Kiss those dry, chapped lips goodbye with sustainable, clean, and petroleum-free vegan lip balms that will help you ditch your Chapstick once and for all.
Dry, chapped lips can be brutal. Dry indoor air, cold, blustery winter weather, and hot sunny summers all can lead to dry lips. Add in allergies or a head cold and it can be downright painful. But don’t reach for the petroleum-laden drug store lip balms ala Chapstick. Sustainable, vegan lip balm is where it’s at.
We’ve got options that are better for your body and better for the planet, too. These sustainable and vegan lip balm brands use clean, responsibly sourced ingredients, low-impact manufacturing, and eco packaging. Give your pout the ultimate upgrade as you wipe out dry lips and unsustainable beauty products with a single kiss!
The petroleum problem
Drugstore lip balms are saviors in a chapped emergency, but there’s every reason to ditch them because of one common ingredient: petroleum. A byproduct of crude oil — the same stuff you put in your car! — petroleum is a leading cause of climate change.
Burning fossil fuels is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, namely carbon dioxide. While petroleum jelly isn’t burned as fuel, it’s produced only when oil is refined into fuel. So if you care about reducing your carbon footprint, leaving petroleum out of your beauty care routine is critical.
Petroleum is also not the best ingredient for your skin. Rather than penetrate to heal and moisturize, petroleum sits on the skin acting as a barrier to trap moisture. But if your lips are dry and chapped and already void of moisture, you’re not locking in the good stuff at all. The secret is to use moisturizing ingredients that hydrate as well as lock in the moisture on your lips.
The best petroleum-free vegan lip balms
When opting for a petroleum-free lip balm, look for clean ingredients you can pronounce as rule number one. Also look for plant butter ingredients such as shea or mango butter, which are highly moisturizing.
Another key to lip health is exfoliating the chapped, dry skin. Look for a gentle sugar scrub to help exfoliate your lips before applying the balm.
To keep with your eco values, look for brands that are using sustainable materials such as paperboard tubes or recyclable tins or glass.
1. Rose Inc Lip Treatment Hydrating Balm With Squalane
A Clean and Planet Positive at Sephora marked product from the Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Rose Inc line, this intensely hydrating lip balm restores softness and bounce to cracked and dry lips with help from plant butter, rosehips, and squalane.
2. Mara Algae + Moringa Sea Silk Lip Balm
Get ready for deeply moisturized lips that look and feel fuller while keeping dryness at bay. Mara’s Algae and Moringa Sea Silk Lip Balm is designed to soothe and lock in moisture at the same time. Made from sustainably sourced red and brown algae and nourishing mango and bacuri butters along with Mara′s signature super hydrators — moringa and watermelon oils.
3. Ilia Lip Wrap Reviving Balm
This award-winning vegan lip balm from eco beauty brand Ilia boosts hydration and strengthens the moisture barrier of your lips over time with active ingredients hyaluronic acid and prickly pear oil. You’ll notice smoother, fuller-looking lips after the first use.
4. Blue Heron Botanicals
All of the ingredients in Blue Heron Botanicals’ lip balm are sustainably sourced and organic whenever possible. The women-owned brand is focused on quality formulations and an environmental commitment. The smaller tube size actually delivers 20 percent more lip balm than plastic tubes and is more portable, too.
The tubes are 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper; everything is made with solar power, and a portion of profits goes to wildlife conservation. Plus, your lips will feel soft and smooth and ready for anything.
5. Desert Essence Lip Rescue
B-Corp Certified Desert Essence crafts its ultra-hydrating lip balm with the best sustainably sourced ingredients including organic shea butter, rosemary oil, and ginkgo biloba. It works to hydrate and soothe dry, cracked lips and provides all-day moisture. The formula is certified non-GMO, gluten-free, and is free from synthetic dyes or fragrances.
6. Farmacy Apple Lip Smoothie Vitamin C + Peptide Lip Balm
This nourishing lip balm features peptides and vitamin C to smooth, hydrate, and plump. It’s also earned the Sephora Clean and Planet Positive mark for its eco efforts, and its jar is reusable or recyclable.
7. Facetheory Lipabalm Bioactive Lip Balm LP1
This hydrating lip balm is crafted without beeswax or petroleum. Instead, Facetheory uses raspberry seed extract, which is rich in vitamin E and helps to stimulate the skin’s renewable process and protects against moisture loss. The shea butter extract has a high concentration of antioxidants and the gromwell root extract has been shown to suppress inflammation. The formula is free of parabens and silicones and handcrafted in the UK.
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