Aquaphor Lip Repair Ointment, Value Pack, 2 x 0.35 FL OZ

Why it's worth it

A petrolatum ointment that seals damaged lips and lets them heal, with nothing pretty about it. When your lips are splitting at the corners and stinging, this beats every fancier formula here — and you get two tubes.

When lips are cracked and painful, occlusion is the whole treatment. Petrolatum is the ingredient dermatologists reach for first, because it dramatically cuts the water your lips lose through the skin — more effectively than shea butter, squalane or plant waxes at comparable concentrations. The American Academy of Dermatology lists petrolatum-based ointments as the first-line answer for severely chapped lips. No gel or gloss here matches it for acute repair.

It's fragrance-free and paraben-free, which makes it the safe default. If you don't know what's irritating your lips, this is where you start. There's no flavor, no essential oil, no botanical extract to react to — just a well-studied base with shea butter and chamomile essence. Aquaphor is also the most dermatologist-recommended lip care brand in the country, and that recommendation is built on decades of clinical safety data.

From our review of 7 overnight lip masks, by Sarah Wright, Editorial Associate

What we like

• +When lips are cracked and painful, occlusion is the whole treatment
• +It's fragrance-free and paraben-free, which makes it the safe default
• +It costs a fraction of everything else here, and you get two tubes
• +It's the layering partner for everything else in this guide

What to know

• –It's an ointment, and it looks like one
• –There's no humectant story to speak of
• –The tube isn't precise