Lip Service

Doesn't winter suck? I know I keep waxing lyrical about tweeds and leather boots, or sounding positively Julie Andrews-esque as I talk about warm woollen mittens, and, okay, I do enjoy a Gingerbread Latte or ten. But: the hair frizz! The dried skin from biting cold winds and too much central heating! The mottled hands from constantly losing my gloves! The ugh, the everything!

The biggest body victim each winter is my lips -- I'm a lip licker, especially when I'm stressed. I constantly suck, bite, lick and chew on my own face, like a reaver, when I'm writing or drawing, or whatever. (I'm doing it right now.) Add this saliva overdose to the wintery weather, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Luckily, I am a lipbalm addict. I should go to Lipbalm Anonymous meetings and take the twelve-step plan. Except I'm assuming that one of those steps would be to give up the 'balm. That I cannot do. I was clearing out my handbag yesterday, since it had become so heavy, and discovered I was toting around no fewer than SIXTEEN lip balms, glosses, and sticks. Sixteen.

A quick rummage in my coat and jean pockets confirmed that the total about my person was an almost-too-embarrassing-to-confess twenty-one. You read that correctly: in addition to the sixteen in my bag, I had scattered some further five balms throughout my pockets, just in case.

Because the thing is, winter can have its great moments: drinking peppermint hot chocolate by the fireside, eating Lebkuchen whilst watching The Great Escape for the hundredth time, kissing your honey...and what fun is kissing with chapped, winter lips? To make your winter magical, dip a finger into one of these:


Burts Bees Beeswax Lipbalm Tin, $3.00, from Burts Bees; Rose & Co. Apothecary Sweet Violet Salve, £5.00, from Rose & Co; Carmex, $1.49, from CVS; Smith's Rosebud Salve, $6.00, from Sephora; Sheer Gold Lip Shimmer salve, £5.00 from Liz Earle; L'Occitane Honey Harvest Creamy Honey Lip Balm, $10.00, from Kiss Fix; Benetint Lipbalm, $20.00 from Benefit; Lip Service, £3.95, from Lush; Vaseline Lip Therapy with Aloe Vera, £0.96, from Boots; Kiehl's Moisturising Lipgloss in Black Raspberry, $11.50, from Kiehl's.