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Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
As the cold weather tests our skin and dries out our lips, a question deserves to be asked: is it dangerous or innocuous to lend (or borrow) a lip balm? Answers with Dr. Gérald Kierzek, medical director of Doctissimo.
If we are to believe the good pages from Prince Harry’s book (The Alternate), a request for a loan of lip gloss would be, in part, at the origin of the opposition between Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton (this second having been taken aback by the request). However, the practice seems innocuous: lending a gloss before a party, or a lip balm to treat and bring comfort to a chapped mouth is sometimes done between friends. But what are the risks? Isn’t it an intimate product? Can it also share germs and viruses? Doctissimo’s medical director lists the precautions to take.
The risk of transmitting certain viruses
First risk to mention in the loan of lip balm: that of also sharing the viruses which circulate, in this period punctuated by the flu and the covid in particular.
“Theoretically, anything that is transmitted by saliva, such as viruses, can be found in the balm. Even if the flu and covid are transmitted above all by the respiratory route, we cannot exclude it”.
Moreover, these are not the only viral threats that can be transmitted via the lent stick.
“There is also infectious mononucleosis and hepatitis B which are transmitted through saliva. A good way to remember that you have to get vaccinated against hepatitis B. And in case you know you have mononucleosis… You don’t lend your personal stick”.
Do we need to remind you again though? HIV is not transmitted through saliva.
Herpes, staphylococci… Risks to the lips
Another risky ground for the loan of his lip balm: the very lips which can be the site of cold sores, for example, resulting from the herpes virus. “As soon as there are the first signs, tingling, itching, we no longer lend our lip balm” Dr. Kierzek intervenes. “Besides, we don’t use it at all, because the virus will lodge in the stick”. Which is unhygienic.
A piece of advice that also applies to anything that has a staphylococcal pimple: a pimple near the lip, an infected hair…”Staphylococcus can also be transmitted by applying a balm in contact with one of these pimples.
Care to change regularly
Finally, there is a third non-negligible risk mentioned by the doctor, for the very owner of the comforting stick: that of keeping his lip balm on too long, which, with its creamy and sticky texture, has every chance of capturing viruses and bacteria. “The sticks do not keep and quickly become nests for microbes. So even without lending it, we change it regularly, we don’t keep it from one season to the next, letting it melt and solidify several times. These are potential culture broths”.
In other words, lending your balm is possible, but only if everyone is in good health.