Hello. I am so sorry to hear that. How long have you had EC? When I decided to stop putting anything on them and to leave them alone completely (or as much as I possibly could) they got way worse for about two weeks. It definitely hurt to talk and eat and smile and it was absolute misery. I noticed improvement when the skin underneath the crusts emerged less red and more like healthy mature skin. But this did take several weeks. There wasn't any progression from bottom to top. My entire peeling cycle was never very long. I estimate about 4-5 days. After the crusts came off, there was one day of red inflamed painful lips, followed by maybe 2 days of the skin getting thicker and thicker, then on the 4th or 5th day the crusts would begin to losen and usually I couldn't bear it so I would moisten a wash cloth with warm water and apply it until the skin could come off easily. I wouldn't really reccommend this but it's what I did to keep myself from going insane. When I stopeed using lip balm it definitely got way worse before it got better. Just keep at it. I hope things get better for you soon.