Fan of EOS lip balm? You're not alone. Who can resist its natural ingredients, not to mention that cute egg-shaped container that's blissfully easy to find at the bottom of your purse? To us, those are far bigger selling points than the fact that Kim Kardashian's a fan. But a new class action lawsuit against EOS has us thinking about going back to waxy ole Chapstick.
TMZ is reporting that a woman named Rachel Cronin has filed a class action lawsuit against EOS (which stands for "evolution of smooth," FYI), claiming that the lip balm gave her a nasty reaction. "Nasty" meaning severe rashes, bleeding, blistering, lip cracking, flaking, and breaking out. Cronin says all this happened within hours of using EOS, and the reaction lasted a whopping 10 days.
Not exactly the desired results you hope to get from your natural lip balm.
And this may not be an isolated incident. On a skin advice website called The Dermatology Review, a shocking number of women have blamed EOS for similar reactions. (And the comments date back to 2014.) Other lip balm lovers have blasted EOS on Reddit and Facebook.
Still, EOS assured customers on Facebook that "our products are safe to use, are made with the highest quality ingredients, and they all meet or exceed all safety and quality standards set out by our industry."
Dr. Dhaval G. Bhanusali, MD, a dermatologist in private practice in New York City, hasn't seen any patients with EOS-like side effects, "but it's not uncommon to have patients with reactions to chapstick in general," he tells The Stir.
Dr. David Soleymani, MD, a Chicago-based dermatologist and founder of Dermio, an app that provides low-cost diagnoses of skin conditions, agrees.
"Interestingly, a lot of lip balms help a little and hurt a lot," Dr. Soleymani explains. "The natural ingredients seduce a lot of customers, but [you] have to remember that even poison ivy is natural."
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What happens is that after wearing lip balm for a while, the feel-good effect wears off, "which is when the potential allergens kick in," says Dr. Soleymani.
And people can have allergic reactions to several ingredients that many lip balms — not just EOS — contain, Dr. Bhanusali adds. The common culprits include propolis, a "glue" made from honeybees; coconut oil; peppermint oil; and even vitamin E.
Think you're having a reaction to your lip balm, EOS or otherwise? You may want to undergo patch testing to uncover any allergies you have to common products, suggests Dr. Bhanusali.
Bottom line? "Just because [a lip balm] is natural doesn't mean you won't have a naturally bad reaction," says Dr. Soleymani. "Listen to your body."
Image via Amazon.com
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