Treat Chapped Lips With This Natural Ingredient You Already Have in Your Cupboard

Fall is finally upon us, which means tons of fun things like grabbing your favorite spiced latte and layering up in comfy sweaters. However, there’s another far less enjoyable factor that tends to pop up every time the weather starts to cool down: chapped lips. 

No one wants to deal with cracked and peeling skin, and even less so when it’s attached to your mouth. Plus, constantly reaching into your bag for lip balm can really get annoying after the first 10 or so times in a day. But there could be a way to nip this pesky problem in the bud early in the season before it really starts, and the solution is sitting in your cupboard. Honey, the humble sweetener we use to brighten up a cup of tea, can soothe those dry lips.  

A study from 2016 cites how ancient Greeks and Egyptians used honey topically to treat burns and other skin wounds because it is antibacterial, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and moisturizing all at the same time. The researchers observed how those helpful qualities were able to ease a number of issues like eczema, acne, and sunburns in the same way honey does with chapped lips.

It’s as easy as swiping a small amount of the syrupy substance on your lips a few times a day in cases where your lips are cracked and need an extra barrier of protection. Obviously, you don’t want to smear a whole bunch on your face and feel like you’ve glued your mouth shut. Instead, try using a spoon or butterknife to swirl the honey around in a bowl to warm it up a bit, then apply a light layer to your dried out lips. You can also do this as a nightly treatment to prevent lips from becoming cracked in the first place. Just let the honey’s healing properties work as you sleep! 

If you’re not keen on the idea of slathering any amount of ordinary honey on your mouth, you can invest in some products that use it as one of their main ingredients. The Ultra Repair Intensive Lip Balm by First Aid Beauty ($20, Sephora) combines honey with other soothing products like oatmeal and beeswax. You can find cheaper options like the Sephora Collection’s Lip Balm & Scrub ($6, Sephora) that packs in plenty of healing honey, too. 

Here’s hoping we can all enjoy smooth, hydrated lips no matter how cold the weather gets! 

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