By Thom Watson, founder of Phatstix, who has spent nearly two decades in beauty, a qualified beauty therapist, and the person who spent 15+ formulations obsessing over what a proper balm actually needs to contain.
A good lip care routine is: keep your lips clean, apply a nourishing balm when they need it (morning, night, before anything drying), and protect them from the things that cause chapping in the first place. That's it. You don't need a separate lip mask, an exfoliating device, or a shelf of serums. One solid balm, used consistently, will do the job.
Published June 2026. Last updated June 2026.
What does a lip care routine actually need to do?
Your lips have no oil glands. None. That means they can't self-moisturise the way the rest of your face can. They depend entirely on the lipids you either keep there naturally (through saliva, which ironically strips them) or put there deliberately. A lip care routine needs to do three things: replenish the protective barrier, add back the nourishing fats your lips lack, and stop you undoing all of it.
Everything else (the tinted primers, the plumping glosses, the overnight treatments sold in separate tubes) is optional at best, counterproductive at worst. The basics are not exciting, but they work.
How often should you apply lip balm?
Apply it at least twice a day: once in the morning, once before bed. Beyond that, apply it whenever your lips feel dry, tight, or uncomfortable, before going outside in cold or windy weather, before exercise, before eating something acidic. There is no maximum.
What you want to avoid is the cycle where you apply balm, it wears off, your lips feel worse than before, so you apply again immediately. If that's happening, you're probably using a balm with irritants (menthol, camphor, artificial fragrance, or strong flavours) that give a temporary sensation of relief while actually making things drier over time. The fix isn't applying more often; it's switching to a balm without those ingredients.
A 30g balm like The Balm lasts up to a year. If you're burning through a standard 4g tube every few weeks, something in the formula is keeping you in the loop.
The morning step: one minute, not optional
In the morning, before anything else goes on your face, apply balm. Your lips lose moisture overnight, the same way your skin does, and applying balm to dry lips before brushing teeth or eating breakfast sets the baseline for the day.
One swipe across the upper lip, one across the lower. Press together gently to distribute it. That's your morning step.
If you wear makeup: apply balm first, let it sit for two minutes, then blot lightly if you want a cleaner base for lipstick. A conditioning, non-greasy balm works as a primer. A balm loaded with silicones or heavy waxes will cause colour to slip. Something to check before you buy.
The night step: do this and you'll notice the difference in a week
Night is where the actual work happens. While you're asleep, your skin repairs itself and cell turnover increases. Apply a generous layer of balm before bed and it'll be doing something useful while you're doing nothing.
Apply more at night than you would in the day. You want a proper coat, not a swipe. It won't go anywhere. The difference between people who consistently have good lips and people who don't is almost always this step: the evening application. Do it for a week and see what changes.
Do you need to exfoliate your lips?
Occasionally, yes. Not as a regular step in your routine, and not with a dedicated product that costs £18 with its own step and its own shelf space.
Once or twice a week, if you have dry or flaky skin on your lips, gently buff them with a damp warm flannel before your evening application. That's all. It removes the dead skin that's sitting on top, helps the balm absorb properly, and doesn't require anything you don't already have in your bathroom.
If you're dealing with persistently flaky or peeling lips despite a consistent routine, that's worth reading about separately. There can be other causes involved. This guide to chapped lips that won't heal covers the more stubborn cases in detail.
What about lip scrubs, masks, and overnight treatments?
Lip scrubs: fine occasionally (see above), but you can do the same thing with a flannel. The main risk is people scrubbing too aggressively, which irritates the skin barrier rather than clearing it.
Lip masks: they're mostly just a thick balm in a pot. There's nothing wrong with them, but you can get the same effect from applying a generous layer of a nourishing solid balm before bed. If you prefer a pot format, that's a preference. It's not a superior product category.
Overnight treatments: same story. If the ingredients are right (butters, oils, beeswax) you'll get results. If the formula is mostly silicones and fragrance, you'll get temporary smoothness and dry lips by morning. Read the INCI, not the marketing.
The honest case for keeping your routine minimal: fewer products means fewer things that can irritate your lips, and irritation is the enemy of a healthy lip barrier. Simple beats complicated here.
The things that undo a lip care routine faster than you can fix it
You can apply balm twice a day and still have constantly chapped lips if one of these is running in the background:
Licking your lips. The enzymes in saliva are designed to digest food. On your lips, they break down the skin barrier. Every lick feels like relief; every lick makes the underlying dryness worse. It's a loop. Notice when you do it.
Breathing through your mouth. This is often happening at night, which explains why morning dryness is worse than evening dryness. If you tend to wake up with very dry lips, a generous night balm application helps.
Central heating and air conditioning. Both strip moisture from the air and, by extension, from your lips. In heated rooms, apply balm more often and consider a small air humidifier if chapping is a persistent problem.
Flavoured or scented products. "Berry balm" and "vanilla lip butter" sound appealing, but flavouring is designed to make you lick your lips (which undoes the balm). Fragrance in lip products is a common irritant. For anyone whose lips are in a rough patch, unscented is the smarter choice.
Sun exposure. There's no SPF in The Balm or most lip balms, and it matters. Lips are thin-skinned and vulnerable to UV damage. For prolonged sun exposure, use a separate product with an actual SPF rating. Don't rely on a regular balm as sun protection.
What should actually be in your balm?
Good news: you don't need to become an ingredient scientist. The things that work for lips have been the same for a long time: beeswax (or another occlusive wax), plant-derived butters (shea, cocoa, mango), and nourishing oils (jojoba, sweet almond, grapeseed, sunflower). That combination creates a barrier, adds back the lipids your lips lack, and nourishes the skin while it's in contact.
What you don't want: menthol, camphor, synthetic fragrance, flavouring, and excessive amounts of lanolin (a common sensitiser). These are the things that make cheap balms feel good for thirty seconds and then leave your lips worse than before.
The Balm contains 9 ingredients: beeswax, 5 cold-pressed oils, and 3 butters. Nothing else. It's 100% natural, fragrance-free, and made in England. If you want to understand more about what those individual ingredients actually do, the multi-use guide goes into the detail.
The full routine, written out plainly
Every morning:
- Apply balm before brushing teeth or eating. One proper coat.
Every evening:
- If lips feel flaky (1–2× a week max), gently buff with a warm damp flannel for 20 seconds.
- Apply a generous coat of balm. More than the morning.
Throughout the day:
- Reapply whenever lips feel dry or before anything drying (cold, wind, exercise, sun).
In the background:
- Stop licking your lips. Seriously.
That's the whole routine. Five things, two of which are daily habits that take ten seconds each.
FAQ
How often should you apply lip balm?
At minimum, twice a day: once in the morning, once before bed. Beyond that, apply when your lips feel dry or before exposure to drying conditions (cold air, wind, exercise, sun). There's no maximum, but if you're reapplying constantly and still feel dry, check the formula: irritating ingredients like menthol and fragrance can create a dependency cycle.
Do I need a separate lip mask or overnight treatment?
No. A good-quality nourishing balm applied generously before bed does the same job. Most "overnight lip masks" are just thick balms in pot form. If you like the format, fine, but there's no functional reason to add it as a separate step.
Why do my lips feel worse after applying balm?
Most likely because the balm contains menthol, camphor, strong fragrance, or flavouring. These ingredients give a temporary cooling or soothing sensation but are irritating to the skin barrier and keep you stuck in a reapplication loop. Switch to an unscented, fragrance-free balm and see if things settle down within a week.
How long should a lip balm last?
A 30g balm used morning and night should last most people up to a year. If you're replacing a standard 4–4.5g tube every few weeks, that replaces roughly 7–12 tubes in a year (and that much packaging). One larger balm is more economical and generates considerably less waste.
Is exfoliating your lips a good idea?
Occasionally, yes: roughly once or twice a week if you have flaky skin. Use a damp warm flannel rather than a dedicated scrub. The risk with lip scrubs is over-exfoliating, which strips the barrier rather than clearing it. Consistent moisture (balm twice a day) will do more work than regular exfoliation.
Does a lip balm need SPF?
Regular lip balm doesn't contain SPF. For day-to-day indoor life or brief outdoor exposure, a good nourishing balm is sufficient. For extended sun exposure (beach days, skiing, long outdoor runs) use a product with an actual SPF rating, because lip skin is thin and UV-vulnerable.