📝 Editor's Note: This is part of an ongoing diary series I kept while dealing with cheilitis back in August 2025. Some product details or treatment info may be outdated, but I'm sharing it in case it's useful for anyone going through something similar. Not medical advice — just one person's honest experience!
August 18, 2025.
Before I get into how things are going, let me quickly share what products I ended up gathering after my last clinic visit — because figuring out a routine from scratch with cheilitis is genuinely overwhelming.
Vaseline My new essential. My Chanel lip balm and Suncushion? Retired. Vaseline goes everywhere with me now — even just downstairs to the convenience store.
Impactamin Signature (High-Dose Vitamin B) My dermatologist gave a little laugh when I asked about Vitamin B for cheilitis, but I bought it anyway — just in case. It contains 8 types of essential B vitamins, zinc, magnesium, and UDCA. One tablet a day, picked up at the pharmacy for 35,000 KRW.
Natural Shine Lip Cure Balm I ordered this online after seeing it recommended repeatedly in cheilitis recovery posts. Then I walked into Olive Young and found it there too… I tried to cancel my online order but had already used up the account ID, so now I have two. Different shades anyway — might as well use both. 😅
Aestura Atobarrier Lotion MD Got this by being gently persistent with my doctor. Honestly, I feel like anything prescribed by a dermatologist has to be good. I don't need Guerlain or Chanel right now. I just need something that's genuinely gentle and good for my skin barrier — and this is exactly that.
Zeroid Daily Sun Cream + Fillimilli Cushion Puff I was using a Dalba lavender tone-up sunscreen, but it was irritating my lips every time it made contact. Switched to Zeroid Daily Sun Cream (SPF 50+ PA++++) which is specifically formulated for sensitive, compromised skin. To avoid any lip contact at all, I also bought a cushion puff to pat the sunscreen on instead of spreading it with my fingers. Hopefully that does the trick.
Advantan Ointment One week only. It's a steroid and it scares me… but here we are. 😔
Day 4 Update
I was so scared of the steroid ointment that I tried to tough it out with just Vaseline for a while — but it got to the point where I genuinely couldn't cope, so I started applying Advantan.
The plan is one week max, then stop.
Today is day 4. And honestly? It's not like it suddenly cleared up. The feeling is really ambiguous — something seems to be calming down, but I can't tell if it's actually getting better. My lips still feel hot and stiff, and the stinging is only mildly reduced. Not great.
Food is harder than I thought
I tried to eat healthy today — got a wrap from Coffee Bean, took out the bread, and just ate the filling inside. Immediately, my lips swelled up. Apparently there was a slightly spicy sauce in there. Even that tiny amount was enough. 😭
Honestly, this is where I feel the most defeated. Not the treatment — the food. I've been ordering delivery almost every day for years, and now I'm realizing the consequences.
Today's new life motto: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.
I'm going to try to restructure my meals around fish, sashimi, brown rice, gondre herb rice, and cabbage soup. Might need to order from somewhere that does clean protein options for when I inevitably crave meat.
A close friend of mine also pointed out that the warm milk with vanilla syrup I was having (my "caffeine-free" substitute) is still full of sugar — and apparently sugar feeds inflammation just as much as alcohol does. She said I've basically been making things worse this whole time. Humbling! But also — I'm so glad I have someone who cares enough to say that. 🥹
After that conversation I switched to decaf Americano. Small wins.
New symptoms appearing
Woke up this morning with noticeably less dryness and stinging than usual after applying Vaseline more lightly before bed (not the thick slathering I'd been doing). For a second I thought — wait, is this actually getting better?
Then I looked in the mirror.
My lip line has started to look chapped and slightly uneven, and small raised bumps have appeared around the outer edges of my lips. They're itchy. I am very much not scratching them. ㅠㅠ
I also had shabu-shabu for lunch — protein, vegetables, mushrooms, as clean as it gets — but even that seemed to irritate my lips. They got hot and slightly puffy again afterward. Apparently even hot temperature food is a trigger right now.
Thinking I need to make gimbap my staple meal going forward. You can pop a whole piece in with chopsticks without your lips touching anything. A stroke of genius suggested by that same friend. ㅋㅋ
I'm thinking about stopping the Advantan tonight after this evening's application — whether the improvement (if any) is from the ointment, the Vaseline, my body healing on its own, or something else entirely, I honestly can't tell.
Also: I have to go back to the dermatologist tomorrow. The doctor is going on summer vacation starting Friday, so I need to go before then. 😮💨
One last thing — the reason I'm documenting all of this so obsessively is twofold: I know I'll forget what this period was actually like, and I hope that someone going through the same thing might stumble across this and find something useful.
Right now, the people I find most comforting are random anonymous bloggers who've dealt with cheilitis before. They leave the most detailed, heartfelt comments. Genuine F-type that I am, I actually cried reading them. ㅠㅠ
We're all in this together.
→ Next up: My Cheilitis Diary #3 — Back at the Clinic (Again)