Yes, it is bad. It damages our lips in 2 ways:
Damage 1 – Dehydration
It dehydrates our lips. Lip dehydration will lead to cracked lips.
But how does a flavoured lip balm lead to dehydrated lips? Keep reading…
When the lip balm tastes yum, we have to taste it. It is almost impossible to stop licking our lips if the balm tastes good. It becomes a habit. When you lick your lips, you leave saliva on the lips. This saliva gradually evaporates, taking with it the hydration from the lips. Over time, lips lose a lot of their hydration this way. This makes lips dehydrated.
Dehydrated lips lead to cracked lips.
This dehydration feeds more dehydration. Let me explain…
Dehydration weakens the lips’ barrier function. A weak barrier cannot prevent moisture loss through evaporation, which means more moisture loss from the lips through evaporation, which translates to more dehydration, which means worsening of the cracked lips.
Damage 2 – Pigmentation on lips
Cracked lips lead to irritation on the lips. Irritation eventually leads to pigmentation. Pigmentation is the dark spots on lips. It is hard to get rid of pigmentation once it occurs. So it is always easier to prevent pigmentation.
Flavoured lip balms can be deceptive because they might give the impression that they are effective when, in reality, they are not. This is a common problem with scented skincare products that feel and smell good. These products can mislead us into thinking they are effective, leading us to continued use and potentially causing more harm.