Rouge Coco Baume – Hydrating, Conditioning Lip Balm

(Chanel’s Image)

“CHANEL lip care is a daily pampering step. This irresistible melt–away repairing balm glides on under any CHANEL lipstick. Its ultra–soft formula, featuring the Hydratender complex, leaves lips instantly radiant and lastingly moisturised. Smooth, supple and plumped, lips look more beautiful each day.” ~ Chanel

I think I’ve mentioned before that one of the problems with mirtazapine, and, I think, antidepressants and mental health medication in general, is that it tends to dehydrate you. Since I started taking medication again I find myself waking up every morning – well, actually, I can’t remember the last I woke up in the morning, but that’s another matter for another time – feeling like every last drop of moisture has been sucked from my body while I was sleeping. My skin is really dry and the condition of my lips is simply awful. It’s not just that they’re cracking and peeling, I have two big, matching cuts down the middle of each one; it looks like I’ve actually been injured.

I do my best before I go to bed to make sure I’m super hydrated. I drink lots of water all day. It never seems to make a difference.

I dread having to move my mouth in the morning, to yawn, or to speak, or to brush my teeth, or whatever, because I know that it will be painful and that my lips will bleed. Like, really bleed. On some days I actually have to steri-strip my bottom lip.

The only thing I have that does anything for the pain or that makes it feels that I do actually have enough skin to fit my mouth is my stick of Rouge Coco Baume. In the last few weeks I’ve gone through nearly the whole stick. I have to reapply it a lot but it does last longer than anything else. The best thing about it is that it doesn’t contain any petroleum – a key ingredient in most lip balms despite the fact that it actually dries out your lips.

It’s also nice that I can apply it liberally without looking silly – the Baume has the same consistency as the lipstick that the holder mimics so it’s visibly glossy but not too obvious or sticky. It works over a lip pencil or under a lipstick, if you put a lip gloss over it gets a bit much, your lips start to feel slippery which isn’t great.

It has actually reduced the problem with my lips cracking, they used be sore everywhere, now there’s just the unsightly gash down the middle of my mouth. That’s too severe to expect a simple lip balm to repair.

A stick of Rouge Coco Baume costs £24.00, which, let’s face it, is more than any sensible person usually pays for a lip balm, but given how much trouble I’ve been having and the fact that it has helped to some degree I don’t regret spending it. My lips were actually fine when I bought the stick, it was just a nice pick-me-up treat; buying lip balm seemed more justifiable than yet another lipstick I really don’t need. And the lipstick tube and Chanel packaging do make using this feel far more sophisticated than whipping out a tin of Vaseline.