A viral hack by TikTok beauty influencer Charles Gross caught my attention earlier this month, vowing to stave off chapped winter lips and leave a “glistening” pout. Charles has built his 1.2M audience on luxurious fashion and beauty items, yet despite this, he claims his go-to lip product is an inexpensive one which most people have tucked away in a cupboard at home.
In a video, he said: “Let me tell you about the product that I use, I am almost positive you already have. The product I use on my lips to prevent them from ever being chapped I have been using almost my entire life.
“It feels so ingrained in my muscle memory, so much a part of my day, I don’t really consider it a part of my skincare routine or any routine. It’s almost like taking a vitamin or remembering to put on drawers. It’s olive oil.”
Charles says he rubs the common cooking oil on his lips in the morning after his usual skincare routine and at night before bed.
He also occasionally adds sugar into the mix, to create a homemade lip scrub.
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Olive oil is an age-old skincare ingredient, including in many soaps and serums. The International Olive Council explain that the cooking oil has many vitamins, including A, D, and K, as well as vitamin E.
In the same way olive oil can boost skin, Charles says adding a dab to your lips can help to condition and protect the skin from becoming chapped.
However, there were mixed reviews from video viewers in the comments section. A user named Danny said: “It didn’t work for me.”
Contrastingly, Vav said: “Olive Oil is perfect”. Another user, named Zeesth said: “Olive oil is so good.”
So, I decided to put the lip hack to the test myself.
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The results
Sure enough, Charles was right, I do have olive oil in my kitchen cupboard, although I don’t usually use it for anything other than cooking.
However, in pursuit of sparkling lips, I decided to put his hack to the test. I tried the hack in the morning and night over the course of a few days, after my usual skincare routine.
The first thing to note is that I really did not like the feeling of the oil on my fingers, and found it a nuisance to have to wash off my hands.
Given the consistency of the oil, I also found it dripped easily onto surrounding surfaces if I didn’t act quickly.
The olive oil did glide with ease onto my lips and left them looking shiny immediately, however, I didn’t find this to be long-lasting.
I can understand how the hack would work, but for me personally, I really did not like the feeling of the oil on my lips and found that it dripped easily. I much prefer using my usual lip balm.
If you do want to enjoy the benefits of olive oil without having to rub it directly onto your lips, there are plenty of lip products that include olive oil.
Olive oil-based lip balms
