Hunting down the best lip balm is important: The skin on your lips is thinner than it is on the rest of your body, so it’s also the most prone to dryness and cracking. Threats to your lips come from everywhere: sunburn, windburn, cold and dry air, bacteria, cold sores, you name it. (It’s a rough world out there for your kisser.) For all these reasons, you need a plan to keep that skin strong and smooth—and that solution comes packed into a tiny tube or tin.
A great lip balm should be chock-full of nourishing oils like sunflower, castor, or tea tree, and skin-smoothing butters like cocoa or shea. Highly concentrated balms prevent dryness and cuts from worsening, while preserving existing moisture and protecting lips from the daily assault of the outside world. Whether you’re treating chapped lips or preventing the next parching, we rounded up 11 of our favorite balms (after testing a ton of them), to help you ID the best lip balm for your specific needs.
The Best Lip Balms Shopping Guide
The Best Lip Balm Overall: Aquaphor Lip Repair
It doesn’t matter if you spend your free time scanning subreddits or are a wee skin care newbie—if you’ve done even the scantest of research on lip care, chances are you’ve come across Aquaphor’s Lip Repair. Formulated with a moisturizing blend of vitamins, shea butter, and soothing chamomile, the lightweight ointment seals in moisture for lips that feel smooth all day (it’s also fragrance-free, making it great for for sensitive skin). The real draw point of this best-seller, though, might be the price—a 2-pack rings in at under $10. The grooming space is crowded with no shortage of buzzy upstarts, but Aquaphor’s no-frills balm continues to set the standard.
The Best Lip Balm for Overnight Recovery: Kiehl’s Buttermask for Lips
If your lips are feeling particularly rough this winter, it’s time to call in the reinforcements, a.k.a. an ultra-moisturizing lip treatment specifically designed to soothe and repair while you catch those blissful Zs. We like Kiehl’s emollient-rich lip mask, which is packed with mango butter and softening coconut oil, because it goes on smooth, leaves a lightweight finish, and packs a hefty punch. Slather on before hitting the sack and wake up to lips so smooth you’ll feel like you’re still dreaming.
The Best Lip Balm for the Beach: Supergoop PLAY Lip Balm SPF 30
It’s no secret that we love Supergoop. The entire brand is built off the premise that everyone needs to wear more sunscreen, so it’s no surprise that their excellent PLAY lip balm is rated SPF 30. The liquid balm, a blend of shea butter and natural oils, is easy to apply thanks to a squeeze tip and angled applicator and feels lightweight and genuinely nourishing. It’s available in two subtle flavors, acai and mint.
The Best Scent-Free Lip Balm: Dr Rogers Lip Balm
This dermatologist-made lip balm consists of just three all-natural ingredients: Castor oil, castor wax, and candelilla wax. That trio needs to sign a binding contract because they work damn well together. The scent-free, vegan balm is super-soothing, and one of the lightest and smoothest we’ve tried.
The Best Water-Resistant Lip Balm: Oars + Alps Shine-Free Lip Balm with SPF 18
Insider tip: Go with the Island Lime scented version of this balm, which is sweet and coconutty and subtly slips into your nostrils before dissipating. (It’s one of our favorites.) Of course, scent here is merely a bonus—this balm succeeds because its combination of shea butter, vitamin E, and beeswax keeps lips well-coated and moisturized. Its broad-spectrum SPF is also sweat- and water-resistant for 80 minutes.
The Best Mint Lip Balm: C.O. Bigelow Herbal Mint All-Purpose Salve
Founded in 1848, C.O. Bigelow is the oldest apothecary in America and their all-purpose salves have helped sooth and heal chapped lips and dry skin for generations. The Herbal Mint version is one of their latest salves and it heals and hydrates with a combination of peppermint oil, squalane, lanolin, and cottonseed oil. It leaves your lips feeling moisturized, and the peppermint oil adds a lovely flavor and tingle. Be forewarned: Use only a small amount, as a little goes a very long way. (Psst: It looks like it’s sold out on their site, but is available in a three-pack with two other unique scents.)
The Best Lip Balm Flavor Range: Rocky Mountain Barber Company Lip Balm
The folks at Rocky Mountain Barber Co hand-pour their lip balms in small batches to ensure all-natural ingredients like beeswax, shea butter, and coconut oil are as fresh as possible. Their roll-on balms are long-lasting and moisturizing and quickly healed chapped lips. They’re sold in a four-pack, each one bearing a different scent: vanilla coffee, peppermint, maple, and orange brandy. So if you like the idea of rotating in and out different scents, they’re a fun choice.
The Best Lip Balm with SPF: Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm
Don’t wait to find out the hard way: Your lips need SPF protection, too. Jack Black’s excellent balm uses SPF 25 to shield your kisser from UV rays, and also delivers just the right amount of vitamin E and green tea, which further protects against skin-aging toxins.
The Best All-Natural Lip Balm: Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Organic Lip Balm
One of our favorite Dr. Bronner’s products is this diminutive-seeming beeswax balm, which uses organic oils to hydrate and soften the lips. Jojoba, avocado, and hemp deliver nourishment and moisture, while an extra sprig of peppermint finishes the job with a telltale tingle of freshness.
The Best Scented Lip Balm: Malin+Goetz Mojito Lip Balm
Malin+Goetz’s mojito-scented, gel-based balm uses fatty acids to soften and plump the lips on contact, while shielding them from further strain. It’s in a squeeze tube, instead of a roll-on stick, so it’s easy to share some with anyone you’re smooching. (Logistically speaking, this shouldn’t have concerned you in the first place, but still.) It’s also easier to distribute on skin cuts or hang nails, which might give you the best-smelling cuticles this side of the Mississippi.
The Best Prescription-Grade Lip Balm: Burt’s Bees Medicated Moisturizing Lip Balm
If you’ve got more than simply chapped lips—we’re talking cold sores and fever blisters—then speed up the recovery process with this menthol- and eucalyptus-infused drugstore favorite. (It goes without saying that it works as a supercharged balm to standard-level dryness, too.)
The Best Lip Balm That Feels Like Skin Care: Aesop Cedar & Citrus Lip Salve
What better way to treat your lips to a little much needed R&R than with a salve reliably employed at the swankiest of spas? The Aussie skin care whizzes at Aesop employ a nourishing blend of castor seed oil and refreshing citrus, which allows their all-natural formula to lather on like a top-shelf gel moisturizer.
The Best Splurge-Worthy Lip Balm: Dr. Barbara Sturm’s Lip Balm
Trust us: Your kissers will never feel as luscious as they do after you apply a dollop of this luxe tin. Dr. Barbara Sturm’s formula blends shea butter, avocado oil, coconut oil, beeswax, and Vitamin E to guarantee you the most buttery-smooth, radiant pucker in a 5-mile radius.
The Best Multi-Purpose Lip Balm: Smith’s Rosebud Salve
Lips dry, hands dry, body dry all over? You can buy a targeted balm to slather on or stock up on this one-for-all best-seller. Rich in smoothing oils that’ll lock in moisture while unlocking an ungodly glow, a tin of Rosebud Salve will leave you feeling ultra-soft—sans the greasy feel. Feel free to apply with impunity; you can touch up dry spots, wherever, whenever, to thwart surprise cracks in the dead of winter.
The Best Lip Balm for Winter Defense: O’Keefe’s Lip Repair SPF 35 Lip Balm Stick
Between the sun and wind exposure at high altitudes (or even on standard-fare, low-elevation locales), you need a lip balm that can shield you from the gnarliest elements. O’Keeffe’s dry skin- busting balm is made for the guy who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, but with a whopping SPF 35 added to the mix, you can keep your paws nice and smooth—and mercifully UV-damage free.
The Best Exfoliating Lip Balm: Cosrx Lip Plump
Exfoliation isn’t typically top of mind for the lips, unless you choose to deploy a gritty lip scrub. But there are some low-grade hydroxy acid formulas that help break down dead skin and leave your lips supremely smooth. CosRx’s recipe combines both core types of hydroxy acids (that’s alpha and beta) to help soften lips while you sleep. It’s technically a “mask” and not a “balm”, so don’t use it as your daily hydrator—rather, apply a little bit whenever you get cracked and peely, rather than picking at the dead skin yourself.
What to Look For In a Lip Balm
When it comes to selecting lip balm, Dr. Bruce A. Brod, a Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, advises his patients to seek those that have fewer ingredients. “Too many ingredients and especially flavorings and other botanical type ingredients increase the risk of patients becoming allergic to one of those, causing an allergic contact dermatitis around the lips,” says Brod, who offered his expertise here but did not make any product recommendations for this story. Effective lip balm ingredients that help repair damaged skin and seal-in moisture, he says, include petroleum jelly, shea butter, ceramides, and dimethicone. In terms of application, Dr. Brod says lip balm should be applied every one to two hours, including before bed. If you find that your lips are persistently dry, cracked, and red, he advises seeking care from a dermatologist.
