The official medical phrase for “chapped lips” is cheilitis, pronounced ky-light-iss. As a medical physician who a) lives within the mountains of Colorado the place the humidity is underneath 50% more often than not, and b) has suffered with a number of depressing sorts of cheilitis herself, I’m positively an skilled on the subject.
Fast Reply: Why Your Lips Are All the time Chapped
The most typical causes lips keep chapped are irritation, water loss, lip licking, toothpaste elements, skincare merchandise migrating onto the lips, solar publicity, dry air, meals triggers, and lip merchandise that include elements your pores and skin doesn’t tolerate. The quickest approach to assist chronically chapped lips is normally to simplify: cease flavored, minty, plumping, and exfoliating lip merchandise; swap to a light SLS-free toothpaste; defend damp lips with a bland barrier balm formulated for delicate lips, like our Lip Physician; and see a dermatologist if signs persist.
|
Doable trigger |
What you may discover |
What to attempt |
|
Toothpaste irritation |
Dryness, peeling, burning across the lip border |
Strive SLS-free, mild-flavored toothpaste with out cinnamon or mint |
|
Lip licking |
Pink, tough, flaky lips or rash across the mouth |
Use bland barrier balm incessantly and break the behavior |
|
Skincare migration |
Irritation close to corners or lip border |
Hold retinoids/acids away from lips |
|
Lip product allergy |
Lips worsen regardless of frequent balm use |
Simplify merchandise and take into account patch testing for particular allergic reactions |
|
Solar publicity |
Burning, scaling, persistent lower-lip roughness |
Use SPF lip safety and see a dermatologist if persistent |
There are a great deal of causes you is perhaps affected by chapped lips, and a few of the specifics might shock you. From merchandise to habits, under you’ll discover are a few of the most typical causes individuals have chronically chapped lips. However first, just a little about why lips are extra vulnerable to dryness within the first place.
Your Lips Are Completely different From the Remainder of Your Pores and skin
The pores and skin of your lips is thinner than the pores and skin on the remainder of your face. There may be much less water contained within the thinner stratum corneum (outermost layer of pores and skin) and fewer safety towards water loss. Lips don’t have sebaceous glands or hair follicles, which implies that they aren’t creating their very own sebum, not like a lot of the remainder of your pores and skin. Since sebum is without doubt one of the issues that helps maintain your pores and skin moisturized, lips are beginning out at an anatomical drawback.
That anatomical drawback is why dry air, solar, wind, saliva, toothpaste, meals, and lip merchandise can flip into such an ideal little catastrophe in your mouth. Your cheeks may tolerate a mildly irritating product for months, whereas your lips ship you an offended textual content message after two purposes. That’s not as a result of your lips are being dramatic; it’s as a result of they’re constructed otherwise, and there’s much less margin for error. Chilly climate, dry climate, solar injury, and frequent lip licking are among the many frequent causes dermatologists listing for dry, chapped lips.
Lips even have an enormous variety of nerve endings, which makes them capable of understand sensations extra acutely than most different pores and skin in your physique. In consequence, when your lips get dry, flaky, or infected, you’re in all probability going to note the burning, tingling, tightness, or different discomfort sooner than you’d discover the identical irritation elsewhere. Now let’s dive into a few of the most typical causes of chapped lips, lots of that are hiding in plain sight!
Hidden Trigger #1: Flavored or Minty Lip Balms
In case your lip balm tastes yummy, it’s going to make you extra more likely to lick your lips unconsciously all through the day—as a result of who doesn’t need to lick yummy issues? Sadly, licking your lips won’t solely take away the lip balm you simply utilized, but in addition irritate your lips over time—see the part on lip licking under.
Menthol, a element of mint flavorings and and lots of “medicated” lip balms, is one other frequent offender. The cooling sensation can really feel soothing for just a few seconds, which is why individuals usually mistake it for therapeutic. However tingling shouldn’t be the identical factor as therapeutic, and within the setting of chapped, cracked, or infected lips, elements that create a cooling, warming, plumping, or stinging sensation may very well be preserving the irritation cycle going. Peppermint oil has been reported as a explanation for allergic contact dermatitis of the lips, and dermatology assets generally focus on flavoring brokers as triggers involved cheilitis.
In brief, the factor that makes you need to reapply your lip balm—the flavour, the tingle, the odor, the moment sensory suggestions—could also be a part of the rationale you want to maintain reapplying them. lip balm ought to make your lips really feel protected, snug, and fewer thirsty over time. It doesn’t must announce itself with a full marching band of minty freshness.
Hidden Trigger #2: Toothpaste or Dental Floss
The 2 most typical elements in toothpaste that may very well be inflicting bother are sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate and flavors, like mint or cinnamon. Toothpaste is an particularly prevalent explanation for persistent chapped lips as a result of it touches your lips a minimum of twice a day, daily, and most of us rinse our mouths with out fastidiously washing off any residual toothpaste.
SLS is a detergent and foaming agent, which is exactly why it makes toothpaste really feel satisfyingly bubbly. However artificial detergents like SLS are drying and worsening on already-compromised pores and skin, and the lip border is a quite common place for that irritation to seem. Many pure manufacturers of toothpaste include SLS, so be sure you test your label. Much more stunning? Some dental floss accommodates SLS (why??) so test the elements of your floss as nicely.
Flavorings deserve their very own tiny lecture. Mint, peppermint, spearmint, menthol, cinnamon, cinnamal, and different fragrant compounds can all be an issue for sure individuals, particularly as soon as the lip barrier is already compromised. Whitening toothpastes may additionally be irritating as a result of they’ll include stronger abrasives or peroxide-based elements, and a few pure toothpastes include potent important oils like clove, tea tree, eucalyptus, or cinnamon bark, the place the focus of important oils can differ. Pure doesn’t all the time imply mild, particularly when the pores and skin barrier is already waving a white flag.
Search for an SLS-free toothpaste with gentle flavoring, and take into account avoiding mint and cinnamon flavors utterly whereas your lips are infected. For those who favor fluoride-free toothpaste, select a fluoride-free, SLS-free toothpaste with gentle, pure flavoring. Listed below are just a few of my favourite clear dental merchandise, all of which I exploit commonly with no irritation.
Hidden Trigger #3: Lip Licking + Selecting
Certainly one of my pricey buddies is a licker-picker, and her poor little lips all the time appear like sandpaper. Human saliva accommodates digestive enzymes that may be irritating to lip pores and skin, degrading the delicate barrier layer, or stratum corneum, of the lips. As soon as that barrier is broken, lips lose water extra rapidly and grow to be dry, pink, and flaky, which is when licking usually results in selecting. It’s so laborious to go away a flaky lip alone.
Lip licking is a merciless little loop: your lips really feel dry, so that you lick them; saliva briefly makes them really feel moist, then evaporates; your lips grow to be drier than they have been earlier than; then the flakes arrive, and shortly your fingers begin fiddling together with your face. The extra you lick, chunk, peel, or choose, the much less probability your lips should rebuild the barrier they should maintain moisture.
Lip licking is so frequent, in reality, that there’s a medical prognosis code, L24.A1, known as Lip Licker’s Dermatitis, which is described as “irritant contact dermatitis on account of saliva,” and might contain each the lips and the encircling pores and skin. In youngsters, lip-licking usually resolves itself with time and common utility of protecting lip merchandise like petroleum jelly or unflavored lip balm.
For adults, it takes a little bit of consideration to cease licking and selecting at your lips. Inform your family and friends to remind you in the event that they see you doing it, and take into account wholesome chewing gum to maintain your mouth distracted when you break the behavior. In case you are a nighttime picker, apply a beneficiant layer of bland, therapeutic ointment earlier than mattress (I like our Lip Restore for this), as a result of a protected lip is tougher to seize and fewer more likely to give you these tempting little edges within the first place.
Hidden Trigger #4: Your Skincare Merchandise
Sure skincare elements may be very irritating to your lips, together with retinoids, exfoliating acids, benzoyl peroxide, sturdy vitamin C formulation, pimples remedies, and peels. You might not be placing these merchandise instantly in your lips, however skincare strikes. It migrates when you sleep, spreads once you apply moisturizer, travels underneath sunscreen, and sneaks its approach onto your lips once you wash your face.
Retinoids are particularly well-known for this. Even when utilized accurately, they’ll irritate the delicate pores and skin across the mouth and lips. Benzoyl peroxide may be drying and worsening, and exfoliating acids are, fairly actually, designed to loosen and take away the outermost layer of cells. That may be helpful on facial pores and skin when used fastidiously, however your lips don’t want the identical encouragement.
In case your lips are chronically chapped, take every week or two to deal with them like a no-fly zone. Apply a skinny layer of protecting ointment in your lips earlier than making use of sturdy facial merchandise, apply your lively skincare merchandise with further distance across the mouth, and wash your arms after making use of them. This can be all of your lips must cease by chance taking part in your skincare routine.
Hidden Trigger #5: Perfume and Important Oils
I like fragrant crops. I’ve constructed a complete firm across the cautious, respectful use of crops, and I imagine pure scent can have a ravishing, supportive position in skincare and in our common wellness practices. However chapped lips might not be the precise time or place for perfume—pure or in any other case.
Artificial perfume, usually listed as “perfume” or “parfum” on a label, can include dozens and even tons of of undisclosed chemical substances, I don’t advocate utilizing artificial perfume on chapped or distressed lips—you haven’t any approach of realizing what elements you’re exposing your lips to, and lots of of them are confirmed allergens and irritants. (Really, I don’t advocate artificial perfume in any respect.)
Important oils additionally include chemically lively substances, and lips may be particularly delicate to them. In our Lip Restore, we use a really low focus of two important oils: myrrh CO2 extract, chosen for its lengthy historical past of use on cracked pores and skin, and bergapten-free bergamot, for its antifungal properties. In our Lip Physician, we don’t use any important oils. As a substitute, we infuse olive oil with natural lavender to extract a few of the helpful compounds of lavender in a much less concentrated approach.
That mentioned, even important oils which might be nicely tolerated on wholesome pores and skin may be an excessive amount of for lips which might be cracked, peeling, or offended. That doesn’t imply important oils have to be prevented in any respect prices, and it definitely doesn’t imply I’ve stopped loving them. It means I counsel warning, even with lovely, thoughtfully sourced important oils, when the lip barrier is compromised.
Hidden Trigger #6: Lip Scrubs and Over-Exfoliation
When your lips get dry and flaky, the temptation to wash away the flakes is virtually irresistible. Sadly, because you’re already coping with a compromised barrier, scrubbing away what little barrier you do have is unlikely to assist, a minimum of till your lips are appearing like themselves once more. For most individuals, exfoliating the lips with greater than the swipe of a delicate konjac sponge merely isn’t crucial.
I do know the web loves a lip scrub, however most chapped lips are usually not affected by a sugar deficiency. They’re affected by irritation, water loss, irritation, and barrier disruption. Scrubbing might make them really feel smoother for an hour, however it might additionally expose newer, extra weak pores and skin earlier than it is able to be uncovered—over-exfoliation is an actual factor, and your lips won’t thanks for it.
Hidden Trigger #7: Mouth Respiratory and Dry Air
You won’t consider your self as a mouth breather, however you could be respiratory by means of your mouth greater than you understand, particularly whereas sleeping, exercising, or when you’ve got a stuffy nostril. Each time air passes over the lips, it will increase evaporation, and if that air is chilly, dry, or shifting rapidly, the impact is even stronger.
For those who dwell in a spot like I do, excessive within the sky and near the solar, you might be respiratory dry air all day lengthy. For those who’re an outside athlete like I’m, you’re respiratory that dry air laborious and quick, a number of occasions every week once you hike or bike or run. For those who dwell someplace humid however use indoor warmth within the winter, you’re respiratory dry air inside your personal residence.
That is one motive persistent chapped lips can flare in winter even for people who find themselves cautious with their lip merchandise. Pressured-air warmth, wooden stoves, lengthy sizzling showers, wind, altitude, and outside train all trigger dry lips. Humidifiers assist, particularly within the bed room, and so can making use of a protecting lip product earlier than outside exercise, earlier than mattress, and earlier than you get on an airplane. Your lips don’t want an elaborate nighttime routine, however they do recognize just a little advance discover earlier than extended or elevated publicity to dry air.
Hidden Trigger #8: Solar Publicity
Your lips are uncovered to UV mild identical to the remainder of your face, and the decrease lip is particularly weak due to its angle towards the solar. Solar publicity can dry the lips, burn them, worsen peeling, and contribute to longer-term modifications like actinic cheilitis, which is a precancerous situation attributable to persistent solar injury.
The tough half is that some SPF lip merchandise include flavors, perfume, chemical sunscreen filters, or different elements that will trouble delicate lips. In case your lips are infected, search for a bland, broad-spectrum, zinc-based SPF lip product through the day, and use a hat or shade when doable. And everytime you apply your facial sunscreen, apply it to your lips, as nicely.
Hidden Trigger #9: Meals Allergic reactions and Irritating Meals
Meals can irritate the lips in just a few other ways. Cinnamon is without doubt one of the traditional lip irritants, and it exhibits up in toothpaste, gum, sweet, tea, lip merchandise, and baked items. Spicy meals can be tough on chapped lips as a result of the capsaicin in peppers creates warmth and irritation, which is why it’s generally utilized in lip-plumping merchandise. Acidic meals like citrus, tomatoes, vinegar, and pineapple might sting or worsen irritation when lips are cracked (although that doesn’t essentially imply you might be allergic to them).
Mango pores and skin deserves a particular point out right here. Mango belongs to the identical plant household as poison ivy and poison oak, and compounds discovered largely within the peel can set off reactions in people who find themselves sensitized to urushiol or associated compounds. This doesn’t imply everybody must worry mangoes—that will be a tragic solution to dwell. However it does imply that it’s value washing your mangoes with cleaning soap and water earlier than dealing with and consuming them.
If meals appears to be triggering your lips, maintain the experiment easy. Keep away from the suspected meals or flavoring for a few weeks, defend your lips with a bland barrier earlier than meals, and rinse across the mouth gently after consuming.
Hidden Trigger #10: The Lip Merchandise You’re Already Utilizing
This one may be very private for me, as I needed to be taught the laborious approach that my absolute favourite lip product—our lovely, award-winning Lip Restore—contained an ingredient that I had grow to be allergic to, though I’d been utilizing it fortunately for ages. Castor oil is a ravishing ingredient that offers lip merchandise a cushiony, shiny, stay-put feeling, and it is without doubt one of the causes so many lip remedies really feel satisfying on utility. However ricinoleic acid, a compound discovered solely in castor oil, has been recognized in a number of giant case sequence as a standard explanation for allergic cheilitis on account of lip cosmetics and balms, and I’m one of many unfortunate few who developed an allergy to it.
Once more, this doesn’t imply castor oil is unhealthy. It implies that in case your lips are chronically infected and you’ve got tried all the things, it’s best to take into account eliminating castor oil for some time.
Lanolin is one other allergen that may trigger bother for individuals, although the incidence of lanolin allergy within the common inhabitants is sort of low (lower than one %). For those who’re allergic to wool or have struggled with dermatitis or eczema, the incidence of lanolin allergy goes as much as 2-5%. Lanolin may be extremely useful for dry, cracked pores and skin, but may causes reactions in a small subset of individuals, particularly when the barrier is compromised.
Beeswax can be a difficulty for a small variety of individuals, although true beeswax reactions seem unusual general. When reactions occur, they might contain residual propolis or different bee-derived compounds quite than the wax itself. I nonetheless love natural beeswax as a protecting lip ingredient for many individuals, however I additionally suppose it’s value remembering that “pure” doesn’t essentially translate to “nicely tolerated by completely everybody.”
Lastly, any probability you’re you utilizing a “lip plumping” product? If that’s the case, your lips won’t be completely satisfied about it. Some lip plumpers work by growing circulation to the lips with elements like capsaicin, cinnamon, and mint, all of which may additionally act as irritants. For those who’re coping with chapped lips, perhaps skip the lip plumpers for now.
Transient aspect observe: a product can work fantastically for you for years after which immediately begin inflicting bother. Allergic contact dermatitis can develop after repeated publicity, and the lips are a standard web site for reactions to lip merchandise as a result of we apply these merchandise incessantly and depart them in place for hours.
What Really Helps Chapped Lips Heal
The mission is two-fold: 1) present moisture and/or non-irritating therapeutic elements to your lips, and a pair of) maintain them from dropping water. When your lips are extraordinarily dry and irritated, I generally advocate just a few days of utilizing solely pure, white petroleum jelly on damp lips to provide them an opportunity to reset and heal with out having to navigate any new elements. As soon as issues have began to cool down, you’ll be able to fastidiously add in some therapeutic elements like honey, tamanu oil, and cupuaçu butter, in addition to easy elements to extend barrier perform like beeswax and candelilla wax, which assist your lips maintain onto their moisture.
I do know petroleum jelly shouldn’t be glamorous, however when lips are in disaster, glamour shouldn’t be the project. The project is decreasing water loss, decreasing irritation, and giving the lip barrier just a few quiet days with out perfume, taste, or frustration of any type. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends non-irritating lip balm, and pure white petroleum jelly suits the invoice. I favor petroleum jelly to different merchandise like Aquaphor (which accommodates lanolin) when lips are acutely infected, as a result of it accommodates just one ingredient.
A easy therapeutic routine for severely chapped lips may appear like this: rinse your lips with water after brushing your enamel, pat them so they’re nonetheless barely damp, apply skinny layer of petroleum jelly, and repeat earlier than mattress. Throughout the day, use petroleum jelly with a clear finger as wanted.
Sadly, petroleum jelly doesn’t have superb endurance, so as soon as the offended part has handed, you’ll be able to select a extra nourishing product based mostly on what your lips tolerate. Some individuals do fantastically with lanolin, beeswax, honey, tamanu, and castor oil. Others must keep away from castor oil or lanolin. Some individuals love a richer butter-based system, whereas others favor a waxier, much less shiny balm. Lip care is much less about discovering the universally good ingredient and extra about discovering the precise mixture on your lips, of their present state, underneath your present circumstances.
Osmia Lip Merchandise for Chapped Lips
After I initially formulated Lip Restore—earlier than I developed an allergy to castor oil—I couldn’t WAIT to slather this thick, therapeutic balm on my lips each night time earlier than mattress. I had included a few of my favourite elements for distressed lips: manuka honey, for its distinctive antimicrobial and anti inflammatory properties; myrrh extract, which has been used for hundreds of years on cracked pores and skin; cupuaçu butter, which helps lips maintain water; and beeswax and lanolin to assist the balm keep in place, particularly when used as an in a single day lip masks.
As soon as I developed an allergy to ricinoleic acid, I needed to abandon my beloved Lip Restore. After trying to find a castor-oil-free lip balm, I spotted I’d should take issues into my very own arms, as a result of virtually each lip product available on the market accommodates castor oil. After I formulated Lip Physician, I needed it to be easy, soothing, and have absolutely the good texture—not too heavy, tremendous clean, and simply sufficient endurance with out being sticky. It accommodates no castor oil or important oils, making it an important alternative for very delicate lips, particularly for individuals who know or suspect that castor oil could also be a difficulty.
Be aware: For those who suppose you might be allergic to beeswax or propolis, keep in mind that each Lip Restore and Lip Physician include beeswax, and Lip Restore additionally accommodates honey.
When Chapped Lips Would possibly Be One thing Extra
Most chapped lips are attributable to some mixture of dry air, licking, irritation, solar, merchandise, and a broken barrier. However persistent cheilitis can generally level to one thing else, and that is the place it’s value paying consideration.
Chapped lips that don’t enhance after just a few weeks of easy, constant care might point out any of the next:
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allergic contact dermatitis
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angular cheilitis
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yeast or bacterial an infection
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herpes simplex
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actinic cheilitis from solar injury
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Anemia
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vitamin B-12 deficiency
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autoimmune circumstances like Sjögren’s syndrome
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Remedy unintended effects from drugs resembling isotretinoin, chemotherapy medicine, diuretics, or different drying prescriptions.
Please see a dermatologist, dentist, or physician you probably have cracking on the corners of your mouth that won’t heal, vital swelling, blisters, bleeding, crusting, white patches contained in the mouth, one persistent scaly space on the decrease lip, extreme ache, or lips that maintain flaring regardless of eradicating apparent irritants. It’s possible you’ll want remedy for an infection, patch testing for allergic contact dermatitis, analysis for a dietary deficiency, or a more in-depth have a look at sun-related modifications.
I’ve an extended submit about lip cheilitis and dermatitis (linked on the prime of this text), and that’s the one to learn in case your lips appear greater than merely dry.
The Backside Line
In case your lips are all the time chapped, the reply shouldn’t be essentially extra lip balm. It might be a distinct lip balm, fewer merchandise, a toothpaste change, a break from mint and cinnamon, a pause on lip scrubs and plumpers, extra safety from dry air and solar, or just a few quiet days with damp lips and plain ointment.
Lips are small, however they aren’t easy. They’re thin-skinned, nerve-rich, oil-poor, extremely uncovered, and requested to tolerate meals, climate, toothpaste, skincare, sunscreen, lip merchandise, speaking, kissing, licking, sipping, snacking, respiratory, and no matter else we put them by means of earlier than midday. After they get irritated, they want safety, endurance, and fewer alternatives to be aggravated.
With love and more healthy, happier lips,
The knowledge contained on this submit is for academic curiosity solely. This data shouldn’t be meant for use for prognosis or remedy of any bodily or psychological sickness, illness, or pores and skin circumstances.
References and Additional Studying
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Tamura E, Ishikawa J, Naoe A, Yamamoto T. The roughness of lip pores and skin is expounded to the ceramide profile within the stratum corneum. Worldwide Journal of Beauty Science. 2016;38(6):615–621. doi: 10.1111/ics.12335. PMID: 27090066.
Fonseca A, Jacob SE, Sindle A. Artwork of prevention: Sensible interventions in lip-licking dermatitis. Worldwide Journal of Ladies’s Dermatology. 2020;6(5):377–380. doi: 10.1016/j.ijwd.2020.06.001. PMID: 33898702; PMCID: PMC8060673.
Lugović-Mihić L, Pilipović Ok, Crnarić I, Šitum M, Duvančić T. Differential prognosis of cheilitis: the way to classify cheilitis? Acta Clinica Croatica. 2018;57(2):342–351. doi: 10.20471/acc.2018.57.02.16. PMID: 30431729; PMCID: PMC6531998.
Tran A, Pratt M, DeKoven J. Acute allergic contact dermatitis of the lips from peppermint oil in a lip balm. Dermatitis. 2010;21(2):111–115. PMID: 20233551.
American Academy of Dermatology Affiliation. 7 dermatologists’ suggestions for therapeutic dry, chapped lips.
Dyall-Smith D, Ting S. Contact reactions to toothpaste and different oral hygiene merchandise. DermNet. Final reviewed July 2024.
Enweasor C, Deane S. Lip licker’s dermatitis. DermNet. January 2020.
DermNet. Contact reactions to lipsticks and different lipcare merchandise.
Dyall-Smith D. Allergic contact cheilitis. DermNet. 2010.
Uldahl A, Engfeldt M, Svedman C. Medical relevance of constructive patch take a look at reactions to lanolin: a ROAT examine. Contact Dermatitis. 2021;84(1):41–49. doi: 10.1111/cod.13689. PMID: 32844454; PMCID: PMC7756495.
De Groot AC, Ipenburg NA, Rustemeyer T. Propolis and beeswax in cosmetics: a market survey and literature assessment on their relationship and position in allergic contact dermatitis. Contact Dermatitis. 2026;94(5):494–503. doi: 10.1111/cod.70108. PMID: 41663074; PMCID: PMC13070719.
Yoo MJ, Carius BM. Mango dermatitis after urushiol sensitization. Medical Apply and Instances in Emergency Drugs. 2019;3(4):361–363. doi: 10.5811/cpcem.2019.6.43196. PMID: 31763588; PMCID: PMC6861053.
