Some call it the “lip balm addiction”: You dab on a lip treatment, only to find your pout more chapped and flaky than before, so you apply again, and again, and again—and the merciless cycle continues. You may think: Am I just making my chapped lips worse? In terms of lip plumpers, many formulas rely on spicy, heat-inducing essential oils (like cinnamon oil) to stimulate your blood vessels and cause them to expand, which results in a “swollen” appearance and, thus, a plumper pout. But these potent oils can also cause irritation on the delicate lip area, sometimes even contact dermatitis for those with sensitive skin. So you might be better off opting for a plumper that calls on hyaluronic acid instead—the ingredient can pull in up to 1,000 times its weight in water, which helps your parched lips become plump with moisture (think of how you might run a dry sponge under water and watch it rise with hydration). Essentially, they can pull water from the deeper layers of the dermis into the outermost layer—and without any occlusives to trap in the moisture, the water can easily evaporate on that top layer of skin, which can leave your lips drier than they were before. “It more suffocates the skin than anything else,” says board-certified dermatologist Ava Shamban, M.D., founder of SKINFIVE. “The molecular structure is simply too large so it can both clog pores, cause a disruption or even damage to the skin barrier, and ultimately increase transepidermal water loss.” We also would suggest steering clear of mineral oil, given its environmental concerns and the mere argument that the sort of things you put on your skin should be beneficial; you can simply find better ingredients to actively replenish the skin barrier with healthy lipids and antioxidants (read moringa seed oil, shea butter, etc.), as opposed to one that just sits atop it to keep water locked in.
