The Best Lip Balm is Nipple Cream
One of the worst parts of being in the hospital was how chapped my lips got (Really! It was mostly boring!). I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink for over two days, and my throat, mouth, and lips got impossibly dry. I finally got a nurse to agree to let me swish around a tiny bit of water and spit it out, which was…. moderately helpful. But the Aquaphor lip balm I had in my bag was NOT cutting it. I needed something MORE. One thing about being hospitalized over Cyber Monday, you’re gonna have nothing to do but shop on your phone. So I shopped for a solution to my raggedy lip issue. My go-to is a moisturizer or a lip balm with Aquaphor on top to seal it all in. But if that wasn’t working, what could be better? Lanolin.
Lanolin is the stuff in sheep’s wool that keeps them dry, basically a super occlusive. You’ve maybe heard of Lanolips, which is lanolin (and sometimes other ingredients) specifically marketed as lip balm, but the budget friendly hack is to just buy pure lanolin or nipple cream. It’s like buying a cake vs buying a wedding cake. The lip balm is a scam, get yourself a big tube of nipple cream.
I also bought some tiny tubes of Lansinoh nipple balm, for all my purses and pockets
I started by buying a small tube of 100% lanolin (in a cyber monday sale), but burned through that so fast I decided I needed to get MORE, so I bought a tube of Lansinoh Lanolin Nipple Cream and I couldn’t be happier - or less chappy.
First, it’s a big-ass tube. I am famously anti Aquaphor-in-a-tube, because it separates and gets oily and messy, but lanolin is thick and STAYS thick, and honestly, the tube is the least messy option. It’s also a whopping 1.41oz, and for less than $10! I don’t just use it on my lips, I slather it on my cuticles, the backs of my hands, and even around my nose after I had a particularly bad cold. Lansinoh Lanolin Nipple Cream is 100% natural lanolin taken directly from sheared sheep, and I mean, it’s made for babies to put in their mouths, so it’s safe to put pretty much anywhere. I am now so much more moisturized and comfortable — not only because I’m no longer hospitalized!
