I have to admit to never having liked Chapstick or any lip balm for that matter. I wasn’t sure why, but I always felt like it made my lips more chapped and they peeled more and not less. In fact, it seemed that if I started to use lip balm, I couldn’t stop because the problem would increase ten-fold and my lips would come off in chunks.

Just for fun I decided to look around the net and I was surprised to find so many people who had the same experience as I did. In fact, there are websites devoted to lip balm addiction. There are people out there who are unable to go from one room to the next without being assured of finding a lip balm to reapply constantly.

I discovered that some medicated lip balms have ingredients that actually exfoliate, that is, peel the lips. So these do, in fact, make the problem worse. But even lip balms that don’t contain these ingredients seem to have a hold on people who use them.

I thought then about my own use of lipstick and I do apply lipstick sometimes just because my lips are dry. However, with lipstick I don’t have the urge to constantly reapply, I can go entire days without wearing any and I don’t find my lips get dependent on it.

The majority of physicians and dermatologists state that lip balms can be psychologically addicting only, but in my limited experience, and it seems the experience of many others, lip balm is a highly addictive substance that requires constant reapplication to avoid it worsening the problem you used it to alleviate.