Hi everyone!

QUICK DISCLAIMER

Okay I'm only in the start of my 'cured' process, but since it's such good news I wanted to post this just in case anyone wants to start it early if it works for them. I'm not 100% cured and it has only been 1 week or so - so I just want to make that clear first in case someone wants to get angry at me for falsifying a 'cure' claim :)

BACKGROUND OF MY EXFOLIATIVE CHEILITIS

I'm currently a 23 year old student and my peeling lips have been making me feel very insecure for YEARS now!

Well I actually can't even remember when I started with it. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe 6+ years? I only remember from a young age that my father told me to keep licking my lips because they were dry. (Now I'm not sure if the cause of EC was me licking, or if they were just already dry to begin with). I know I used to pick my lips a lot as well and probably have been doing it for a while. It became such a habit to lick when dry, pick off the peeling bits, and then REPEAT. But I think I've tried to stop picking in the last few months.

I currently am interested in another girl and therefore I am VERY MOTIVATED to fix my problem! It's such a SHIT thing to have because it seems to be something that is hardly known and there is seemingly no cure! 

I constantly feel the need to go to the bathroom to 'check up' on my situation. When I come home and look at my lips - sometimes I realise how ugly they have looked all through the day.

DESCRIBING MY EXFOLIATIVE CHEILITIS

I'm not sure if I have the same 'EC intensity' as others...but basically....I probably have a 3 day cycle like most others. Usually when I wake up, there are soft white skin areas. My affected areas include most of my bottom lip, and the middle of my upper lip. When I brush my teeth or shower, it basically comes off. If it doesn't, I basically have to peel it off. If I don't, it will dry up and become this massive white-ish flake that just hangs on my lips which is even worse! So a lot of my picking isn't because I want to peel my skin. It's because I actually want to get rid of random hanging bits of skin or bits that are starting to 'dry' up and 'not be part' of my lips!

CANDIDA RELATED?

I also think I have a candida-related problelm because of white tongue and have tried to cure this with Candida Clear & Candex but to no avail. It seems like it is related though as others have mentioned it as well - but not sure if it affects anything. But I thought I'd mention it..just in case.

WHAT I'VE TRIED

I've tried a few things so I thought I'd list it all! There have been a few things I've been trying in the last month or so I can't really target wehat is actually helping me so I'll list the steps in order to give you guys a better idea!

1. Vaseline (didn't do anything).

Use to use this and realise it's petroleum based and got told by a health/beauty shop that I should use a non-petroleum based product because it further dries out your lips

2. The Body Shop - Hemp Lip Proctor lip balm (helped throughout the day)

Used this to help moisten up my lips so to help the drying up process. However it wasn't always great to look to have semi-shiny lips. Good to use during the day though!

3. Oliveen Beeswax Lip Balm (helped throughout the day)

Same as above, but I thought it worked a bit better for me than the Helm one.

4. Hydrocortisone Acetate Ointment (not sure if this did anything)

So I went to the doctor 1-2 months ago and he told me the problem with my lips was because I licked them too much. This was actually true at the point BUT I also knew it was not just because of that. He pescribed me this 1% ointment and told me to apply it twice a day. FROM THIS POINT ON, I STOPPED LICKING MY LIPS! I thought it would be hard, but it's been a few weeks now and it's now no longer a habit. Make sure you stop licking your lips! So this ointment has been used by many others on this forum. I don't think it helps, but I think it helps hydrate my lips. It looks VERY oily though so I usually only use at home or wipe it down a bit when I go out. 

5. Lansinoh Lanolin (probably didn't do much)

After more trolling of the forums, I saw some people used Lanolin and it worked for them. So I went out to buy this nipple cream (haha) and applied a bit. It didn't seem to do much. Seemed to work like my other lip balms.

6. Vitamin E Pure Oil (helps hydrate)

Okay so this is really good to keep them from drying up...but not unless you want your lips to become a mirror! Okay...exaggeration, but basically they get REALLY shinny with this! Not sure if this did much though.

[Combination of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] - (not sure if the combo did anything)

Okay so in the last few 3 weeks, I got REALLY REALLY anxious to fix everything. I used everything all throughout the day. I heard that some people double up and use 2 at once so sometimes I used Hydrocrotisone weith Lasinoh Lanolin for example. Basiscally it didn't cure anything. Sometimes I did feel like my lips were getting better though. But during this period of my life, they were not cracking/peeling as much. I think this was due to me not licking them as much. But the cycle of EC was still happening. So my skin on the outside got really hard/dry and while I'm outside, it's like I have the DRIEST LIPS ever!!! Feeling the wind blow on them (I don't live in a cold environment by the way) just made it seem really dry. There was 1 day where I couldn't stand it and had a lapse in judgement and decided to FULLY lick my lips while I was out. BAD IDEA!!! Do not do this. Because it got so bad that day. This was my period of depression sorta. I trolled throught he forums heaps. And I was ALWAYS VERY HAPPY when I found somethign else I could try. It was also painful to realise that it didn't do anything. Or maybe it helped, but didn't cure!

7. Biotene toothpaste/mouth wash (not sure, but I have been using this regularly now anyway)

Another thing I read up was that we apparently have dry mouths and that a lot of people have substituted their SLS toothpastes for this brand which doesn't use SLS. Not sure if it helps but I've been using it for 1 month now and still going!

8. Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Skin Therapy Oil (with Vitamin E)

This didn't seem to do much but moisten my lips, but I did use it in the pineapple treatment - read below!

9. Lemons: salicylic acid (maybe it did do something)

Okay so after the last chunk of stuff I tried, I found some stuff about lemons and about its salicylic acid. Now I'm not sure if this was a good idea because for some people, they believe that this acid in some other ointments is what caused them to have EC in the first place! But yeah basically I combined this technique with someone elses. I washed my lips with detergent. Dried them. Then I combined lemon juice with some Manuka 20+ Honey (apparently this makes the lemon less 'intense') and then dabbed them on my lips. It stings a bit so be careful. Some say to then coat it with the Hydrocortisone to stop inflammation. I never really got inflammation but I sometimes followed this step as well! I did this for a few days. Now after a few days, something happened! The inner half of my top lip was VERY RED. Now this part wasn't even affected to begin with, so I'm not sure if the acid just burnt through my skin? This is why I say I'm not sure if lemon is such a good idea. I can't actually tell if it helped. But if anything, this may have been the start of my healing process as I don't really recall waking up with peeling bits. When I woke up, it was hard, but not really peeling. This is also when it started to become harder to exfoliate. I read a lot about exfoliating all the time to let not let our dead cells pile up. 

10. Pineapple juice: Glycolic acid (I THINK THIS IS THE ONE!!!)

Okay guys, here it is! I think this is the answer! So basically after reading up about lemons and about exfoliating. I came across other threads on this forum. They were mainly about constantly exfoliating and removing dead skin cells. This started to get me thinking. Our lips need to be healed 'internally'. It's not about putting lip balm on to make it moist. It's like our lip skin is SCREWED UP in their brains. I look around at people in public...why are their lips SOOO NICE! People lick their lips every now and then as well, and they get the sofest lips ever. Then I read up this thread about how we are forming a callus on our lips when we let it dry up and form the dead skin cells. And the idea is to basically remove the dead skin cells, yet also repair the skin cells underneath so that they know not to form calluses anymore. And I think the reason they form calluses was because of trauma or some reason in the past. For me, it was probably a combination of peeling and licking my lips when I was younger!

So, apparently there is 5% and 10% Glycolic Acid cream (but I couldn't wait for this to get posted) so I searched up foods with glycolic acid. Looks like sugar cane and sugar beets are high in it. But pineapples have it as well (I think so anyway). So I bought a fresh pineapple, squeezed out the juice with my hand and combined it with some of the Palmer's Skin Therapy Oil. I exfoliated my lip skin as much as possible and dabbed this stuff on. It didn't sting as much as lemon. I left it on for a while and repeated a few times during day. Now I recommend for anyone who wants to try this, it's probably easiest to stay at home just so you have constant access to this treatment. So after a few hours, I'd probably wash my lips again and use a soft wet towel to try and exfoliate what was possible. I read that you try to remove any dead skin cells but don't remove any thing forcefully. It seems like the skin cells are starting to heal underneath so don't disrupt anything!!!

So after a few days, my skins were definitely not peeling when I woke up or when I weas in the shower! But it was still like a callus and hard in the morning. I also started to develop all these vertical cracks in my skin. Now this is the SCARY PART! When I wake up and brush my teeth, the stretching of my lips caused me to bleed from all these cracks on my bottom lip. I basiaclly looked like the Joker from Batman. It was disgusting. This is definitely one reason why I recommend to do this while you stay at home for a while. Now maybe this is just my bad luck, it may not happen to you! After wetting my lips, they were fine though. A bit of blood. I used some lip balm to help 'seal' it in sometimes and it seemed towork. Then I applied the pineapple juice cocktail on my lips while stretching my lips to try and get it in the cracks. I've repeated this for a few days now and it is SEEMINLY healing!

I wake up, and nothing is peeling. Today, they actually feel kinda SOFT! Wow. I haven't EVERY experienced this before. It looks like the lip texture is looking better as well. Not hard at all. So I'm going to keep going with this. I am still using Biotene Dry Mouth toothpaste/mouth wash. I still use the Oliveen Beeswax lip balm if I want to moisten my lips if my cracks are bleeding. The rest of the items I'm not really using. If I get a really stinging sensation, I may use the Hydrocortisone.

So basically, that is where I stand today. It makes sense to me if the glycolic acid has properties to remove dead skin and promote cellular growth? I actually don't know the real mechanics of this but if someone knows, please let us all know!

11. Other stuff I will try in case this fails

I hope this helps, but I have also ordered some more products from iHerb for now just in case. By the way, if anyone is ordering from iHerb, feel free to use my referral code "SIV248" to get $5 off :) Anyway, I have just purchased some 5% glycolic acid cream in case this treatment fails. I've bought some Allimax cream which apparently is an antifungal cream which some have used. I've also bought 40% zinc oxide ointment which has given some people some results. Also buying some Out of Africa Organic Shea Butter Lip Balm with Vitamin E. And lastly some Avalon Organics non-SLS shampoo. All these can be bought from iHerb and yeah think you can use my referral code "SIV248" to get you your first $5 off.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW YOU GO!!!!!

So now I'm hopefully I'm on the cure. I'll report back here for sure! If in the unfortunate case this doesn't work - bad luck for me - and I'll let you guys know and we'll try to brainstorm some other ideas! I've got an apopintment with a dermatologist in 1 month as well so I can see how that goes! So for anyone who wants to try, I think it's the pineapple juice that has made the difference. Potentially the lemon juice as well! So good luck I hope at least this works for at least 1 person because I know how TOTALLY SHIT it is to have this condition - especially when you know you like someone and you can't kiss them :)

Cheers, 

AussieWithEC