Lip Eczema and Lip Balms

It's not easy having lip eczema - endless lip peeling, highly sensitive lips. Not fun. And the worst thing is, eczema has no cure. Your lips may get better and normalize for a certain period of time, then you will have flare ups every now and then which can range from months to years especially during seasonal transitions.

The key thing about lip eczema treatment and management is to avoid irritants and to ALWAYS keep your lips moisturized using a lip balm - never lick your lips to moisturize it as this actually does the opposite.

Here is a list of several lip balms as remedies that I have tried and my experiences with them. Please note that lip balms may react differently to different people. I am just sharing my experiences with them.

Discalimer: this is not a medical advice. It's best to consult with a dermatologist.

1. Carmex (gel form)  - This is the first one that I have tried. It gives a cool numbing sensation. I found this especially good during my worst flare ups. Carmex felt like a sort of anesthetic to pain due to irritation. Also, it gave relief when my lips were extremely itchy. However, after a while, I felt like it wasn't effective to me anymore. So I switched it with another lip balm
• Get Carmex on Amazon.com
2. Nivea Fruity Lip Balm (Strawberry) - This used to be my staple lip balm before I had lip eczema. It actually did a good job of moisturizing my lips before. However, it didn't give me the kind of treatment that I needed. I guess this okay for ordinary moisturization needs.
3. Nivea Lip Therapy- Like most lip balms, this is petroleum jelly based. Since it said lip therapy, I tried it. However, I saw very minimal improvement in my lips' condition using this lip balm.
4. Human Nature Natural Lip Balm - This was the best lip balm that I have ever used. I still am using this until now. After trying the other lip balms, I thought okay, I'll look for a lip balm with beeswax as advised by my then-bf. One day, my sis made me try her lip balm. I looked at the website of Human Nature and read that their lip balm is made of beeswax instead of petrolatum. Luckily, I realized that their shop is just a walking distance away from work. My lips have improved greatly. It has rather normalized for as long as I regularly apply the lip balm.
5. Watsons menthol lip balm - I bought this lip balm at the mall because I ran out of lip balm and the Human Nature shop was already closed when I dropped by after work. The first time I used it, my lips felt weird. On my second application at home a few hours later, I felt like my lips were becoming swollen, saw some water-like ooze coming out of my lips - like my lips were sweating. After a while, my lips looked really swollen. Then the next day, they were very itchy. It was a bad idea. I then learned in an article that menthol/mint lip balms are actually irritating for people with lip eczema. So, please avoid menthol lip balms if you have lip eczema.

If you have lip eczema like I do, maybe you should give any beeswax based lip balm a try. And I suggest that you use Human Nature's lip balm because it's the only one that has worked perfectly for me.

My Lip Eczema Experiences

I  have lip eczema. First it came out just a small, round, dark patch on my upper lip a few years ago. I thought it was nothing. Until it first became bad last year. My whole lips were peeling endlessly, they turned dark in color, and were often itchy to uncomfortably painful when very irritated.

So i started reading what my condition could possibly be. Since it was peeling endlessly, I thought could it possibly be eczema? I did a Google search of eczema images, turned out they look very similar to my condition. That's when I realized there is actually lip eczema - that you can have eczema on the lips. I kept on reading for what can trigger lip eczema. Some include:

• cosmetics
• toothpaste
• extreme weather conditions (too hot or too cold)
• food

I thought, could it be the toothpaste I was using? Back then, I was using Colgate with liquid calcium. I thought maybe it was harsh for me so I stopped using it. After that, my lips started getting better, but not well. It still kept peeling, just not as bad as before.

One time, I told my then-bf about my eczema. He told me to get Carmex or any lip balm that has beeswax. I then searched on ebay for Carmex and found a seller. I tried Carmex for several months, though my lips got better, they still felt not okay.

Then that summer we went to Camiguin Island, did some island hopping and of course snorkeling. My lips felt bad the day after, and worse as days went on. Turns out, saltwater can aggravate lip eczema too. I kept on using Carmex, until I read somewhere that Carmex shouldn't be used for a long time. I forgot why. Maybe you can just do your own research about it.

Anyway, I read that unfortunately, lip eczema has no cure. All you can do is avoid irritants so you don't have flareups and ALWAYS keep your lips moisturized. It pays to have a good lip balm.

I'll write another post on my experiences with different lip balms.