This is the story of a break up…cue the sad music…

Last Friday my lips started tingling and felt like they were on fire.  If I remember back correctly, Thursday they started feeling really dry and tight, but I have a history of dry lips so I didn’t think anything of it.

When I woke on Saturday, they were still tight and burning and I started thinking something was definitely wrong.  So, what do you do when you need answers? Turn to Google of course!  After self diagnosing myself (don’t we all in this digital age), I narrowed it down to an allergic reaction, a burn of some sort or a cold sore.  I didn’t use anything new or eat anything different so I dismissed allergic reaction and I hadn’t been out in the sun or had anything on my lips that should have given me a burn.  By Saturday afternoon I was starting to worry it was a cold sore.  I’ve never had one before but I read that you get a tingly, sometimes burning sensation before one starts and I could see red splotches on my lip even there were no full blown blisters yet.  I bought abreva and Herpecin at the drugstore just in case and applied them separately that night and the next day.

Now we’re on to Sunday…my lips finally stopped burning and were starting to feel somewhat normal again.  I read that a cold sore erupts within 48hrs of the tingling/burning sensation so I was starting to think that maybe it wasn’t that.  I was happy to be on the mend, but still puzzled as to what happened to my lips!  I was only using aquaphor at this point because I wanted them to be free of any irritants while they were healing.

Fast Forward to Monday…I had a coffee date with a local blogger (who is instantly an IRL friend now and is just as sweet in person as online).  It was our first time meeting and my lips were a mess!  What a first impression, eh?  lol.  They were feeling pretty good that morning, but by the time I got to the cafe my lips had soaked up most of the aquaphor and were starting to peel.  I hadn’t really been out for extended periods of time since my lips started doing this freaky thing and I usually have lip balm in my purse, but of course, I had nothing in there when I really needed it.  If you knew me, you’d know that not having lip balm is so unlike me.  I have lip balm stashed everywhere…usually!

As soon as I got in my car I grabbed my favorite EOS mint lip balm out of the console and slathered it on.  I was slightly hesitant because I knew the mint flavor was a little tingly, but my lips just needed something, anything to get hydrated until I could get home and put aquaphor on them.  Unfortunately, about 2 min after I put the EOS on, my mind started racing and wondering if maybe my beloved lip balm could be the reason my lips were jacked up.  I quickly found a spot to pull the car over so I could google it (seriously, what would we do without smart phones?!) and low and behold, I found a couple hits (here and here) on the first page!

Noooooooooo!  And I put it on my lips just when they were starting to get better!  I immediately fumbled for a napkin in my glove box and frantically started wiping all of it off my lips!

Of course, they were burning now again and they still needed hydrating.  Off I went to track down a drugstore so I could buy some aquaphor, ASAP!

Here what my lips looked like 2 hours after I mistakenly applied the lip balm yesterday…you can see the red dots/bumps/irritation.

click pic to see them larger

They were not inflamed like this that morning, it only got bad again after applying the EOS mint balm (even though I wiped it off 5 min after applying it!).  Now, I can’t be 100% that EOS lip balms were the culprit.  I’m only accounting what actually happened in my experience, but I’m sure enough never to use one again!  Which makes me super sad to say.  I took photos recently of my little egg balms and was going to write a post about how much I loved them.  I’ve been using them for a couple of months now and was just telling Eric that it was becoming an obsession because I felt the urge to buy every new one they came out with.  I mean, I just purchased this orange medicated version less than a week ago…

but it’s now in the trash with the rest of them.  🙁

So, farewell my cute little 95% natural ingredient, egg shaped lovelies.  It was good while it lasted and you will be missed (although it would make moving on a lot easier if I didn’t have to see your face every time I checked out in the Target line!), but I’m apparently better off without you
and there are plenty of fish in the sea!