Silica in lip balms...

[ric0chet06]

After using the official Chap Stick for years, i was tired of paying around $2 per tube. I bought bulk Chap-X, around 1/4 the price. I'm wondering, i heard from family that some generic chap stics had silica that kind of did the same thing as chew (that mouth tobacco stuff) that cuts your lips and makes you want more. Anybody heard anything like this? My lips have been really chapped the past 4 days, it could either be the chap stick or the rediculous wind we've been having lately. Ideas?

 

[villageidiot111]

It doesn't cut your lips, but by providing moisture to your lips it makes them lazy and they stop producing as much moisture, so when you stop using the chap stick your lips dry out. In this way chap stick is somewhat addicting.

Pure vaseline will do everything that chap stick does without as much addiction.

 

[Canai]

http://merryhempsters.com/Merc...tegory_Code=BALM-VEGAN

Best lip balm I've ever used

 

[moshquerade]

all i know is my doc said chapstick actually dries your lips out.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: ric0chet06
After using the official Chap Stick for years, i was tired of paying around $2 per tube. I bought bulk Chap-X, around 1/4 the price. I'm wondering, i heard from family that some generic chap stics had silica that kind of did the same thing as chew (that mouth tobacco stuff) that cuts your lips and makes you want more.

The bolded parts are all you need to know. You are already addicted. Switching brands are probably not going to affect your addiction much.

Chap Stick and just about anything other lip balm causes your lips to stop producing their own moisture. Thus, you feel like you need to apply lip balm. Thus, your lips never produce their own moisture. Thus, you need to put on more lip balm. It is a viscious cycle that won't end as long as you regularly use any brand or any form of the stuff. Chap Stick, vaseline, and other lip balms are to be used rarely, only on the very worst of days. A stick should last many years (until it expires, not until you use it up).

Cold turkey is probably the only way to go.

 

[Chunkee]

Originally posted by: villageidiot111
It doesn't cut your lips, but by providing moisture to your lips it makes them lazy and they stop producing as much moisture, so when you stop using the chap stick your lips dry out. In this way chap stick is somewhat addicting.

Pure vaseline will do everything that chap stick does without as much addiction.

Quoted from a ChapStick addict. Have you completed the ChapStick 12 step lipbalm reliance program?

 

[Jeraden]

Kind of off topic, but is the same true for lotions/moisturizers? A lot of women here at work are always complaining how dry their skin is, so they are constantly using lotion. I've never really felt I had a dry skin problem, and never used lotion. Always wondered if they aren't causing the dry skin problem in the first place by using lotion too frequently.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
all i know is my doc said chapstick actually dries your lips out.

That's interesting. I'd love to see a study - not because I doubt you or your doctor. I believe you. It's just that I like to mock people for idiotic things and that'd be one more thing in the repertoire.

edit: used scholar.google and found a few things. The key to them being bad and addictive is the salicylic acid.

 

[RaistlinZ]

"Who told you to put the balm on? I didn't tell you to put the balm on. Why'd you put the balm on? You haven't even been to see the doctor. If your gonna put a balm on, let a doctor put a balm on...

Do you know what a balm is? Have you ever seen a balm? Didn't you read the instructions? No one can tell what a balm's gonna do. They're unpredictable. Where the hell did you get that damn balm anyway?"

 

[Aluvus]

It sounds like you have heard a variant on an old rumor. I will admit that "silica" sounds more science-y than "ground glass".

If your lip balm is causing your lips to dry out, then silica is not the reason.