You've definitely heard about Vaseline and its healing and moisturising properties: at least your mother would have advised you to put Vaseline on rough skin areas, nails or lips. Vaseline is especially very effective on lips during winter months, when your lips get dehydrated and become chapped or flacky. Many women claim that no other lip balm helps to tackle the problem of chapped lips as good as Vaseline. But, is it really harmless to use Vaseline on lips?
Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly based products owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. It's been around since 1872. So, it has had a long history to prove to be effective and many people have tested it. American Academy of Dermatologists encourages the use of Vaseline to quickly repair and keep chapped lips moisturised. This is due to a mixture of mineral oils, waxes and paraffin in Vaseline which melts into skin's barriers strengthening and repairing them.
However, there is a group of opponents who claim that Vaseline might be responsible for causing cancer. Before being refined, this petroleum jelly includes some carcinogenic elements which might possibly cause cancer. Nevertheless, good news is, there are no clinical studies to say that short-term or long-term use of Vaseline on lips might cause cancer or any other health risks.
Also, Environmental Working Group, which is a Washington based non-profit environmental research organisation, has reviewed safety of Vaseline petroleum jelly and classified it as "Low" hazard and having zero risk of causing cancer.
So, it seems that you don't need to worry about the possible harmful effects of Vaseline any more. The only thing you need to consider is that Vaseline creates a protective layer on your lips that restricts from letting out toxins. To prevent this, just give your lips some breaks from Vaseline and don't use it excessively.
What are your thoughts about Vasaline? Please share your experience of using this product in the comments.
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