I have access to roughly 789 billion lip balms in my job, but so many leave my lips dry after using them. No matter the price or the prestige, they leave my lips flaky and rubbish.

Here are two I have to shed some light on, as sadly, they are two that have SOMEHOW managed to get a reputation as being the oldest, best, most loved for the lips.

Lucas Paw Paw ointment. Great for nappy rash, bites etc but not your lips. Seriously. If I had a dollar for every model that pulls this out of her Marc Jacobs bag and profess to its splendour, I would have lots of dollars. I take great joy in telling them it has a petroleum base and is no better than Vaseline for your lips. "Oh, but I use it all the time," they say. Yes, well, that’s cause it’s drying your lips out, sugar.

Vaseline. See above. I repeat: Petroleum is no good for the lips. Why? Because  all petroleum products do – and in fact most lip "balms" – is provide a barrier. They don’t actually nourish or moisturise the lips at all. They just cover them and give the illusion of them being all lovely and moisturised. But your lips are actually drying out under there. These products aren’t soothing or healing your lips, just coating them.

The key to seriously looked after lips is actually three fold.

1. Make sure your lips are exfoliated every week or so. Do this using a warm face cloth and if possible, a dedicated lip scrub. (Try the Lip Scrub, below) Don’t use your face scrub, it’ll be too strong on your lips.

2. Next, use a lip nourishing product (think vitamin e/sweet almond/coconut oil; shea butter), that contains no petroleum to properly moisturise the lips. There are plenty of these around, and I’m sure your comments will be most helpful in detailing them.

My two very-well-researched picks?

Shizen’s Lip Serum

and Jo Malone’s Vitamin E lip conditioner (it has SPF 15.)

3. And this is only if you want to, or are going into a windy day, or a blizzard, you can swipe on your old lip balm or barrier to lock in that new lease of moisture. But even then I reckon stay away from nasty old petroleum. Trust me on this one.