Lip and Nail Care

Lips

The same guidelines I’ve been repeating of no irritants, dermatologist approved, etc. also apply to lip and nail care. A surprising number of irritants are in most lip balms:

essential oils,
fragrances,
camphor,
menthol,
lanolin, and
phenol.

These ingredients make the experience of wearing the lip balm nice at first, but ultimately you’ll be putting those balms on over and over again. There are lovely products from SkinCuticles and Vanicream so read the ingredients on what you have and maybe try out something new if you want to treat yourself. In the end, my favorite was the Vaseline Advanced Healing Lip Therapy.

We’ve got to bump up against the medical here… angular cheilitis. It sucks and you can get it from chemo or being dehydrated and drying out your skin from lying on your pillow. It is terrible and every time you open your mouth you undo all your suppressed immune system’s lazy work in trying to heal it. The best thing (according to me and my doctors) was to keep it coated in Vaseline. If you want to be bougie, there is always CeraVe Healing Ointment or Diprobase as well.

Nails

For nails… there isn’t a whole lot to do other than keep them really short. Some chemo slows down their growth and you get these funky lines where the nails slowed down growing after a cycle of chemo. When they grow out, they tear along those lines. So you’ll want to keep them trimmed and filed.

I tried using a clear biotin nail polish or a clear top coat. I don’t think it actually helps with the fragility of the nails but it seems to slow down the tearing a bit. And the little bit of shine made them look a little nicer. When super harsh chemo was done and my nails were growing in more normally, they chipped constantly; the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails made a big difference to keep that to a minimum.

I tried press on nails and wraps a few times. The press on nails were helpful when I’d get a really terrible tear to keep it from spreading. I never quite got the hang of the wraps and they seemed to leave my nails kind of flakey afterwards. I imagine, if you already have skills in this department, you could manage this better. But, I just wasn’t up for practicing no matter how great the advice I got was.

Cuticles

Between all the hand washing and fragile skin, it’s easy to get torn cuticles. Since you can’t get manicures to keep them happy, keeping them hydrated and protected is your best option. I’ve always used Burt’s Bees Cuticle Cream and it works great and smells lovely and fits in a pocket, so I didn’t take the time to research other options. I wouldn’t actually recommend this product, though. The lid can be difficult to get off and if you’ve got any kind of neuropathy going on, it will drive you bananas, or at least force you to throw it across the room in a rage and find another product anyway. All the beauty review sites have articles on these products, but if I try others that I like, I’ll post them here.