"I bought 3 of your products a couple of weeks ago after years and years of having reactions. I recently found out I was allergic to petroleum jelly. This is the first ever lip balm I have ever had that actually has worked for me! I love everything about it and I am sooo happy. Before they would peel bleed and split constantly. You've honestly change my life! Thankyou" - Chantelle
I'm a big user of lip balm, having suffered from cracked dry lips since a child, especially in winter. I've tried so many products over the years, from Chapstick to Vaseline to expensive glossy balms from high end beauty companies. I don't need any of them. Simple, natural Guard Bee lip balms save the day! No chemicals and a small cardboard tube - Philippa
See more reviews and browse the natural, honey lip balms that are changing lives HERE
Is Honey Good for Your Lips? Here’s What You Should Know
Soft, comfortable lips start with the right ingredients. And one of nature’s most remarkable ingredients might already be familiar to you: honey.
Or, are you thinking, isn't there better ingredients now? Perhaps not.
The beauty industry loves a hero ingredient. One minute it’s hyaluronic acid, the next it’s peptides and PDRN and, as for petroleum jelly that's been a bathroom-cabinet staple for generations, - environmentally unfriendly, irritating to sensitive lips and why are we still putting petrol derived chemicals on our lips to ingest? Interested to know more about the dangers of ingesting certain chemicals found in lip balms? Head HERE.
Anyhow, while we’re busy chasing the latest skincare trend, perhaps we keep overlooking something rather extraordinary that has been proven effective for centuries and is trusted for a reason: raw honey, made by bees, who know a thing or two about protecting and nourishing.
Raw honey has genuine researched qualities that make it an exciting ingredient for lip care.
Petroleum jelly is excellent at forming a barrier that helps prevent moisture loss. But it doesn’t offer honey’s humectant properties, antioxidants or its naturally complex composition. Team it with beeswax as we do in our lip care and you have the barrier element too, but breathable and low tox.
Hyaluronic acid is celebrated for attracting water, and rightly so. BUT, honey is also a humectant, thanks to its natural sugars it's nature's original hyaluronic acid.
Peptides have their place in skincare, too, particularly in formulations designed around specific skin concerns. But for everyday lip care, do you need a complicated cocktail of fashionable actives? Or would you rather start with an ingredient that has a long history of verified research, a genuine role in moisturising formulations and a story that begins in the natural world?
And, when you pair honey with pure beeswax, you bring together two ingredients with complementary roles. Honey contributes humectant properties; beeswax creates a protective layer that reduces moisture loss. It’s a thoughtful, planet positive, skin healthy combination for lips that need a little everyday care.
Browse our formulations for dry, sensitive lips here.
No chasing trends. No need to overcomplicate things. Just remarkable, effective hive ingredients, chosen for a reason.
But what does honey actually do for your lips? And is a honey lip balm worth choosing over the alternatives?
Let’s take a closer look.
Why Do Our Lips Get So Dry?
Our lips are more delicate than the skin on much of the rest of our body. The outer protective layer is thinner, and the lips lack the oil-producing glands that help keep other areas of skin naturally lubricated.
That means cold weather, wind, indoor heating and low humidity can quickly leave lips feeling dry and uncomfortable. Frequent lip-licking can make matters worse: saliva evaporates and contains digestive enzymes that attack delicate skin, leaving lips feeling even more parched.
Lips benefit from a lip balm that does two things well: helps feed moisture and provides a protective layer against the elements.
This is where honey and beeswax make such an effective pairing for dry lips.
How Does Honey Help Your Lips?
Here's why...
1. It attracts and retains moisture to lips
Raw honey contains natural sugars that give it humectant properties. Humectants help attract and hold water, making them valuable ingredients in products designed to support lip hydration.
For lips that feel dry or look lacklustre, this moisture-loving quality is one of honey’s biggest attractions. In a thoughtfully formulated lip balm, honey can contribute to lips feeling softer, smoother, plumper and more comfortable.
2. It brings more than moisture to the formula
Raw honey is a complex natural substance containing sugars alongside smaller amounts of amino acids, organic acids and other compounds.
A review published in Clinics in Dermatology examined honey’s uses in dermatology and skincare, including its beneficial role as a humectant and emollient in cosmetic formulations.
More recently, a 2026 systematic review in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology examined clinical studies of honey-containing moisturising products. The findings were promising particularly in relation to skin hydration.
Research gives us compelling reasons to champion this golden ingredient in everyday lip care.
Why Beeswax Makes Honey Even Better in a Lip Balm
Moisture matters, but keeping lips comfortable also means helping protect them from the outside world.
That’s where beeswax comes in.
Beeswax helps create a light, breathable, protective film over the lips, helping reduce moisture loss and shielding delicate skin from drying environmental conditions. It also gives a lip balm its body, helping it stay on the lips rather than disappearing too quickly, like many lip balms do.
Honey and beeswax therefore bring complementary qualities to a lip balm: honey contributes humectant properties, while beeswax helps provide a protective barrier.
Together, they make a beautifully results driven combination for everyday lip care.
And there’s something special about using ingredients that come from the same remarkable creatures - our local Welsh bees - whose work connects flowers, landscapes and the natural world around us.
Why Is a Honey Lip Balm Better Than Other Lip Balms?
The best lip balm is one that suits your lips, feels comfortable, protects them and one that you want to reach for every day....
It puts honey at the heart of your lip care
Honey isn’t just an appealing name on the label. It has humectant properties that make it a useful ingredient in moisturising formulations. If you’re drawn to skincare inspired by nature, it’s an ingredient with a genuine purpose as well as a beautiful, natural story.
Beeswax helps protect delicate lips
A balm needs more than a moisturising ingredient alone. Beeswax helps form a protective layer that reduces moisture loss, making it a useful partner to honey in our lip-care formulae.
A simpler formula can mean fewer unnecessary extras
Some lip balms contain added fragrance, flavouring, cooling ingredients or other components that may irritate sensitive lips. A thoughtfully made balm with a short, transparent ingredient list is an appealing alternative if you prefer to know exactly what you’re applying, without the added synthetic junk.
Our honey lip balms are made small batch from our cabin in south Wales - made for freshness, made preservative free, they are not for sitting in a warehouse for years before even reaching your lips. From hive to lips since 2015.
You can choose ingredients with a story and a purpose
There’s a difference between choosing a product because its packaging looks appealing and choosing one because you understand what’s inside it.
Our raw honey and beeswax lip balms bring together ingredients with distinct roles: honey for its moisture-attracting properties and beeswax for its protective qualities. When those ingredients are carefully selected and thoughtfully formulated, the result can be a simple, purposeful addition to your daily routine.
Our honey lip balm rituals are already trusted by hundreds of ladies across the UK - read about it here.
Why We Choose Local Raw Welsh Honey and Pure Beeswax Cappings
For us, good skincare begins with respecting the ingredients.
We make our products in-house using raw local Welsh honey and pure beeswax cappings. We love the connection these ingredients give us to our surroundings and the bees and we believe they deserve to be appreciated for what they bring to a formula.
There’s care in working with ingredients from the natural world. There’s also responsibility in making products thoughtfully, understanding the role of each ingredient and championing everything the bees stand for - purpose, never rushing nature by taking too much honey (small batch only), thoughtful collaboration and powerful feminine energy.
How to Get the Most from Your Honey Lip Balm
A few small habits can help keep your lips feeling comfortable:
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Keep handy. Use your balm whenever your lips feel dry, especially before heading outdoors.
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Apply before bed. A layer of balm before sleep can help protect your lips overnight and while they are repairing.
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Be gentle. Avoid picking at flakes or using harsh scrubs on already irritated lips.
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Remember sun protection. Lips can be damaged by UV exposure, so take your sensitive skin spf over your lips before applying your honey lip balm.
- Layer. Apply a little water hydration by leaving lips damp or ramping up the antioxidant hydration hit with your mist. Next apply your honey eye oil as a lip oil, then finish with your honey lip balm for supremely nourished lips.
Your Questions About Honey Lip Balms
Is honey good for dry lips?
Honey has humectant properties, meaning it can help attract and retain moisture. In a well-formulated lip balm, it can contribute to a moisturising routine, particularly when paired with ingredients such as beeswax that help protect the lips.
Why is a honey lip balm better than other lip balms?
A honey lip balm is a great choice if you want the moisture-attracting qualities of honey alongside the protective film provided by beeswax. A simpler formula may also appeal if you prefer to avoid unnecessary fragrance or flavouring and like your skincare low tox. Ladies choose a raw honey lip balm when no other lip balm has worked for them. Read their stories here.
Does honey heal cracked lips?
Raw honey contains antimicrobial and healing compounds that have been widely championed for their ability to support skin repair and healing. Head here to see how our raw honey lip balms have helped with chapped lips.
Is a natural honey lip balm suitable for sensitive lips?
Yes, our gentle, balanced formulation is specifically created with sensitive skin in mind and received well by those with reactive sensitive skin. Honey and beeswax are generally well tolerated for sensitive lips and we have completely avoided any potentially irritating synthetics in our ingredients choices. Choose our sensitive skin, fragrance and essential oil free raw honey lip balm which has helped so many of our customers with easily irritated, sore, dry lips. Natural ingredients can still cause reactions, so please read the ingredients list throughly and contact us if there is anything you are unsure about.
So, will any honey lip balm help lips?
No, not exactly. Not all honey is created equal, just as the honey you chose to purchase for consumption, the type of honey you chose in your skincare, is extremely important.
The honey in many mainstream skincare products is heated and heavily filtered during processing, which removes the honey’s naturally occurring enzymes, vitamins, nutrients and amino acids, thus all the skin and lip benefits we have talked about would be negated. To reap the gut, skin and lip benefits the honey must be raw and unprocessed. You may not see this on an ingredient label so you need to ask the skincare brand - how is your honey produced? Is it raw? From an ethical standpoint you may also wish to know how your chosen honey lip balm or skincare brand harvests their honey and looks after their bees.
Here, we only ever use our local raw Welsh honey in our skincare and lip care- straight from the hive, unheated, and unpasteurised so that we can be sure it retains all it's natural nourishing, antioxidant, vitamin-rich and moisture-supporting properties for the skin and lips.
At the heart of our ethos is a 'bees first' approach, we thoughtfully harvest our honey, never taking too much from the bees; this is why we are proud to be small batch and a small brand.
Find our full raw honey lip care and award winning range HERE and if you have any queries for us at all, please do get in touch: info@honeybeebeautiful.co.uk.
From our hive to your lips,
Cath, Bec and the Bees
Honey Bee Beautiful. Award winning skincare. From Hive to Skin since 2015.
References & Further Reading
1. Honey in Dermatology and Skin Care: A Review (2013)
Burlando, B. & Cornara, L. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24305429/
2. Efficacy of Honey as a Moisturizing Ingredient in Cosmetic Formulations: A Systematic Review of Clinical Trials (2026)
Veloso, P. H. F. & Royo, V. D. A. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13352089/
3. Mineral Oil and Synthetic Hydrocarbons in Cosmetic Lip Products
Research examining mineral oil hydrocarbons in lip cosmetics and the potential for incidental ingestion during normal use.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26352930/
4. Bioaccessible Trace Metals in Lip Cosmetics and Their Health Risks to Female Consumers (2018)
Environmental Pollution. Research investigating trace metals in lip cosmetics and their potential availability during digestion.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29605615/
5. Limiting Lead in Lipstick and Other Cosmetics
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Information about lead in lip products and potential exposure through incidental ingestion.
https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-products/limiting-lead-lipstick-and-other-cosmetics
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