La La Over Lanolin — LANO Lips 101 Ointment Strawberry Multipurpose Superbalm & LANO Hands Rose Hand Cream
Admittedly, ingredients like açai extract, lavender oil, and mango butter sound sexier and more romantic than sheep’s grease, the informal term for lanolin, but don’t knock it ’til you try it! Lanolin is the pivotal ingredient in the Australian skin care brand LANO, launched by beauty industry vet Kirsten Carriol, and, as it turns out, it might be the solution to dry and chapped lips, cracked cuticles, rough hands, ashy elbows, and brittle nails. Before you freak out and begin to imagine Mary’s little lambs marching toward their slaughter, it’s essential to note that the process of extracting lanolin in no way harms sheep. See, lanolin is a greasy coating naturally found on the coats of sheep — it not only makes their wool soft to the touch, but it functions as a waterproofing and insulating substance of sorts, allowing sheep to remain warm and graze in a carefree manner even when enduring rainy, damp, and cold weather. Sheep are typically shorn just once a year and it’s after their wool is removed that these fibers are collected and lanolin is extracted, so that it’s a completely cruelty-free process.
So why is lanolin so effective as a moisturizer? Well, lanolin’s molecular structure mirrors that of the human stratum corneum lipids, so that it’s easily absorbed by the skin. And since lanolin can hold up to 200% its weight in water, it’s a marvelous humectant, drawing moisture from the atmosphere and locking it in so that skin stays smooth, soft, and supple.
Carriol learned about lanolin’s moisturizing properties first-hand as a child, when she spent many days at her grandfather’s sheep farm in South Australia and her parents would apply lanolin to her lips and skin. Frustrated by the lack of effective lip balms on the market, Carriol remembered her childhood experiences with lanolin and decided to revisit the ingredient. She then discovered the scientific reasons behind lanolin’s spectacular skincare benefits from her father, a leader in the realm of DNA research. Soon, LANO was launched, and the world was introduced to LANO’s hero product: the LANO 101 Ointment.
The line is now available in the U.S. (hooray!), and has now made its way to Ulta.com (double hooray!), which means I had the chance to better acquaint myself with LANO. I can now say I’ve found a lip balm that’s actually as effective as the FRESH Sugar Advanced Lip Treatment. Sure, the EOS Smooth Spheres have been great in a pinch, but aside from the insanely expensive La Mer The Lip Balm, I had never discovered a lip conditioner that could rival the FRESH cult classic — that is, until now.
The LANO Lips 101 Ointment Strawberry Multipurpose Superbalm ($13.50 at Ulta.com) has been one of my greatest beauty discoveries of 2016. At first, the balm feels a bit like petroleum jelly, but lanolin doesn’t retain such a high level of viscosity — instead, it practically melts onto the lips, becoming weightless and leaving behind no greasy residue. The light strawberry aroma, meanwhile, provides a pleasant sensory experience without tempting you to lick your lips. What’s also remarkable is that, when you squeeze a tiny droplet of the balm out of its tube and onto your finger, then apply the substance to your pout and press your lips together, you’ll notice that any dead skin cells will be gently sloughed off while the healthy skin cells beneath will absorb and lock in moisture.
Minutes after applying the LANO Lips balm for the first time, my pout felt smoother and softer than it had in years — yes, years! What’s even more remarkable is that, after using the lip balm routinely for several weeks, I noticed I found myself reaching for my lip balm less and less often throughout the course of the day — a true testament of its long-term hydration benefits and its ability to fortify the skin’s natural moisture barrier.
Moving from dry lips to hands, let’s talk about the LANO Hands Rose Hand Cream ($14.95 at Ulta.com), which features lanolin, as well as cocoa butter, soybean oil, jojoba oil, grape seed oil, rose oil, wheat germ oil, and vitamin E. The hand cream has a lovely consistency — almost mousse-like —and it’s absorbed rather rapidly (though not as quickly as the lip balm). It doesn’t have the same density as the lip balm nor does it have that ointment-like texture, but that’s actually a positive attribute in this case since it’s designed to cover a larger surface area. Besides, most of us want out hand creams to feel lightweight from the get-go, and the whipped texture of this product really does help in that department. That said, though its name alludes to the rose flower, the cream doesn’t have a distinctive floral scent — rose or otherwise – but that’s not necessarily a drawback since hand lotions can sometimes have overwhelmingly strong aromas. Like the lip balm, the hand cream helps to heal even the driest patches of skin: from cracked cuticles to rough nail beds and callused palms. It’s not the most decadent hand cream I’ve tried out, but it’s certainly effective! I’ve been particularly impressed by how it’s rescued my cuticles, which I had long believed to be a lost cause after trying every cuticle gel, oil, and hand cream on the market.
Had I known lanolin could make chapped lips and cracked cuticles a distant nightmare, I would’ve cozied up to a sheep farmer long ago! I kid, of course, but the truth is I’m totally obsessed with lanolin now.
That said, not all lanolin is created equal. What makes LANO so special is the extent to which the lanolin used in its products is purified — sure, it’s easy enough to obtain raw lanolin but it would likely be contaminated with a wealth of pesticides and impurities. The lanolin used in LANO products, however, is ultra medical grade, meaning it’s three times purer than the lanolin used to heal wounds in hospital settings.
Who wouldn’t go la la over LANO?
