Lanolips Is the Best Lip Balm on Earth
Shop £16.99, amazon.com
I'd circumnavigate the world for this lip balm. Lanolin is a gift, like the spermaceti that whalers chased in the 19th century, the animal-derived wax that Ishmael uses to jerk off his fellow sailors in Moby Dick. (Did I read that chapter right?) For years, I could never find a good lip balm. It was my White Whale, a gaping hole in my grooming routine, a hole I could never fill and an obsession I'd take to my grave. Every winter I cycled through every vitamin-rich, antioxidant, and ultra-moisturising lip balm out there. Then I found lanolin, the product I'd been looking for.
It's a naturally occurring lipid that coats and protects sheep's wool, and it separates as a byproduct of wool processing. Australian beauty brand Lanolips sells it in its highest-grade form as its 101 Ointment for moisturising chapped lips, dry skin, and cracking cuticles. Lanolips delivers on that promise better than anything I've ever used. I buy it religiously now. My search is over.
Shop £16.99, amazon.com
It's ridiculously hydrating.
The marketing pitch for Lanolips is that lanolin holds 400 times its weight in moisture. Not sure how the hell I'm supposed to measure that. What I can say is that I hate winter in New York. It's cold, windy, and dry. Radiators make my house dry. Recycled corporate air makes my office dry. My lips, hands, and every piece of exposed skin are cracked and ashy. With drugstore lip balm, I'm reapplying every couple of hours. Lanolips is the only thing that can keep me moisturised for a full day. Unless it's especially cold out, I only ever use it twice a day, before I head out and when I get home. I skip all the flavoured options and go for the unflavored, unscented 100 per cent lanolin 101 Ointment, the way god gave it to us. My lips are never chapped, never glossy, only perfectly hydrated.
Shop £16.99, amazon.com
It's 100 per cent natural.
Here's something I love because I'm a man. Lanolin has an ancient history. (Is this more or less boring than my Moby Dick reference?) As long as domestic sheep have been shorn for wool, we've been getting lanolin as a byproduct. There's evidence that ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all used lanolin for wound dressing and skin moisturising. If it's been around that long, does that make it better than the manufactured stuff the skincare industry tries to sell you? Yeah, probably.
The Lanolips 101 Ointment is ultra-pure grade lanolin from Australian sheep. There's nothing else for it to hide behind, unless you get flavoured versions. (You shouldn't.) This is the highest quality lanolin you can find. At room temperature, it's almost solid. If it gets cold, you really have to warm it up in your hands or someone else's before applying. It's natural, and it locks that moisture in for hours or even days depending on the climate you're in. Why would I want the other shit that's engineered in a lab? Honestly, the only reason I can think to not use Lanolips is an allergy to wool and wool derivatives. Since it's a natural product, some of you might be allergic. That's how it goes, and that's the only thing that should stop you.
Shop £16.99, amazon.com
It is truly worth the price jump.
This was the tallest hurdle for me. It's £17 per tube of Lanolips—or £28 for a two-pack. Even if a two-pack lasts me the entire winter, is that more worth it than the five-pounds I pay for Burt's Bees? In my experience, yes. People by ridiculously expensive lip balms from the cosmetic big names. Lanolips is as good, if not better, than those. And compared to the pack of Burt's Bees I used to buy, it's no contest.
I don't know what else I can say, really. Lanolips doesn't have any peers. It's high-quality, natural, and widely available. Sure, it's a bit pricier than the supermarket stuff, but it's not at all expensive. If you live somewhere that's still got a couple months of winter on the calendar, buy a pack of Lanolips now. I promise you'll thank me.
Shop £16.99, amazon.com
Photographs by Florence Sullivan
You Might Also Like
