Lip Balm to stop horrendous dry lips, invading rest of face. What's the best?

[Pancakeflipper]

DS1 is sporty and this cold weather is making a mess of his lips. He has various balms and vaseline and puts them on regularly but we haven't found one to help prevent this.

It's getting him down as they look such a mess.

Best ones to prevent or to fix it?

Nuxe reve de miel is the bomb. It has the added benefit of not smelling girly and not being shiny so good for males and females. It was recommended on MN and I was very impressed. My next choice is Lansinoh nipple cream but it is smelly and shiny (and embarrassing for a teen to carry something with "nipple" in the name) so not as good as an all-rounder as nuxe for those reasons.

Carmex

Or the Elizabeth Arden 8 hour balm

Carmex is great for dry lips

Blistex (used to be known as Blisteze). The little tube of medicated cream. Only thing that works when my lips are cracked.

Either Carmex or Blistex, I find that Vaseline makes my lips feel even drier.

I've got a temple spa one and I love it. It is very thick without being sticky.

Apicare - it's an NZ beeswax one, with spf. Really stopped my weird lip eczema in the summer.

If they're really bad get a Hydrocortisone ointment from the chemist or if he's younger you may prefer to get some from your GP. Apply thinly at night then put a good lip salve on top. The only thing that worked for me when mine were really bad.
The lip salve I use is Nuxe reve de miel or Piz Bruin In Sun is great also.

Zinc tablets, apparently.
Ds is trying them at the moment.

I've found a two pronged approach is best...

You need something really hydrating to get moisture in to his lips - benefit used to do a brilliant one that was in a tube like a lip gloss (so not ideal for a boy!) but you could feel your lips rehydrate as you put it on. They changed the formulation and it wasn't quite as good afterwards but might be worth a shot. Otherwise, do you have any heavy duty moisturising/hydrating face cream that he could use?

Let it sink in for a minute or two, then top with the lanisoh nipple cream - it really is amazing for lips and the only thing that works on mine. I've previously tried everything from Blistex and Carmex, the Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream (don't like the smell!), nivea, basically everything else that Boots and the department store beauty hall had to offer... none of them worked like this combination.

These days I don't need the Benefit cream as I put on the lanisoh before I go to bed and when I wake up and my lips are soft. Although it's expensive, I first discovered it when bf ds2, he is now 7 and I've had maybe 4 tubes in that time - and I have one by my bed and the remnants of an old one in my handbag (it's great for other dry skin too).

The other thing to double check is that he is drinking enough - if he isn't then his lips will be one of the first things to show that he needs to drink more because they get dry...

Forgot to say that if you use one cream to get the moisture into the lips, then you use the lanisoh to keep the moisture in there, to soften the skin and give it its flexibility back and to protect it.

The other thing is - to make sure he's not chewing at the dry bits that are disturbing him - ds2 does this and he can end up with a great sore area around his bottom lip really quickly without noticing.

I was coming on to say the Nuxe one, it's the best I've tried. I do also rate Lush lip service but it tends to solidify easily so you have to scrape a bit out with the back of a nail. It is really good though. But the Nuxe wins!

Nuxe and nipple cream to be purchased. Liking the double product idea especially on the cross country runs (always windy and up hills).

Zip - he has a tendency to absent mindlessly rub his finger across his sore mouth which makes it bigger. Arghhh.

Thanks all for your help.

Hugh tripe recommend for the Nuxe one in a pot (not the stick, which is a different formula).

I find any balms which are based on petroleum jelly to be useless - they lubricate rather than nourish, good for protecting lips and cheeks in very windy or cold weather, not good for repairing or moisturisng.

Vaseline, lipsyl etc all make mine so much worse. Carmex in the yellow tube, red lid is the only thing that helps me.

My ds has had exactly the same problem. I've tried everything for him but (MN recommendation) he's had much improvement with Eucerin Aquaphor lip balm. I can only seem to buy it online though.

I'm going to try some of the other suggestions on here too though as the Aquaphor is quite expensive.

My daughter & I get this. Have spent a fortune on loads of lip creams /balms. The only thing that worked was lansinoh nipple cream. Cleared them up in 1 day- it's a wonder product

I bought the nuxe one after comments in here - but I got the stick one, I didn't realise there were two. I don't think it is any better than the blue Nivea stick, though it is four times the price, and I won't buy it again.

ProfG, the stick is rubbish, I assumed it would be the same formula as the jar in portable form, but nothing like.

Decant the Lanisoh into a pot - either an empty vaseline/lip balm pot or one bought (look in the area where travel bottles and toiletries are). No more nipple cream embarrassment! I'm surprised Blistex and Carmex are so recommended - isn't the camphor really irritating?

The Nuxe pot is great but a big tube of Lanisoh probably works out cheaper.

The burts bees ones are great.

Dc has a nervous habit of licking lips, they get extremely red and sore. Since we discovered the BB we can keep it under control.

Oh yes, Burts Bees with the silver lid/white tube is great.