Skin Care Conflict

I brought expensive “un-petroleum” lip balm but I can’t tell that it works any better than regular chap stick. My lips don’t look or feel any more kissable than usual. I can’t even taste the cherry flavor. Yet, somewhere along the way I became convinced that petroleum was not good for women’s health so I spent the extra money for “un-petroleum”.

Now I’m wondering, if I can justify the extra expense the next time I need lip protection?

“Un-petroleum” touts a lot of benefits like

• SPF 18 (I’ve never been sure about
  
• Healing vitamin E
  
• Protective jojoba oil
  
• Naturally soothing plant extracts (petroleum is natural)
  
• Not tested on animals (who does any more?)

Seeking skin care assurances

Despite my cynicism I want Vaseline to be able to say the same or something to smack down the new-is-better-so-pay-more voice in my head. I’ll visit their website.

Vaseline has a crappy lotion application flash demo as its homepage instead of useful skin care information. You have to look very closely at the bottom of the page for “enter site” and even then the information is hidden behind images and tech wizardry. What words I did finally get to come up didn’t convince me that their lip therapy was anything special. I'd trade some of the site flash for some vitamen E.

I did pick up a skin fact: “every 28 days, the skin renews itself”. I seem to remember reading a different number elsewhere and I want a definition of "renew" but my curious mind will worry about that later.

Petro or Un?

Since the two products seem to work about the same, personal finance Gwen would buy the petroleum next time. But women’s health Gwen decided to consult a book by skin care expert Aubrey Hampton.

Dr. Hampton is touted as “the father of natural hair care” and he doesn’t mince words when talking about petroleum:

This familiar, semisolid mixture of hydrocarbons is derived from petroleum. All petrochemicals pollute our water and destroy marine life. Avoiding them is essential for the health of humans, animals, fish, water, land and air.

So my decision is not just about an extra dollar. Women’s health and the wellbeing of the planet seem to be at stake. Now there’s no choice. I’ll finish using my in-stock 13-ounce jar of Target brand petroleum jelly (my feet love it) but then I’ll seek out and pay more for skin care that in the long term will be good for us all.

Tags: skin care, women's health, skin, personal finance