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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
