Lanolin has gotten a bad rap as a cosmetic ingredient. If you’re vegan/vegetarian, you skip products with lanolin, since it does come from sheep (it’s basically the wax that moisturizes their wool). But for the rest of us, some lanolin is labeled cruelty-free, and the past major complaint about it—that people were allergic to it—doesn’t really have any validity today, since it’s been discovered that the problem was with the purity of the lanolin, not the lanolin itself. Most people, in fact, aren’t allergic.
For me, lanolin is a magical ingredient that takes the place of petroleum jelly for healing really dry skin. Over this cold winter, I’ve had some issues with dryness around my mouth, and a product called Lanolip, made from nearly all lanolin, has been my savior (full disclosure: I got my first package free through their PR agency, but now buy my own!). It treats both the dryness around the mouth and chapped lips, keeping them supple, plump, and pretty. I tried numerous other lip balms, from solid cocoa butter to concoctions with all kinds of natural and essential oils, and using lanolin is the only thing that’s worked with any success. I just ran out of Lanolip, in fact, and sure enough, the dryness is back!
Petroleum jelly and mineral oil products actually can be really irritating for many people, rather than healing. If you have similarly chapped lips and skin around the mouth and you aren’t allergic to lanolin, give it a try.
