Lip Balm/Bomb ?

If you live in the south, or any other place where folks tend to drop their l’s the chances are that you have heard the word balm as in lip balm pronounced bahm . Isn’t it funny how in the southern/dropped l pronunciation that a word that once meant healing and soothing balm now sound like sounds like something that is harmful,destructive, a harbinger of death,something that means you harm or a bomb. So which pronunciation of the word is correct? It depends on the ingredients in the lip balm. Some actually are healing and others, rather they mean to or not can actually do you harm.
    If you look closely at the ingredients on a tube of lip balm you may see things like blue  lake #40,red dye #5,proply and methly parabens or any ten letter word with the letters x,y,or z. Many lip balms,lip glosses,and lipsticks for that matter have artificial colors. These colors have been tested for safety in minute amounts,but long-term use has linked some  these colors to tumors,kidney issues, and cancer.The phrase pretty but deadly comes to mind.

    The ten letter words on the side of your lip balm are most likely perservatives.They are in lip balms because alot of  bodycare products contain water and that has bacteria in it. Parabens are bacteria killers, as a side effect they tend to dry skin and hair. There was also a limited British study done on about 20 women that found 18 of them had prabens in their cancerous tumors. There defiantly needs to  be further study on parabens and while we cant say that parabens cause cancer they do get absorbed by your skin. They also end up in your blood stream and fat cells no matter if you ingest them or apply them topically,plus  no studies have been done on how parabens react with other chemicals.

    The major ingredient in lip many lip balms is petroleum,which is unrefined gasoline. Now I’m gonna give you asecond to re-read that and absorb it. Go ahead I’ll wait. Yes really they use gasoline in your lip balm,you are slathering diesel all over your lips and its getting in your mouth too!!! I know your saying my lip balm dosent smell like or taste like gas. Y’all remember the story of how coal miners used canaries ( plus its a great song by the Police) in coal mines right? Coal and natural gas  go hand in hand. Well gas in its natural state has no color or smell( the government made the industry add color and smell later so we all wouldnt accidentally kill ourselves). So they used to take canaries in the mines and keep an eye on them. When the little birdies bit the dust the miners knew they had to get out of the mine,well petroleum is a similar odorless, colorless substance.       Oh yeah its also flammable. Folks on oxygen in hospitals are not allowed to use lip balms with petroleum because when the oxygen reacts with it their lips get burned. When you use lip balms with nasty ingredients you get burned too,only you might not notice it for a while.

         So what are you going to do? Walk around with crusty,cracked,chapped ashy lips? Dont despair there are safe lip balms that actually live up to the name balm. There are companies who use natural preservatives and safe,healing  ingredients. You want to look for things like almond ,jojoba,coconut,hemp, shea,olive and vitamin e oils/butters and beeswax.These are used as the main ingredient in the lip balm. Some natural bodycare companies like to use essential oils, like rosemary,neem, and peppermint, as preservatives. Basically anything you can eat is pretty much safe in a lip balm. Go to any independent health food store and ask them to show you to their natural lip balms. Some companies that I really like who make great lip balm are : Kiss my face, Merry Hempsters,Dr Bronner,Navitas,DessertEssence, Organix South,Nanaks,Lily Organics,Himalaya just to name a few ( keep an eye out for a review)Remember to read the lable to find out if you are using lip balm or a lip bomb.