Green Lip Balms
Are you a big fan of lip-gloss? I’m sure you are. Millions of women (and thousands of men) claim
they are addicted to lip balms and glosses. There’s an urban legend that blames a misprint on a little
jar of Carmex balm for its widespread use. The original ingredients list put the word “salicylic” on
one line and “acid” on the next. I suspect some people thought the wax contained LSD or some other
illegal acid! While there are no addictive substances in conventional lip balms, most of them are still
loaded with synthetic ingredients that do little to help our lips.
Our lips are protected by the thinnest skin on the body. It has only three to five protective layers of
cells, while the rest of our skin has sixteen! This unique structure makes lips very sensitive—and very
fragile. Our lips have no sweat or sebum glands, so there’s no moisture coming from inside.
Technically, a slick of petroleum jelly works just as well to protect our lips as a layer of organic
beeswax blended with jojoba oil. The only difference is what ends up inside of us: an average
woman eats up to an ounce of lip-gloss a year, and we already know that liquid paraffin has become
the main pollutant inside our bodies.
For the everyday protection of lips, natural lip balm is essential. Dry lips can crack and become
sore, leaving the skin prone to infection. That’s why many natural lip balms are enriched with mild
antibacterial and healing ingredients.
Green Product Guide: Lip Balms
If you don’t let nonorganic food pass your lips, why would you wear synthetic goo on them? Here
are the top three natural lip balms of choice, as voted by 182 women questioned in July 2006 during a
poll on Toronto Fashion Monitor (www.toronto.fashion-monitor.com).
Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm is the green beauty’s answer to ChapStick. An easy-to-use, skin-
friendly stick infuses the lips with plant oils, vitamin E, comfrey root, and rosemary extract. The only
drawback is a strong presence of peppermint, which may be bothersome for sensitive skins.
Unscented Badger Lip Care has proven itself as the most versatile balm out there. Because it’s
made of virgin olive and castor oils in a beeswax base, and nothing else, fellow moms reported using
it for quick touch-ups of their baby’s cheeks in winter and even smearing baby’s bottom with it when
doing a quick diaper change in a coffeehouse restroom.
Weleda Everon Lip Balm is packed to the brim of its happy little orange tube with healing plant
oils and extracts, including jojoba oil, shea butter, and rose extract. It is on the heavier side, so you
don’t need to reapply. It smells like roses in vanilla ice cream—enough to trigger an addiction in me.
Making Your Own Lip Balms
Finding a good natural lip balm is relatively easy. Preparing your own green balm, surprisingly, is
even easier. All you need is a little bit of organic soy wax from your soy candle, an essential oil of
your choice, and a bit of mineral blusher or eye shadow to add a delicate shimmery tint.