Especially in autumn and winter, many people suffer from chapped and sometimes painfully cracked lips and torn corners of the mouth. The first impulse is always to apply a lip balm to restore elasticity and moisture to the supposedly dry lips.

 

What most people don't realise is that chapped lips and cracked corners of the mouth are not caused by a lack of moisture, but by too much moisture. An oily lipstick can even make the inflammatory cracks worse.

So: Hands off the grease pencil!

Zinc ointment (available from pharmacies) absorbs excess moisture from the lips and also has an anti-inflammatory effect.