Are you a lip balm addict?

The global market for lip products is expected to hit £1bn this year – and lip balm is one of the most popular beauty items on the market. But despite the fact that it’s not actually addictive, why do we feel compelled to apply it so religiously?

Winter. A time of doom, gloom and crud weather, when the skies are dark and the wind whips your face at a terrific rate. Shielding your skin with a layer of coconut oil or duck fat might provide temporary relief, but the issue surrounding excessive lip-balm application is causing a minor furore among people who claim it’s addictive. Once you start using lip balm, much like smack or Tekken, it becomes very hard to stop.

The global market for lip products is vast, projected to be over £1bn this year. Marie Claire US conducted a survey in which almost half their readers cited lip balm as a beauty essential in the office; most of their readers picked it as their No 2 desert island item after sun cream. During a sketch in the Oscars ceremony in which host Ellen DeGeneres attempted to solicit money to tip a pizza-delivery man, Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o handed her a tube of Clarins HydraQuench lip balm in lieu of payment, a move which created the hashtag #Lupitaslipbalm and prompted sales to rocket.

Lip balms work by sealing in moisture, thus preventing evaporation into the cold air. In theory, they should act like a moisturiser. But in theory, according to Dr Joshua Zeichner, a New York-based dermatologist who spoke to Refinery 29, “lips are able to repair themselves and maintain hydration” and our continued use of them might be doing more harm than good. So why do we keep using them?

Mass application suggests they contain addictive properties, but the truth is they aren’t actually addictive. The main issue lies within the ingredients, a mixture of exfoliants (which remove dead skin) and emolients, which soften the skin, from salicylic acid to camphor, phenol, and menthol which can soothe lips but also, says Dr Zeichner, irritate them.

While lip balm isn’t addictive in the actual, traditional sense because it doesn’t contain ingredients which generally cause physiological dependency – a spokesperson from mental health charity Mind said it’s not something they’ve come across – compulsive application is “a thing” and tantamount to an OCD. As Joel Rose, director of OCD Action, explains “the minute you define it it becomes a thing, the compulsion becomes real”. And if you like to apply lip balm 70 times a day, then you may be displaying compulsive tendencies.

The very nature of a compulsive disorder means that it can be anything. But while addiction is about getting stimulation, compulsion is more about soothing. The beauty in underlining the more colourful forms of OCD is that you legitimise them, allow issues to be issues ergo be taken seriously. Whats more, says Rose, “there are an infinite number of compulsions. Some people need to turn off the light switch 10 times before they go to bed, others nine times and others 14”. The multiple application of lip balm falls under the compulsive category, but like nail-biting it’s more of a habit “or habit disorder – wherein you are compelled to do something, for reasons you don’t know or understand. But if this behaviour is having an impact on your life then it should be taken seriously – you can and should seek help”.

One place is Lip Balm Anonymous, a self-help site run by “Kevin C” a former Chapstick “addict” has been floating around the internet fairly inactively since the mid nineties, acting as a forum for people to share their stories in a bid to ease the stigma surrounding their anxiety. You may laugh, but as one anonymous member explains: “I’ve been fired from my job at the call center. Every time I pick up the phone, I smear Chapstick on my face and the telephone. Struggling with this problem for all of my life has led me to accept that a day without [lip balm] could kill me. After trying to go cold turkey last week, I found myself running to a store at 2am, unable to bear it any longer.” Another user, Debbie, explains how she’s been using lip balm for 40 years and at last posting, had 20 tubes on her person. Kevin C’s answer? A 12-step-recovery plan.

12 Steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over lip balm — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other lip balm addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Of course this doesn’t suggest lip balm is necessarily dangerous. Chapped lips, and skin complaints are very real. Lip eczema, for example, is a serious and painful issue which can be helped by applying shea butter, petroleum (Vaseline, essentially) and Corticosteroids. Lip Balm Anonymous, meanwhile, suggest EOS balm, which uses natural non-drying ingredients.

While no one was available to comment from Lip Balm Anonymous, in defence to queries surrounding its addictiveness, the site hosts the following disclaimer: “We use the substance habitually, often not realising we were actually applying it, since it was such a daily routine. Anyone who has tried to quit can readily attest that when you stop using, your lips become negatively affected for several days or weeks.” Further proof can be found on Facebook which over the years has played host to numerous “crackstick” groups.

Rose surmises that while we should be careful with classifying it as an addiction because “there is a danger in playing fast and loose with language” and comparing it to something more serious devalues the latter’s currency, equally we should be aware of the difference between nothing and a compulsion. “Someone who applies a lot of lip balm might be considered quirky but for some people, compulsion can be very damaging on their lives.”

Are you one of those people who applies it multiple times a day? Yes. Do your lips still feel chapped? Yes. And yet do you continue to apply it despite evidence suggesting it’s not helping? Yes. Then you might have a problem.