My Saviour

This post is about something I literally cannot live without especially after it proved my saviour whilst away from home.

Two summers ago I was seeing a boy who always got bitten. I’d never known anybody to get bitten so much, and his were everywhere particularly on his face. It drove him crazy, and then I started getting bitten! He told me the worst thing I could do was itch them, but try not itching them! Most of the time I don’t realise I’ve been bitten until I itch it! I tracked down an old tube of germolene under my kitchen sink and carried it everywhere. It eased the itchiness of the bite and soon became my go to product for everything from paper cuts (so painful!) to dry skin. Soon I’d used all of the old tube and immediately bought another.

In early July I noticed that my lips felt dry, tight and uncomfortable. It seemed unusual as I regularly use lip balm. I hate the feeling of dry lips, and have been told on several occasions I have a lip balm addiction. On closer inspection my top lip in particular looked tight and not as plump as usual. I carried on using my lip balms and hoped it would go away soon. I went out for lunch and took a different lip balm with me: cherry lip smackers. I’d used lip smackers as a young teen, and when primark started selling them I soon accumulated several. I told my friend at lunch about my lips because after we’d eaten they felt so uncomfortable. I used Vaseline to soothe them and thought no more of it. Later on she left me to catch an irregular bus and I’d seen something in new looks sale. It’s a pain they don’t refund sale items now so I didn’t want to buy it unless I knew it fit and suited me. So I went back and afterwards made use of the mirror to check my make up. I used the cherry lipsmacker as my lips felt dry. As soon as I applied it a burning sensation spread over my lips. It was so unbearable I looked at them in the mirror and they were bright red and looked swollen. I wiped off as much as I could and used Vaseline.

For the following week they remained tight and uncomfortable so I switched to the green aloe vera Vaseline (I’m a blue tin girl) thinking the aloe vera would be extra moisturising. I was going to London a week after the new look cherry lip smacker incident and was anxious about my lips. I packed every variety of lip balm I own and a few lipsticks. Of course I packed my germolene. I knew I’d probably cut myself or gain an injury somewhere in the days I was there plus it weighed nothing!

My first day in London was Thursday and I reapplied green Vaseline every so often even if I didn’t need to as I didn’t want my lips to dry out. By half two my lips were burning again. I asked how they looked and was told they were blistering. I almost burst into tears at this moment. The thought of my lips blistering was intolerable not to mention painful and unsightly. Getting my mirror out I was horrified at the state of my lips even under all the green Vaseline I could see just how bad they had got. We were in a tourist shop on Oxford Street and even though I knew there was a Boots I didn’t know where exactly and how long it might take to get there. I remembered my germolene and decided to risk using that on my lips. Removing the Vaseline I rubbed some on and hoped for the best.

Shopping helped to distract me and I knew the local  anaesthetic would numb the pain in my lips. It’s pretty weird having germolene on your lips. It goes on as a white cream but dries clear and lasts for hours. I only reapplied a few times a day, and it lasted through food and drink and the night. Before long my lips had calmed down and the blisters disappeared. When I got back from the hotel Thursday evening I removed all of the lipsticks and lip balms from my bag except my blue nivea stick. I use it at work and even though I knew I probably wouldn’t use it I didn’t want to be without any form of lip balm. 

I used germolene on my lips the entire time I was in London. I tweeted how sexy I looked going out wearing it one night to make myself smile. The week after I came back from London my tongue was really tender and sore. I couldn’t eat anything strongly flavoured and my tongue felt as if I’d burnt it really bad. It’s almost like it spread from my lips to my tongue. I’ve since come to the conclusion it could be one of two things:

The piriton syrup sticks to my lips so I lick them. Last year they changed the packaging but I didn’t notice until this year when I used the last of last summers bottle and got this one out. However I just assumed they’d revamped the packaging. Companies do it every so often and I didn’t even think the ingredients could have changed. Even though I had used lip smackers when I was younger again it could be different ingredients these days. These are the only two products I can think it could be unless there was something wrong with my lips which seem unlikely. I have not used either product until this week. I have used the medicine once, on Tuesday and I made sure none of it touched my lips. I accidentally used the cola lip smackers Friday night as I was in bed on the phone and my lips were dry. On Saturday my lips were uncomfortable so it seems it is the lip smackers that don’t agree with my lips.

Let me know if you have experienced anything like this. I really can not praise the magic of germolene enough. If I hadn’t had that I would have bought more antihistamine medicine which probably would have aggravated the problem further! I don’t think I will ever not have a tube in my bag now!