How to Find the Best Vegan Lip Balm for Your Needs

Lip balm is one of the few skincare products that people of all genders will have in their home. They might even have a designated purse lip balm, a bedroom lip balm, and an office lip balm since they are small, easy to transport, and can be used liberally throughout the day.

Unfortunately, lip balm is also a sneaky category where a lot of brands use ingredients that are not eco-friendly and vegan. Most popular brands, like ChapStick, Aquaphor, and Burt’s Bees, use a combination of petrolatum, mineral oil, paraffin, menthol, parfum, beeswax, and lanolin. But none of these products are good for the planet or your pout. 

If you’re looking for the best vegan lip balm to fit your needs, read on so you can avoid regretting your next impulse buy at the drugstore.

What Makes a Great Vegan Lip Balm? 

A great vegan lip balm should be nourishing and hydrating while also softening and soothing. One would think that every formula on the market would attempt to achieve the above bare minimum, but many of them don’t in order to create medicated, scented, or tinted formulas—causing your lips to never truly be moisturized despite your consistent application.

Other positives of a great formula would be that it helps protect your lips against the elements, such as harsh wind, heat, and pollution. This leads many brands to include ingredients like petrolatum to block out weather altogether; unfortunately, these ingredients do more harm than good as they clog your pores and suffocate your skin, ultimately leading to water loss.

What Ingredients to Avoid in Your Lip Balm

The most common waxes and oils you will find in drugstore lip balms are petrolatum and beeswax. Petrolatum should be avoided for a multitude of reasons. When petrolatum is refined down to what is considered “safe” for cosmetic use, the process uses chemical agents and heat, which allows the possibility of contamination. Petrolatum in its oil form—a.k.a., mineral oil—is petrochemical-derived, making it not an eco-friendly ingredient. Even if you could get past all of the environmental concerns, petrolatum’s molecular size is also too large, which can clog pores and disrupt your skin’s natural barrier when applied. 

Popular brands—like ChapStick, Aquaphor, and Flower Beauty—will still include petrolatum as it does create a barrier between your skin and the elements, and because it’s cheap. But there are plenty of eco-friendly, vegan, and skin-nurturing ingredients that can both keep the weather out and your skin healthy. 

Lastly, did you know that fragrances are considered to be proprietary blends? This means that the fragrances in all of your skincare, including your vegan lip balm, do not have to be disclosed and are unregulated. If you’re trying to find the ideal lip balm for your skincare routine, transparency is key to finding your golden product.

Is Your Lip Balm Vegan?

By way of the effort to make lip balms cleaner, many brands have turned to non-vegan resources, specifically beeswax and lanolin. Both help hydrate and lock in moisture without clogging your pores, however they are both co-products of the farming industry.

Lanolin is an oil that is secreted from a sheep’s skin and is extracted from wool after it is sheared. While producing lanolin may not require killing the animals directly, many farmers raise sheep for meat, wool, and their co-products simultaneously to get the biggest bang for their buck for brands like Lano.

Beeswax is a co-product of bee farming and requires an incredible amount of effort by bees to offer up the smallest amount of product needed for skincare. For context, bees will visit 30 million flowers to produce six to eight pounds of honey to then produce only one pound of wax. Bees produce honey to sustain themselves through the winter; commercial beekeepers take it away from their hives and replace it with a sugar solution for brands like Burt’s Bees. Luckily, there are plenty of other natural ingredients available to us so we can spare the bees and let the bees use their own supply. 

Reasons Why Your Lips are Dry

Did you know your lips might be chapped from the food you eat, the products you use, or the weather? Many of us assume it’s just the weather as that’s when we feel it the most—from harsh winds or hot temperatures. But you can also be contributing to your own pain by using medicated balms that you assume are designed to help you or by eating spicy foods. The tingly, icy feeling you get when you apply is what actually dries you out further. 

Additionally, any food or topical oil that is spicy, such as cinnamon oil used in lip plumpers, causes your blood vessels to swell and can cause irritation. Unless you take care of your lips with an emollient, soothing, all-natural balm, you are likely going to be caught in a vicious cycle of dehydration and reapplication.

What Lip Product is Best for You?

There are thousands of lip products on the market that are designed for every generation, gender, lifestyle, and function in mind. You will find glosses with hydrating ingredients, balms with plumping ingredients, medicated balms, lipstick with skincare ingredients, lip butter, lip masks…the list is truly exhausting. What’s worse is that most of them are very similar products; the only difference is the marketing and packaging. The only things you need to focus on are the quality of the ingredients, if they are vegan and ethically sourced, and if the packaging is eco-friendly. Luckily, J&L Naturals has an incredible option for you so you do not have to look any further.

Everything You Need to Know About the J&L Naturals Lip Balm

We might be biased, but we think you’re going to be obsessed with our eco-friendly, all-natural lip balm. Here are four reasons why:

1. Ingredients: The J&L Naturals lip balm is packed with all-natural ingredients, such as coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, shea butter, and candelilla wax, for a nutrient-rich formula of antioxidants and vitamin E that will lock in moisture while still allowing a breathable barrier.
2. Texture: The texture is a mix between an oil and balm that leaves a non-sticky residue easy to wear all day or all night.
3. Compostable Packaging: While the majority of lip balms on the market are in plastic tubes, ours are in biodegradable packaging that can be composted or placed in a recycling bin.
4. Flavors: You can choose between seven different flavors: Naked, Peppermint & Eucalyptus, Lemongrass & Clove, Mint, Strawberry & Vanilla, Bergamot & Lavender, and Lemon & Ylang Ylang. No matter if you’re looking for a nostalgic and sweet combo (Strawberry & Vanilla), an uplifting classic scent (Mint), or no scent at all (Naked), we’re positive you will find one you love in our lineup.
5. Price: Other comparable brands can be upwards of $30 for a vegan, eco-friendly lip balm, treatment, or mask, but ours is $5.99.

Longtime vegans and eco-friendly shoppers know that it’s hard to find a lip balm that checks all of the boxes; vegan, eco-friendly, and clean. Thousands of shoppers have already become obsessed with our lip balm. Will you be next? Get yours today.