My addiction knows no season.
Summer, winter…..day in, day out…..it is a veritable obsession. I don’t go one single day without using, and my substance of choice is always close at hand. I have some in every pocket of every coat I own, in my purse, in the cup holder in my van, and stashed throughout our house in various and sundry locations: a drawer in the kitchen, a drawer in the main floor bathroom, the nightstand next to my bed. I’ll use just about any variety I can get my hands on, but usually, I prefer it mostly plain.
My drug?
Lip balm.
For years, as many as I can remember, I’ve been addicted to lip balm. I am, I freely admit, what is probably considered a hard core user. To be clear, I’m not talking about a lipstick addiction; I’m not using it for any beauty-enhancing effect. In fact, I don’t particularly like lipstick much at all. It’s not as smooth and well, waxy, feeling as something like plain old Chapstick. And it really is all about the feel, because nothing makes my skin crawl like having dry lips. On those (rare) occasions when I have found myself feeling a bit chapped, yet am lip balm-less? All I can think about is WHERE CAN I GET SOME CHAPSTICK? In spite of owning a substantial number of tubes already, I am not above buying some, if that’s what I have to do to scratch that itch, and I’ve even resorted to borrowing some, though only from close personal friends or relatives, of course. If this could be considered ‘hitting rock-bottom,’ then I’ve been there many times.
Admittedly, though, hitting rock-bottom rarely happens to me, and here is why. Once when Noel was at Sam’s Club, he came across a mega-pack of Chapstick. There must have been over 20 tubes of the stuff in one package. He brought it home for me, and I could not have been happier if he’d handed me a couple of tickets to Paris. (I guess this would make Noel an enabler??)
I tore into the package, and stashed my Chapstick in all the necessary places, so unless the tube has actually run out, I rarely find myself lip balm-less. And now I know where to go to get it, in bulk, when the well starts to run dry.
For literally years, my addiction and I have co-existed peacefully and without much thought or concern. Until yesterday.
I was looking around on the Dr. Oz website (for a recipe of all things! using endive! totally unrelated to lip balm!), when I saw a link that said “Are you a lip balm addict?” Well, of course I had to click on that.
It took me to a video clip from one of his shows where, in a nutshell, he profiled a girl who was a self-proclaimed lip balm addict and who tried to go one full day with using (she made it, but said she’d never do it again), and then, he explained why excessive use of lip balm is not good for your lips.
But of course. Doesn’t it just figure? I mean, what’s next? I already can’t eat Doritos and drink Diet Coke with wild abandon……and there is a limit to how much wine and cheese is considered ‘acceptable’……and now, I can’t even enjoy this one, tiny, thing in life that brings me, if not great joy, at least a small modicum of pleasure?? Is there no end to the deprivations one must endure in life??
I’d tell you to go watch the video to see the medical reason why he says the lip balm addiction is bad for you, but for some reason the video will not play now. I just watched it yesterday, and now, for some reason, it can’t be viewed. I’ll link to it here, just in case it is working again later, but in the meantime, I will instead give you a quick summary of what he said.
In a nutshell, lip balms – while soothing! – create a barrier on your lips that does not allow the dead skin cells to slough off as they should, and as a result, those dead layers of cells continue to build up on your lips. Breaking your lip balm addiction allows the skin on your lips to do what it’s supposed to do, which is slough off and regenerate, quickly and frequently.
Well, if that is true, then my lips ought to look a lot more like Angelina Jolie’s, what with all the layers that have likely built up on them by now.
This morning when I sat down to write this post, I did a Google search for “dr oz lip balm addiction,” intending, as I mentioned, to link to his video. While things didn’t work out so well with the Dr. Oz clip, I did, however find another very interesting site during my search: Lip Balm Anonymous.
I am not joking; it’s for real, and you can read all about it by clicking on the link. Surprising though it would seem, there is, in fact, an entire website devoted to lip balm addicts, including a Q&A section where people can write in and ask questions about their lip balm usage, and whether or not it is extreme enough to be classified as an “addiction.” (I did not, however, spend enough time there to find out if there is also an accompanying Twelve Step plan.)
??????
Addiction, in all its myriad forms, is a very serious matter, and I’m not making light of that itself. But really? Does lip balm addiction fall into the same category of other addictions in that it is something that needs to be ‘broken’? Is the world really taking lip balm usage this seriously?? The makers of Chapstick and Carmex should only be so lucky!
Whatever the case I, personally, won’t be jumping onto that particular wagon. I have worse vices in life that I should be concerned about than how much Chapstick I’m going through (ref: Doritos).
Hello, my name is Christy, and I am a Lip Balm Addict.
You know, the addict with the smoothest, softest lips in town.
Mary said:
That is so funny! Partly because, yes doesn’t it just figure that every little pleasure in life seems to come with a side effect, but also funny to me because I absolutely hate anything coating my lips! And I know that my lips often look horrible in the winter because they are cracked and nasty. I force myself to goop them up at night when I will notice that feeling less. My poor mother, rest her soul, would often say to me, “honey, a little lipstick would look really nice on you”….her subtle way of saying …you look really pale and washed out with no color on your lips. Enjoy the lip balm, Christy- you only live once!
Christy @ cat fur to make kitten britches said:
Mary – I never knew that you are *not* a user! How is it we can be so like-minded on so may things, but not this?! ha! Love the story about your mother, and you know what? I totally *am* going to enjoy the lip balm…..vices be damned!
Tina said:
OMG…you were right…we WERE separated at birth. Open any drawer in my house and you’ll find Blistex, the Medicated Lip Ointment. Yes, the kind that burns and then feel good. The kind my kids refuse to use. I even put it on my heels in the summertime. Weird, yes…but no cracked heels in this house.
Christy @ cat fur to make kitten britches said:
Tina – how is it possible I did not know this about you??! Have you been holding out on me? Well, hey, I’m glad to know if I get into a bind, you’re one of the people who won’t look at me like I have three heads if I ask you to borrow some. (As long as it’s not one of the tubes you rubbed your heels with, that is!)
heather claborn said:
Really…keep your addiction…deal w/ the extra layers of dead lip skin w/ a lip scrub. I’m not a Mary Kay spokeswoman, but I have their lip mask that you’re supposed to use a couple times a week, but I use more like quarterly (lazy beauty care…it shows). And my lips really do feel great after I do the little treatment…going to dig it out now.
Chapstick away, I say.
Christy @ cat fur to make kitten britches said:
Heather – I forgot about the Mary Kay lip mask! I actually have some, buried in a drawer somewhere. I haven’t had the need to use it (or so I thought) because MY LIPS ARE ALWAYS PERFECTLY MOISTURIZED! But maybe I should dig it out….you know, just as insurance against the Angelina Jolie effect….
ella | lifeologia said:
Ha ha. Well, if you must have an addiction – this might as well be it 😉
I’m not a big lib balm user – but I like a little gloss when I go out – but then I eat it all up probably before I even get to the party… lol.
I do little scrubs or I brush with a toothbrush to ‘exfoliate’ 😉 on occasion – and then I dab some vit E for the night – and they get revived that way 😉
Happy lib-balming!
Christy @ cat fur to make kitten britches said:
I know, right? There could be so many worse vices! Your toothbrush-exfoliation technique made me think….my face cleanser has an exfoliating ingredient in it….maybe I should just do my lips with it, while I’m at the whole face-washing thing in the shower. What my lips can’t do on their own, I guess I’ll have to do for them!
Ivy Blaise said:
Hahahahaha!!! Right woman, you clearly need to go to the Betty Ford clinic or similar “health farm” immediately! This is a serious situation… why else would there be actual clips on the internet???
P.S… there is a lipbalm that the Swedish military sells that is absolutely divine (and organic) and is the best I have EVER tried….shhhhhhhh…..
Christy @ cat fur to make kitten britches said:
I know! Who knew there was so much…..material….out there on lip balm addictions??!! I guess I always thought it was just something peculiar to me (well, and my sister, who shares the same obsession), but now I can see it is apparently a worldwide epidemic. Who knew??!
Now, why did you have to go and tell me about the Swedish military lip balm? How much do you want to be my supplier? Can I pay you in baked goods? Oh, and btw, LOVE that you can “fry sausage” in it! Pretty sure I can’t do that with Carmex…..
Rhonda love said:
I also love that Mary Kay lip mask which is followed up with the balm (that Heather mentioned). I’m a Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm addict myself! “Soothing • Cooling • Refreshing”
Christy @ cat fur to make kitten britches said:
Whatever your particular brand of drug, Rhonda, I’m glad to know I’m not alone.
embracingitall said:
Ha! Who ever knew that there was such a thing a lip balm anonymous! Now that made me laugh. Enjoy your lip balm. I’m liking the idea of having Angelina lips, so I think I better go and buy me a bulk amount of balm and get these lips of mine pumped. Jacinta
Christy @ cat fur to make kitten britches said:
I know, right?! This just proves that there really *is* something for everyone, and every interest, that exists under the sun! Good luck with the pumping up; she does have a rather remarkably sexy pout, no?!
crooked little house said:
My name is Amy and I too am a lip balm addict.
Christy @ cat fur to make kitten britches said:
Hi, Amy. I think I have finally found my tribe. : )
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