Safe Alternatives to Lip Balm

Travis Davis
Treeusable 2018
Published in
3 min readJul 17, 2018

With all the toxic characteristics attributed to most conventional lip balm products, it seems as though there must be a healthy version of lip balm somewhere. With chemicals such as butylated hydroxyanisole and hydroxytoluene, parabens, phthalates, and chemicals sunscreen components such as oxybenzone, the consumer should seek out to buy lip balms that do not have these harmful chemicals. The combination of all these chemicals have been linked to endocrine and hormone disruption, cancer, reproductive toxicity, reduced sperm count in males, and developmental troubles in children.

Luckily, there are safe alternatives to conventional lip balm products which use all the chemicals listed above. Here’s my list on the top safe alternatives to toxic lip balm:

1. Sky Organics — Organic Castor Oil

The primary focus of this castor oil is to repair damage hair and prevent further hair loss, but its multi-purposed. It also can be applied to dry or irritated skin and lips, acting as a soothing agent and softening the skin and lips. This product is 100% natural and undiluted, has no chemicals or additives, and is organic. The standard price is $34.99 in a 16 ounce bottle, making it $2.19 per ounce. This is the most expensive of the three choices, making it the choice to get if you’re willing to spend the money, and in return you will get all-natural castor oil that is multi-purposed and you could use it on different parts of your body including your hair.

https://www.skyorganics.us/products/organic-castor-oil

2. Vaseline — Petroleum jelly

Petroleum jelly may seem like it’s not the best for us considering the core ingredients are petrolatum and petroleum. However, there does not appear to be any health issues linked to this product, and that enough is much more than conventional lip balm products could state. It is also triple-purified, which means that the water used in the product has been filtered through 3 times, eliminating the harmful chemicals sometimes found in water. Lastly, Vaseline petroleum jelly is accepted by the National Eczema Association, which is hugely significant because Eczema is skin irritation, and if the overseers of the condition found petroleum jelly to be safe, that’s worth considering when determining what moisturizer to buy. Considering that this seal of approval is mostly applied to the characteristics of people with Eczema, it should be even easier applied to people without Eczema as well. The price for a 13 ounce bottle of this is $4.17, making it $0.33 per ounce and is by far the cheapest of the three. While petroleum jelly does not have the benefits of being able to use in your hair and the absence of a fragrance, the price that petroleum jelly is while accomplishing the main goal as a lip balm alternative makes it the best bang for your buck.

http://www.vaseline.us/product/petroleum-jelly/vaseline-jelly.html

3. Perfectly Pure — Coconut oil

Coconut oil is a tropical oil, and like Vaseline, its main intention is to treat dry or irritated skin. It’s similar with castor oil in that it can be used on hair. There are no artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners, and no preservatives. The standard price for 16 ounces of the product is $25.99, making it $1.62 per ounce. This is the second most expensive of the three choices, making it the choice to get if you want an all-purpose product and don’t want to spend as much as the castor oil costs.

https://www.puritan.com/puritans-pride-brand-0102/organic-extra-virgin-coconut-oil-013182?source=igodigital

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