought cocoa, mango and apricot kernel. I have olive, grapeseed, vegetable, canola, shea and coconut. The organic ones I have are coconut and cocoa (not sure if that matters)

Also, how much vitamin e do you use? Not looking for secrets or recipes, just don't know if I maybe didn't put enough and I don't want to put too much either! I used a teaspoon and make 6 lip balm tubes full.

Thank you so much!!!!

 

[Lindy]

Lanolin

 

[lenarenee]

Aw, I feel for your son. We have a six year old girl....who HATES anything on her skin, so treating her chapped lips is a battle (luckily, they are not nearly as severe as what your son has)

We use often use plain organic shea, on hers and mine...on and around the lips. That works very well for us.

In our experience, the coconut oil doesn't stay on the skin as long as the shea. For me personally, coconut oil isn't helpful at all, and beeswax totally dries and tightens my skin.

When I made a tin of my own lip balm, I replaced beeswax with kokum, which is a very hard butter. It wasn't a true lip balm recipe...just shea, vitamin e, jojoba and kokum whipped into a body butter consistency and
that worked wonders! Each or the ingredients brought a unique benefit to the balm, which is why I chose that combination.

Good luck in finding what works for your son!

Please know that I am not an expert at this at all! I've simply done some experimenting out of necessity - finding that many store bought balms didn't work well, especially for the little one - who wouldn't tolerate a heavy waxy balm on her mouth...no matter how good it smelled! I learned
what oil/butters had what kind of skin properties and chose from there.

 

[jadelilly]

Thanks! I'll look into getting lanolin...something I need to order online or locally available?

Lenarenee, I wonder if I can do the same but use cocoa instead of kokum (I don't have that one) and apricot kernel for jajoba (again don't have...want badly but don't have yet!)

I'll put the shea alone on him after school today. I feel so bad for him...it looks terrible and hurts so much, when he smiles, when he eats, all the time! It's never been like this, no idea what was different that caused such a bad case. Probably his constant licking of his lips!

Fingers crossed we can fix this! Thank you for your help!

 

[shunt2011]

I second lanolin. I generally use avocado, coconut, lanolin, beeswax, vitamin E.

 

[jadelilly]

are there any other alternatives to lanolin? We are vegetarian and after looking up lanolin, I see it's not something we would use. Thank you!!!

 

[pamielynn]

I would rub vaseline on it. Yep vaseline. This is one of those times that it's protective qualities really has it's place. Once it heals, I'd go back to natural lip balm, but if it's really that bad, I'd cover in that nasty ol' vaseline.

 

[lenarenee]

Yes to the cocoa butter....it's not as hard as kokum but very close. I'd be tempted to apply the shea first, wait a couple minutes, then coat with cocoa butter since he licks his lips so much.....the idea here is that the cocoa butter will help keep the shea on his skin instead of so easily licked off.

The theories here are: I've not only read, but heard first hand accounts of people who experience shea as being very healing for the skin.

Some people swear by Vaseline. I always heard it's quite drying, and that it can be absorbed into the body....especially is your son licks it off. I have no scientific evidence on that though.

 

[judymoody]

I dunno, I think if I tried to lick Vaseline, I'd stop pretty quickly. Ick. It might just stay in place.

 

[new12soap]

Just an aside about the lanolin, it is an animal product but it is not meat and the animal is not harmed or killed to get it, it is simply a by-product of wool. I noticed in your first post that you use beeswax and honey, both of which are produced by animals and my personal opinion is that lanolin would fall under a similar category. I know that vegans do not use any animal products whatsoever, and of course what you choose to use or not to use is completely up to you. But I just wanted to put it out there that the lanolin is extracted from the wool after the sheep are shorn, that's it.

 

[savonierre]

straight castor might work.

 

[tinytreats]

I use this recipe and I LOVE IT! It's from soap queen tv. My sister is in love with it as well, and it has healed her cracked lips. Now, her lips a were nowhere near as bad as your son's may be. But it's a real nice formula and if it doesn't help heal his lips, you can use it for yourself. I suggest you try it out.

2.5 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
1/2 oz. Shea Butter
1 oz. Beeswax
1/2 oz. Coconut Oil

 

[Lin]

I was going to ask if he licked his lips a lot, and then I read you mentioning he does. Does he have cracks in the corners of his mouth in addition to the sore red skin above his lip? If so (and even if he doesn't) its possible he has some fungal infection going on and covering it up with lip balms and sealing in moisture will actually make it worse. I've struggled with issues due to licking, biting/chewing, and picking/peeling my lips all my life. I apply lip balm obsessively which helps me do less of the forementioned. I will get red sore skin above/below my lips and in the corners of my mouth with cracking that I used to slather even more lip balm on in attempt to heal it... But it made it worse. It was actually fungal infection (the cracked corners are called angular cheilitis.) Now whenever I get redness and chapped skin outside of the boundaries of my lips, I apply a fungal cream. Just cheap ones that are used for athletes foot, yeast infections, ringworm etc. Clears it up very quickly.

So just throwing out that possibility if you're slathering emollients on the skin above his lip and its not getting any better, or still getting worse.

 

[lenarenee]

I dunno, I think if I tried to lick Vaseline, I'd stop pretty quickly. Ick. It might just stay in place.

Sure. You would think so, right? But I've been in childcare for almost 20 years and have found kids will lick/eat the strangest things. (even the teenagers):roll:

Lin brought up a good point about fungal infections. If you suspect that, might be time to see a doctor (wondering if it can spread to the mouth), and fungal infections usually have to be treated consistently for several weeks as the symptoms can disappear, but still be an active infection

I've seen kids with lips so chapped there were huge flakes - dime sized - of dead skin hanging off their lips and they can't close their mouths. Way past time to have sought medical help.

Poor boy. Keep us up to date, let us know how he's doing. I really hope he gets relief soon!

 

[jadelilly]

Thank you everyone for you input!!! so helpful!!
Yes he does lick his lips (says they feel like they need it, trying to get him to get into a habit of using lip balm everytime he feels the urge to lick them)

He's doing a lot better on the reddness above his lip...I actually put vco (the one that costco sells) on it yesterday morning before school. By the time he came home, it was sooo much better! I put it on again and this morning, again...much improved. He's asking for it now! He says it doesn't hurt so much anymore. the lips are really dry and rough still so hoping that the natural balms will do the trick. Does VCO have some special properties that help with fungal or bacteria or something like that (I think I remember reading that?)
I made one for him yesterday with a little of everything...shea, coconut, cocoa, mango, and beeswax. He doesn't like the cocoa smell (can't believe that! I can't stop sniffing it! LOVE!) so he tool the original one and this new one to school. We'll see how it looks when he comes home.

about the lanolin, the thing about it is that if it were harvested by shearing the sheep, it would be fine but it is mass harvested at the slaughter house in most cases, as a by product unfortunately. So, though I don't think it's a product we would be super careful to stay away from, it's probably not one I would go purchase and use deliberately. It's such a fine line to walk and I'm learning more about ingredients all the time.

I'm looking into getting the vegan alternatives for beeswax too, just to keep it as animal product free as possible. Just learning about them and which one(s) I should get.

There are so many amazing ingredients and I'm learning a LOT about the properties of each one, what they help with, what they do....it's a lot of info and my brain is on overload but wants more more more info!!!
You guys are so helpful....I sincerely appreciate your help and hope you don't mind me picking your brains with my questions (there will be more)!!!

 

[dixiedragon]

I love this recipe:
https://www.thesage.com/recipes/recipes.php?.State=Display&id=200

I ran out of avocado and replaced it with jojoba, and I definitely liked the avocado much better!

I know you want to make something, but have you tried Neosporin?

 

[Miz Jenny]

Thank you everyone for you input!!! so helpful!!
Yes he does lick his lips (says they feel like they need it, trying to get him to get into a habit of using lip balm everytime he feels the urge to lick them)

He's doing a lot better on the reddness above his lip...I actually put vco (the one that costco sells) on it yesterday morning before school. By the time he came home, it was sooo much better! I put it on again and this morning, again...much improved. He's asking for it now! He says it doesn't hurt so much anymore. the lips are really dry and rough still so hoping that the natural balms will do the trick. Does VCO have some special properties that help with fungal or bacteria or something like that (I think I remember reading that?)
I made one for him yesterday with a little of everything...shea, coconut, cocoa, mango, and beeswax. He doesn't like the cocoa smell (can't believe that! I can't stop sniffing it! LOVE!) so he tool the original one and this new one to school. We'll see how it looks when he comes home.

about the lanolin, the thing about it is that if it were harvested by shearing the sheep, it would be fine but it is mass harvested at the slaughter house in most cases, as a by product unfortunately. So, though I don't think it's a product we would be super careful to stay away from, it's probably not one I would go purchase and use deliberately. It's such a fine line to walk and I'm learning more about ingredients all the time.

I'm looking into getting the vegan alternatives for beeswax too, just to keep it as animal product free as possible. Just learning about them and which one(s) I should get.

There are so many amazing ingredients and I'm learning a LOT about the properties of each one, what they help with, what they do....it's a lot of info and my brain is on overload but wants more more more info!!!
You guys are so helpful....I sincerely appreciate your help and hope you don't mind me picking your brains with my questions (there will be more)!!!

I use candilla wax for vegan customers but it doesn't have the healing benefits of beeswax. See if you can locate an ecological beekeeper in your area. This is not mass produced bee product and bees are not harmed or worked to death to harvest their beeswax and honey. Try putting a schmear of honey on his lips and around his mouth. It has wonderful healing properties and attracts moisture from the air.