Can we develop a dependency on lip balm?

Lip balms are everyday products that are easy to carry around. Their function is simple: to hydrate and protect the lips from external aggressions, such as cold or dry air. Lip balms are often formulated with emollient agents, ingredients that help promote the accumulation of water in the stratum corneum, as well as healing actives, such as panthenol or Centella asiatica, useful for preventing chapped lips. However, despite all their benefits, they are sometimes accused of causing dependency.

This idea of addiction originates from the following observation: some people, after starting to regularly use a lip balm, describe the need to apply it more and more frequently. This behavior would suggest that this type of product creates a vicious cycle where the more lip balm is applied, the more one wants to use it, which corresponds to the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of addiction: "a state of periodic or chronic dependence on substances or behaviors". However, at present, no scientific evidence supports the idea that a lip balm can cause a true addiction.

• Lip balms do not contain ingredients that could potentially cause addiction.

  There are no active ingredients in a lip balm formula that can cause an addictive phenomenon. Unlike substances such as nicotine or opioids, the components of lip balms do not alter the brain's signaling pathways and do not lead to addictive behavior. The sensation of needing to apply a balm repeatedly is therefore more related to individual perceptions than to a real biological mechanism.

• The need that some people may feel to constantly apply lip balm is more akin to a habit than an addiction.

  The idea of dependency may also stem from a confusion with the legitimate need to protect lips damaged by the cold. When we apply a lip balm, we often feel immediate comfort and a reduction in tightness. This positive response could, in some people, encourage more frequent applications, not out of necessity, but to regain this pleasant sensation. While some describe addictive behavior on certain forums, it seems more likely to be a deeply ingrained reflex or a tic rather than an addiction in the medical sense of the term. However, we cannot rule out that, in rare cases, some individuals may develop a psychological attachment to lip balm, as they could with any everyday object. However, this is more likely the result of underlying anxiety and is not related to the product itself.

While the idea of a lip balm addiction may seem plausible at first glance, it does not rest on any solid scientific foundation.