What do you protect your lips?

The skin that covers the lips is very fine, so it works worse as a skin barrier and barely retains moisture.To relieve the symptoms of dryness, we all use the protectors or lip balms.

These products base their composition on waxes, which are those that provide hydration and avoid dehydration.These waxes can be of natural origin, or a product derived from oil: in the light of the results of our latest study, it is the first ones that we advise to use, by presenting greater safety guarantees, since mineral oils can contain some impuritiesToxic, the MOSH (Oils Saturated Hydrocarbons) and Moah (Oils Aromatic Hydrocarbons).These substances, if they are ingested (something that is not crazy in the case of lip protectors) can become harmful to what we recommend avoiding those products.

Opt for natural protection

Natural waxes can be of animal or plant origin.The most used are, above all, that of bee (Alba Wax), and Carnauba vegetables (Copernicia Cerafera Cera) and Candelilla (Euphorbia Cerifera).Other products resort to cocoa butter or karité, olive oils, jojoba, rich ... These natural substances do not present security problems if they are ingested, although in some cases they may not be indicated for people suffering from allergies or are atopic.

These products have the mission of moisturizing and protecting, and according to our study, they effectively do so.

Mineral oils: the problem is in impurities

Mineral oils are a complex mixture of oil -derived substances, widely used in cosmetics due to its great functionality.They are safe ingredients, whose use is allowed by the European standard on cosmetics (1223/2009), although this regulation requires that the refining history be known and it is verified that there are no toxic substances.

Specifically, it refers to MOSH and Moah, impurities generated by poor oil refinement, which can be toxic if they are ingested.Precisely, in a product destined to be used on the lips, such as lip protector, this is especially worrying.That is why OCU, like other European consumers organizations, asks that legal security limits be established, today non -existent.

Moah can alter DNA and cause cancer.MOSH accumulate in tissues, lymphatic nodules, spleen and liver and can cause microgranulomas.In other products its use is not so problematic, but they should be limited to food products or other products that we could ingest.

Our analysis has revealed that in the lip protectors made with mineral oils were these substances in quantities greater than the recommended maximum, so we do not advise their use.

Ingredients that should be avoided

Our advice is, as a precaution, avoid the lip protectors that have any of these ingredients in their composition:

To discover which are the recommended protectors, consult our study.