Our Editors Picked the Best Lip Balms for Dry, Chapped Lips

If you’re anything like we are, you have a dozen different lip balms stashed throughout your house in coat pockets, backpacks, tote bags, and bathroom drawers. There are probably a few in your car, too, melting in cupholders or tucked into the console. Not all these lip products are created equal: some leave a weird white cast, and others taste vile. But one or two rise above the rest—the holy grail products, the balm you reach for above all the others, one that provides your dry, chapped lips with great moisture for a long time, even in cold winter weather.

To save you from adding to your collection of just-ok lip balms, we asked the Outside team to share their best recommendations with you. Your lips and significant others will thank you.

MUTHA Pucker Lip Butter

I discovered this product about a year ago when I was selected to be a beauty product tester for a wellness brand. Considering the steep price—it’s $28 pre-tax—I was happy to have received this item for free. However, it’s worth the daunting price tag because I have never found a lip balm that keeps my lips soft, plumps them, and requires minimal reapplication due to its phenomenal staying power. I put it on at night and wake up with a smooth, supple pout. Thanks to the balm’s shea butter and seed oil combo, it also prevents my lips from chafing and cracking while out on cold-weather runs. As a bonus, the balm has a distinct, delectable, minty flavor. —Ayana Underwood, senior health editor, Outside 

$28 at MUTHA

Lucas’ Papaw Ointment

This multi-purpose papaw- or papaya-based balm is beloved in Australia and has long been my answer to dry lips. I tried this no-frills (and affordable) option on my own dime before beginning my career as a beauty writer and editor—and after years of testing a seemingly endless amount of lip products, this balm remains the best. It’s moisturizing in the moment and beyond, conditioning weathered lips and creating a soft, nourished canvas for whatever else you want to paint on. Fun fact: this fan favorite showed up all over Into the Gloss back in the day (2010–2012), ultimately serving as partial inspiration for Glossier’s Balm Dotcom. —Calin Van Paris, digital editor, Yoga Journal

$23 for a three-pack at Amazon

Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Swivel Stick

I am incredibly picky about lip balm. If someone hands me a stick of Burt’s Bees, I’ll just hand it back. Fancy $15 lip treatments from Whole Foods? Fine. But nothing can touch my long-time favorite: Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Swivel Stick. It’s affordable—under $4 a pop—and comes in a giant tube similar to a jumbo glue stick. The balm itself, infused with Vitamin E and cocoa butter, is magic: immediately moisturizing, with great staying power to protect my lips in the long term, whether I’m out for a long backcountry ski or spending the afternoon biking through the desert. It’s my holy grail lip balm, and that’s true for everyone I know who uses this. —Abbie Barronian, senior editor, Outside

$4 at Palmer’s

Booda Butter Original Lip Balm ($4)

I didn’t pay any attention to lip balm until I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a few years ago. Growing up in the balmy Pacific Northwest, I was entirely unequipped to take care of my skin in the high, arid desert, and my lips were a chapped, bleeding mess as soon as winter set in. Everything I tried was flavored (I don’t want to taste my lip balm, just a personal preference) or only offered temporary relief until a new friend from the area let me try their Booda Butter. The flavorless, lightweight mixture of plant-based oils and candelilla wax is comfortable to wear all day and feels like it actually soaks into my skin. My lips made a full recovery after just a couple of days of use, and I bought five or six tubes to scatter around my car, office, and various bags so that I’d never have to go without. —Miyo McGinn, assistant editor, Outside

$4 at Booda Organics

Burt’s Bees Cucumber-Mint Lip Balm

This balm smells like the French Alps to me. Before I flew off to one of the most memorable hiking trips of my life—ten days in the French Alps from Chamonix to the Mediterranean Sea—I picked up this moisturizing lip balm at the airport, threw it into my daypack without much of a thought, and then used it every day, at elevations above 10,000 feet. Cucumber-mint is a scent that might evoke, say, Morocco for a lot of people. Still, whenever I pop the cap of this particular lip balm, I’m immediately taken back to that adventure: seeing Mont Blanc on a bluebird day for the first time, walking narrow footpaths past dairy cows and waterfalls, and sitting on empty slopes watching low clouds slowly wisp over granite peaks. I can’t imagine any other lip balm will ever take its place. —Tasha Zemke, managing editor, Outside

$7 at Burt’s Bees

Supergoop! PLAY Lip Balm SPF 30

I discovered Supergoop! PLAY Lip Balm on a ski date in Beaver Creek after realizing I’d forgotten my go-to Chapstick. Annoyed at shelling out $12 at the pro shop on the mountain, I wasn’t expecting much. But as it turned out, this balm was worth every penny. Its lightweight, deeply moisturizing formula saved my lips from the dry mountain air, and I didn’t need to reapply as much as usual. I used it until I squeezed out the last drop—and I’ve been loyal to it ever since. The SPF 30 protection makes it a must-have for sunny days on the slopes or anywhere outdoors. —Sierra Shafer, editor in chief, SKI

$12 at Supergoop!