Am I Addicted to Vaseline?

Its getting cold in the Northeast and people are beginning to develop dry or chapped lips. I’ve lived in this area for most of my life so I guess that I’m pretty used to it. I’d never really needed to use Chapstik, Blistex or Vaseline lip therapy.

Then last winter for some reason I bought some of the Vaseline Lip Therapy and used it a couple of times. Now I can’t leave my apartment without putting it on. If I don’t apply some to my lips, they feel like they’re going to rip or burn. Am I addicted to Vaseline? Or a better question: Do the manufacturers of this stuff include an ingredient that make your lips even drier when you’re not using their product?

However, I read once that the man (Chesebrough?) who first started refining petroleum jelly took a spoonful of it orally every day, and he lived to be in his 90s.

…I have heard the same thing, also I have heard some Amazonian tribes who use it as a COOKING OIL! as it doesn’t putrtify in the great heat down there.
:eek:

Cecil’s been here, and in good form:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/981225.html

Do follow his link to “lip balm anonymous”, too.

Personally, I’ll use those products only when I REALLY need them, and have no trouble not using them otherwise. I always feel like I’ve been kissing a side of bacon, and I’m more than happy to stop applying the stuff. What I find annoying is that I always seem use a fraction of the tube, then have to buy a new one when I can’t find it again a year later.

And I’m gonna start a thread in “Comments” on this.

Wow! I feel terrible. I thought I came up with an original question and it seems that its already been debated to death.

My apologies.

Don’t feel bad.
Personally, I always BITE my lips…and I really have been doing well at stopping it.
But I use my SoftLips only when my lips get really dry-because I use a shiny lip gloss everyday as part of my make up, my lips don’t get that dry.

Right on, Sua. Cece totally blew this one.

JJ, for the record, I think I am addicted to Vaseline. I don’t have any bizarre hangups the way some of the people Cecil quoted do, but I just have to have it.

I am also missing the top layer of skin on my lips due to excessive woodwind playing and cortisone use from several years ago. I have been patiently waiting for my lip tissue to grow back, with rather limited success. I am afraid that vaseline is inhibiting new tissue growth, but I am miserable without it.

You’re not the only one.

MR

If you read the lip balm addiction websites carefully, you’ll see that what they’re really talking about are the “medicated” lip balms that have camphor, menthol, phenol and stuff like that. Those ingrediants actually dry the lips, while the base they’re in (petroleum jelly) moisturizes the lips.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using moisturizers on your skin or lips, and unmedicated petroleum jelly is perfectly fine.

What a person may actually be addicted to is licking or biting your lips, and you may find that petroeum jelly helps you break that habit.

At any rate, there’s no reason to believe than an unmedicated lip moisturizer will make anything worse.

You know what? I think the LBA folks have gone off the deep end.
They actually say that lipbalm will lead to other drugs, like heroin…I thought it was a satire…
Some people are scary!