chapped lips

Actually I'm being very kind not to post my close-up chapped lips in this blog so that any of you readers won't get too frightened. The image would be gruesome and how it feels on me is double. It's been three weeks I suffer from this, on and off, and I'm kinda lost on how to deal with this situation. Any heelllpppp?

Uhuk..so let me tell you how it all begins..hiks hiks..

I have this The Body Shop Wild Cherry lip butter which I got for free as a present for my birthday from the store. Yes, it was on October 2010. And the story goes, I didn't realize it's been a year past until one day I checked myself in the mirror and noticed a strangely vague crack on my lips. It's not unusual since we're in a colder season, so I didn't give a damn...and I kept using it over and over and over until then my lips were fully chapped, swollen, and dry. There were also erythema circling around. Yuck. Have you ever had this condition when one day you licked your lips and tasted a strange oily liquid? Strange because you didn't put anything on it but you couldn't stop sweeping away? That, my friend, is an oily film of your lips being removed.... and when you finally stop licking, your lips has been painfully dry. So stop licking lips even though they are fine.

not mine...

It took me that worst to finally throw away my HG lip butter and found out that the cause is expiration. 

I have another lip balm, this one is Banana Boat's. Good enough for daily use with sunscreen and such, so I thought this one could offer a bit help. What happened was it triggered the worst the chapped could be. I should know better that there's no way another chemical-contained lip care could heal. So the day after.. I could barely move my lips without feeling the pain. The lips looked almost all-white in crackness. Painfully gruesome. Total gruesome.

Now I'm using Vaseline petroleum jelly. 

It works like a magic. I mean my lips are gradually getting better, just need to dab it a few times a day.  But there are moments when I feel I am recovered enough and want to try that banana boat bitch because I left Vaseline at home. Nah, the chapped lips gets back. I realize that now I can't use any butters/cream/balms on my lips afterwards...so I'm thinking that Vaseline just gives me temporary relief, does not repair or heal, huhuhu.

By the way, from the references I read, there are other remedies to help. Coconut oil, applying honey, a slice of cucumber, aloe vera lip balm (bollocks, my Banana Boat also contains aloe vera), and....nasal sebum. Or in Bahasa: ingus. Thank God I have Vaseline in my room.

EDITED
And the next month, I had to go to see a dermatologist because my lips became allergic to petrolathum!! Yikes, the pain is not over yet! I stopped using Vaseline, stuck to her prescription, and used Nivea Lip Balm (blue packaging) instead. The lips still gets dry at times (compared to the past, yes it gets dry more often), but Nivea moistures it enough I don't have an allergy afterwards.