Toss it Out Tuesday - Lip Moisturizers

I love to use a lip moisturizer before bed to help replenish the moisture my lips lose during the day. But I didn’t realize every time I was applying these balms to my lips I was ingesting some pretty horrific chemicals.

Let’s take a look at Chapstick for example, The ingredients in this one give Chapstick a big fat “9” on the Think Dirty app. Some of the ingredients are listed below:

• Fragrance – A hormone disruptor.

• Methylparaben – A preservative that mimics estrogen and can act as an endocrine system disruptor and cause healthy cells to grow like cancer cells.

• Propylparaben – A preservative and possible endocrine disruptor which has been linked to breast cancer.

• White Petroleum – A product produced from crude oil and can contain cancerous materials not removed at the time of processing.

• Camphor – A potentially toxic ingredient.

I was thankful I was not using Chapstick on my lips and while my Vaseline Lip Therapy in Cocoa Butter is a bit better than some of the other lip products it still rates a “5” on the Think Dirty App. The main ingredient is Petroleum and can be cause for concern.

Petroleum is the by-product of crude oil production and may be contaminated with carcinogenic materials which might not be removed at the time of manufacturing. I immediately cut this out from my beauty routine and eliminated the “baby” petroleum products from my daughters diaper care routine as well.

A better alternative is Burt’s Bees Lip Balm.

I have known about Burt’s Bees for a while now but had never tried their products.

The ingredients list are pretty natural, take a look:

Sunflower Seed Oil, Coconut Oil, Beeswax, Natural Flavor, Castor Seed Oil, Shea Butter, Lanolin, Pear Fruit Extract, Ammonium Glycyrrhizate, Tocopherol, Soybean Oil, Rosemary Leaf Extract, Canola Oil, Linalool, Limonene, Geraniol.

They also come in at a "0" rating on the Think Dirty app, which is the cleanest you can get.

I have tried two scents so far, Coconut Pear and Vanilla Bean and I love them both.

I am pleased with the ingredient list and happy there are no petroleum, parabens or artificial fragrance included in Burt's Bees lip balm. These products left my lips very smooth and the I love the smell. My almost two year old loves to put on her "lipstick" and I don’t feel bad about allowing her to apply these products to her lips from time to time.

I say Toss Out your old lip conditioning products and give Burt’s Bees a try!

Simply Truly Jenny…