We can’t keep our lips sealed any longer. There are so many lip balms on the market today and so many of them contain toxic ingredients—including ones that lead you to believe they’re natural. Commonly found ingredients include petroleum/petroleum byproducts, aluminum/aluminum byproducts, parabens, toxic dyes and soy. While many brands appear to be safe, all too often do they contain a selection of these toxins. I don’t know about you, but we certainly don’t want a product like that anywhere near our lips. In this blog post, we discuss the lip balm ingredients to avoid and introduce an all-natural alternative.
Looking for Toxins or Irritants in Well-Known Lip Balm Brands
Burt’s Bees Ingredients (Original): cera alba (beeswax, cire d’abeille), cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, mentha piperita (peppermint) oil, lanolin, tocopherolrosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, glycine soja (soybean) oil, canola oil (huile de colza), limonene.
Chapstick Ingredients (Classic Original): Padimate O, White petrolatum 44%, arachidyl propionate, camphor, carnauba wax, cetyl alcohol, D&C red no. 6 barium lake, FD&C yellow no. 5 aluminum lake, fragrance, isopropyl lanolate, isopropyl myristate, lanolin, light mineral oil, methylparaben, octyldodecanol, oleyl alcohol, paraffin, phenyl trimethicone, propylparaben, titanium dioxide, white wax
Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Lip Moisture: Active: Octinoxate 7.5%…Purpose: Sunscreen, Oxybenzone 4%…Purpose: Sunscreen. Inactive: Castor (Ricinus Communis) Seed Oil, Corn (Zea Mays) Oil, Ozokerite, Petrolatum, Beeswax, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Paraffin, Stearyl Alcohol, Carnauba (Copernicia Cerifera) Wax, BHT.
ChapIce (Original): Petrolatum, Mineral Oil, Ozokerite, Microcrystalline Wax, Trimethicone, Ethylhexyl Dimethyl PABA, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Isopropyl Myristate, Cetyl Alcohol, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Flavor NA, Camphor, Red 6 Lake, Methylparaben
Maybeline Baby Lips: Active Ingredients: Octinoxate (7.5%). Octisalate (3%). Inactive Ingredients: Polybutene, Octyldodecanol, Isopropyl Myristate, Petrolatum, Polyethylene, Ozokerite, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Diisostearyl Malate, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, VP/Hexadecane Copolymer, Silica Dimethyl Silylate, Flavor, Alumina
Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm SPF 25: ACTIVE INGREDIENTS: Octinoxate 7.5%, Avobenzone 3.0%, Petrolatum 40.2%. OTHER INGREDIENTS: Avocado Oil, Beeswax, Butylparaben, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Cocoa Butter, Cyclohexasiloxane, Cyclomethicone, Flavor, Hydroxy Polyester, Isobutylparaben, Isopropylparaben, Lanolin, Microcrystalline Wax, Ozokerite Wax, Polyglyceryl-3 Beeswax, Shea Butter, Tocopheryl Acetate
Smith’s Rosebud Salve: We could not find anywhere that they actually disclose their full ingredients, however we did find this: “Cotton Seed Oil and Aromol, with essential oils blended in a special petrolatum base”
What Are These Ingredients?
Good question! First of all, to call petrolatum a “special base” for lip balm is quite the misnomer. There is really nothing special about petrolatum or petroleum when it comes to putting them into skin or lip care products. Would you rub petroleum on your lips and even lick your lips knowing that is what is on there? This is one of the most common toxic ingredients in lip care products. And here is what the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has to say about petrolatum.
Apart from this, the other common toxic ingredients are parabens, including: methylparaben, butylparaben, isobutylparaben, isopropylparaben.
Toxic Ingredients to Avoid:
- Parabens (Of any kind)
- Petrolatum or Petroleum
- Chemical Fragrance or Flavor (Commonly listed as Fragrance or Parfum)
- Chemical Dyes (Commonly listed with a # next to them)
- Mineral Oil
Toxic Ingredients to Avoid in an SPF Lip Balms:
- Octinoxate
- Oxybenzone
- Avobenzone
- Cinnimate
*SPF lip balms active ingredients should contain only Zinc Oxide or Titanium Dioxide. These are mineral and physical sunscreen ingredients.
In contrast, Beauty by Earth offers a number of great non-toxic, non-GMO, soy free, petroleum and paraben free lip balms in Peppermint, Superfruit, Honey Vanilla, and Unflavored.
Here are Beauty by Earths Lip Balm Ingredients: Beeswax, Sunflower Seed Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Seed Oil, Lanolin, Vitamin E (non-GMO), Natural Flavor, Aloe Vera, Shea Butter and Cocoa Seed Butter. That’s it!
Toxins in lip balm aren’t needed to achieve smooth lips. So, stick with simple, pronounceable, recognizable ingredients derived from the Earth.
Inspire Beauty, Naturally!
Prudence
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Do you or will you have a lip balm and products containing no beeswax. Beeswax contains propolis which is a natural yet very anaphylaxis ingredient for some like myself. I have been trying to locate a non petroleum, non beeswax, non gmo cream or lip balm. I can not locate it anywhere.
Hi Tanis, Thanks for your question. We do not have a vegan lip balm in the immediate future. Yes, what you are looking for is hard to come by because most vegan lip balms are toxic in other ways. Sorry.
Do you have a lip balm with SPF?
Hi Nancy, We do not. The reason for this is that most spf lip balm is formulated with chemical sunscreens so that they appear clear on your lips and we do not use chemicals. So… maybe one day we will formulate one. We will keep everyone posted.
is this lip balm safe if you have a nut allergy since it contains sunflower seed oils and some contain almond oils??
Hi Tracy, if you have severe nut allergies it may not be for you. It doesn’t actually have nut oils in it, but I can’t say that there is absolutely no cross contamination. Thanks.
What is your natural flavor and what are its ingredients?
Hi April, we use many different natural flavor oils, essential oils and the sweetener we use is Stevia. We are actually in the process of moving to a certified organic ingredients formula.
octyldodecanol is a TOXIC SYNTHETIC FRAGRANCE chemical. It has been found to be an irritant and aggravate the toxicity of other toxchems! AVOID AT ALL COSTS, particularly those of us who have MCS, are allergic to fragrances and only use ORGANIC products & foods. Thank you for NOT posting nonsense replies to poster #1!
Hello
Thanks for your article. Very informative indeed. I’m also trying to avoid toxic products. Kindly advise if the following ingredients are safe. There’s a lot of scientific names which I have no understanding at all:
Ricinus communis (Castor) seed oil, Butyrospermum parkii (Shea) butter, Euphorbia cerifera (Candelilla) wax, Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, Caprylic/capric triglycerides, Copemicia cerifera (Carnauba) wax, Cera alba (Beeswax), Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba) seed oil, Butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, Argania spinosa (Argan) kernel oil, Helianthus annus (Sunflower) seed wax, Persea gratissima (Avocado) oil, Tocopheryl acetate, Prunus amygdalus dulcis (Sweet almond) oil, Aroma.
Thank you
Hi. Thanks for your comments and we are glad that this was information information to you on these various brands of lip balm and their ingredients. https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ is a great database for searching these individual ingredients.
Off the bat I can tell you that “Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate” is another name for Octinoxate, which is a chemical sunscreen. Butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane is another name for Avobenzone, which is also a chemical sunscreen. Other than those, these ingredients look okay.
Burts Bees contains soybean oil and canola oil both GMO ingredients. Yikes! I am avoiding GMOs like the plague.
Do your moisturizers contain phthalates?
Hi Jenny,
None of our products contain phthalates.
Best,
Support
Where (brick & mortar store) can I purchase non-fragrance, non-SPF, non-petroleum lip balm, such as Beauty by Earth Lip Balm? I do not order online. I live in NW Georgia, but will drive to Atlanta, if necessary. Thank you.
Hi LR, Thanks for contacting us and it was great talking with you on the phone. As discussed, we are not in any brick & mortar stores in your area. Eventually we will be! We are just a small business right now building up our natural product line, however give us a bit and we will get there. As discussed, we will figure out getting you our products.
Anyone know if STEARYL/OCTADODECYL CITRATE CROSSPOLYMER is safe? Thanks!
Hi John, We checked out this ingredient in the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Database and it rates as a 0, meaning not toxic. Here is a link: https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/861725/STEARYL/OCTADODECYL_CITRATE_CROSSPOLYMER/