10 Best Lip Balms For Cold Sores 2024 in the United States

The percentage of people who have suffered from cold sores is somewhere from 60% to 95%. This is because the virus that causes it is so highly contagious. Also, people can confuse it for acne pimples, or some other skin ailment. We’re probably familiar with the pain, burning, and itching that they cause. There are lip balms for cold sores that can relieve the skin irritation from cold sores and can even prevent their outbreak to an extent.

Looking over the MSN list of the best lip balms for cold sores, we’ll see a variety of treatments. Some contain ingredients to moisturize your skin and keep it soft. Others contain also sunscreen since sunburn or dryness can be just the thing to trigger an outbreak of cold sores. And there are lip balms that contain ingredients that inhibit the growth and spread of the herpes virus, or that boost your immune system to hopefully fend off the virus.

We’ll review some of the items in the MSN list of the best lip balms that are designed to relieve and even prevent cold sores. Even if they’re not actually a cure (since there’s no real cure for a virus), we’ll see that some can provide effective relief, as well as make them not so noticeable.

(You can also check out other over-the-counter remedies and skin treatments among the MSN buying guides.)

What Types of Lip Balms for Cold Sores Are There?

Lip balms that are expressly designed for treating cold sores can either focus on:

• Relieving pain by providing a numbing or cooling sensation,

• Moisturizing your lips and keeping them from being susceptible to the virus, or

• Trying to keep the herpes virus at bay.

Let’s look at some of the best products:

• Soothing relief: These are products with ingredients such as camphor and menthol. They provide a cooling, soothing feeling to your skin, to reduce itching and irritation. An example is the Blistex Medicated Lip Ointment. It also contains dimethicone, a silicone-based polymer that keeps your skin moist, and phenol, an antiseptic, to prevent bacterial infection.

Blistex Medicated Lip Ointment

Another product, Dr. Dan’s CortiBalm Lip Balm uses hydrocortisone to reduce inflammation due to cold sores, as well as any irritation due to dry, chapped lips.

Dr. Dan’s CortiBalm Lip Balm

• Moisturizing your lips: Many lip balms have oils and nut butter that help moisturize your lips and seal in the moisture, even if you’re exposed to intense sun, wind, and dry weather. The Carmex Classic Lip Balm contains white petrolatum, as well as lanolin, cacao seed butter, paraffin, and beeswax.

Carmex Classic Lip Balm

• Medication to prevent the spread of the virus: There are some lip balms that even contain ingredients that are purported to disturb the cold sore virus’ method of replication. You’ll see lip balms with the ingredient lysine, an amino acid that interferes with the cold sore virus’ production of arginine. Besides this, lysine helps build collagen in the skin and improve skin elasticity. The Herpecin-L Lip Balm contains lysine. It also contains antioxidant Vitamins B6, C, and E, which help protect against skin damage from sun exposure.

Herpecin-L Lip Balm

Another medicinal ingredient in OTC lip balms for cold sores is Docosanol. It protects other cells from getting infected by the cold sore virus, by halting viral cell reproduction. It can also help reduce the amount of time that you suffer from cold sores. One product with Docosanol is the DocoShield Cold Sore Prevention Lip Balm.

DocoShield Cold Sore Prevention Lip Balm

What Are Some Tips When Selecting a Lip Balm for Cold Sores?

Here are some impressions of customers about their particular choice of lip balm, and how effective they were in providing relief against cold sores:

• Remains contagious for weeks: Cold sores are highly contagious, so they can be passed from one person to another from eating utensils or from drinking from the same glass. But, if you’re not careful, you can inadvertently spread it to other parts of your body. Even after the sore heals and develops a scab, touching it can cause it spread to your eyes or genital area.

• Applying lipstick or lip gloss: If you apply lipstick directly on a cold sore, the virus will remain on the tube of lipstick. That can cause you to infect yourself later. It’s recommended to apply a lip balm first on your lips, to add a layer of protection. You can apply lipstick on top of the lip balm.

What Are Some Features of the Best Lip Balms for Cold Sores?

Let’s look at some features of the best lip balms for cold sores:

• Sunscreen: As we mentioned, the herpes virus waits for the right conditions to replicate and develop into a cold sore. People can get cold sores when experiencing stress. But excessive sun exposure is also a type of environmental stress that can trigger an outbreak of cold sores. Therefore, there are lip balms that have sunscreen, either SPF 15 or SPF 30. This is another layer of protection, to prevent developing cold sores.

• Antioxidants: Certain lip balms include green tea extract and Vitamins C and E. These antioxidants also help prevent cell damage due to sun exposure. That can also help prevent an outbreak of cold sores.

• Antibacterial ingredients: There are a number of ingredients that some products have for their antibacterial properties. Once you have developed a cold sore, you’ll want to apply something to make sure that bacteria don’t develop and that it won’t get infected even further. Ingredients such as Manuka honey, tea tree oil, and lemon balm are reputed to prevent bacterial growth.

• Moisturizers: When your lips are dry, they can become chapped. That makes them susceptible to infection as well. Ingredients such as almond oil, grape seed oil, olive oil, castor oil, jojoba oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and aloe vera all are intended to moisturize your lips.

Wrap Up

We examined some of the ingredients of popular lip balms in the “MSN Top 10” list for treating and even preventing cold sores. These products are all safe enough to apply several times a day, to relieve symptoms until the cold sore finally scabs over and heals entirely. If you feel a slight tingling sensation, indicating that a cold sore is starting to erupt, or even if a cold sore has already erupted, you’ll see that these lip balms can provide real relief!