When I moved from Hawaii to San Francisco for college, I was plagued with an annoying problem - super duper dry cracked, chapped lips! I don’t know if it was due to my allergies, licking my lips, or the newer colder and slightly drier climate, but my lips were a mess. My roommate was always disgusted as I would pick off the dry skin every day, which would then lead to bleeding. I tried every lip balm on the market, and even got a special lip balm at the Dermatologist, which didn’t do much. My lips were still horrible and people were always asking me what was wrong with them. Vaseline worked okay, but it would wear off after 10 minutes. Aquaphor was okay too, but nothing special.

One day I noticed my lips were looking good, and that’s when I realized I had found a product that actually worked - ChapStick Moisturizer - the blue ChapStick (I don’t like the Vanilla Mint or tube variations). I had used their black ChapStick (the original one), the Red cherry one, the medicated ones, and a few others, but there’s something about the blue one that is different! I’ve been using it every day for several years now, and I have tons of them laying around the house everywhere. They’re only 99 cents at Target, and they have an SPF 15! As fabulous as it is, to keep the ChapStick on longer, I usually need to coat it with lipgloss, or Kiehl’s Lip Balm #1. Currently, my favorite lipglosses are Lancome Juicy Tubes (when I want to splurge) and L’oreal ColourJuice. And if my lips are really dry in the morning, I just buff them for a minute with a washcloth before applying the ChapStick.