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Lip balms have the obvious first purpose of keeping your lips softened and moisturized. But did you know about these ChapStick tricks that are for things other than your lips?
In addition to caring for your lips, lip balm’s moisturizing power is useful on other parts of your body, too. Plus, it can fix an accidental mascara smudge and even help you with a few repairs around the house.
Here are nine unexpected ways you can use lip balm.
Clean And Defog Glasses
Smear some wax-based lip balm on your glasses or sunglasses and then polish the coating away with a soft cloth. Not only does this clean the grime away from your lenses, but the wax also protects lenses from future grime. The new clear coat will help even prevent your lenses from fogging up when you breathe.
Loosen A Stuck Zipper
If you’ve got a really stubborn clothing zipper that won’t budge, rub some chapstick into the area where the zipper is stuck. You can also use a toothpick to really work the balm into the teeth grooves. This lubrication should wiggle the zipper loose again.
Tame Frizzy Hair
If you’re short on hairspray or other hair products but you’ve got some lip balm in your bag, rub some of it on your hands and then rub your hands through the flyaways in your hair. Your tresses will be smooth again. Lip balm also works well for smoothing your eyebrows.
Heal A Dry Nose
After you’ve been blowing your nose from a cold or allergies for a while, your nose inevitably begins to peel. If you don’t have lotion on hand, grab the lip balm — which might have more staying power on your sore nose, anyway. Smooth some on the skin around your nose to make flaky skin disappear in a hurry.
Protect Heels Against Blisters
Instead of buying heel inserts or putting on preventive bandages when you’re breaking in new shoes, try rubbing some lip balm on your heels. The waxy coating will let your stiff shoes slide over your skin more easily and help stop blisters from forming.
Stop Minor Cuts From Bleeding
Some survivalists say lip balm is great for covering any type of cuts. But nicks from shaving seem like the perfect size wound that could be fixed with a swipe of ChapStick. The balm seals up small nicks quickly and stops bleeding.
Fix Mascara Smudges
Don’t you hate it when your freshly applied coat of mascara goes and gets smudged in one spot, right on top of your perfectly made-up face? Swipe a Q-tip with some chapstick and use it to carefully wipe away the rogue mascara without smudging anything else in the process. You can also directly apply the lip balm to the problem mascara area and wipe it away with a tissue.
Repair A Scratched CD
You may have tried the toothpaste trick on a scratched CD, but have you thought to smooth some lip balm over a disc? The wax will fill in scratches on the polycarbonate surface layer of the optical disc and allows it to be read again. Petroleum jelly, shoe and furniture wax and other waxes can work as well.
Remove Sticker Gunk
If you don’t have Goo Gone or much patience when removing a stubborn label from a bottle or other surface, try rubbing some lip balm onto the residual stickiness and letting it sit for a bit. It should wipe away more easily after the wax has soaked in.
Have you ever tried one of these lip balm hacks?
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for other great tips and ideas to make the most out of life.
