How to Treat Chapped Lips: A Dermatologist Routine

Treating chapped lips is less about finding the right product than about removing the things keeping them raw and then applying something bland often enough. The American Academy of Dermatology’s guidance runs on that logic, and it comes with a deadline: noticeable improvement should arrive within two to three weeks.

The routine

1. Apply a non-irritating balm several times a day and before bed. Frequency does more work here than any single ingredient.
2. Use a thick ointment when lips are very dry and cracked — white petroleum jelly is the AAD’s named example, because an ointment seals in water longer than a wax or an oil.
3. Put SPF 30 or higher on before going outdoors, containing titanium oxide or zinc oxide, reapplied every two hours while you are out, in every season.
4. Stop licking, biting and picking. When you catch yourself, apply balm instead — the AAD frames it as a substitution, because willpower alone rarely breaks the habit.
5. Drink through the day. Chapped lips are dry lips.
6. Run a humidifier, especially in the bedroom and especially if you breathe through your mouth at night; clean it regularly so it does not grow mold.
7. Keep metal off your lips. Paperclips, jewelry and other everyday metal objects irritate skin that is already sensitive.

Ingredients in, ingredients out

Look for: castor seed oil, ceramides, dimethicone, hemp seed oil, mineral oil, petrolatum, shea butter, white petroleum jelly, and the sun-protective minerals titanium oxide and zinc oxide. Fragrance-free and hypoallergenic on the label are worth the search.

Stop using while lips are chapped: camphor, eucalyptus, lanolin, menthol, phenol or phenyl, propyl gallate, salicylic acid, octinoxate, oxybenzone, fragrance, and cinnamon, citrus, mint or peppermint flavoring. The AAD lists all of these as irritants for chapped lips, and warns that the tingle many people read as a product working is the irritation itself.

If you are on isotretinoin

Dry, cracked lips are among the most common effects of the medication and they clear when the course ends. The AAD’s own instruction for that situation is specific: SPF 30 or higher balm outdoors, and petroleum jelly applied throughout the day and before bed indoors. Treat it as maintenance for the length of the course rather than as a problem to solve once.

When self-care is the wrong tool

If two to three weeks of the routine above has not moved anything, the AAD’s advice is to see a board-certified dermatologist, because something other than dry weather is likely responsible: an allergic reaction, a yeast infection, or actinic cheilitis — a precancerous condition that turns one or both lips dry and scaly and needs treating rather than moisturizing.

Cracks confined to the two corners of the mouth are a separate diagnosis and will not clear on balm alone; see angular cheilitis symptoms and the side-by-side in chapped lips vs angular cheilitis. To work out what is causing yours in the first place, start with chapped lips causes.

This content is informational and does not replace consultation with a board-certified dermatologist.