First post here. Another guy with peeling lips

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself.

I'm 24 years old and also from Australia (like a few others on this forum board).

I think I developed 'peeling lips' about 4-5 years ago but I've never been sure how. In the past, I have licked up lips a lot and also have picked and peeled my lips. But I'm not sure if that that caused my peeling lips, or if I did that to manage extremely dry and already peeling lips. I remember my parents always used to tell me to lick my lips. They also made me use Vaseline a lot.

Some other background information that might be related is that I also have oral candida. So my tongue is coated with a thin white layer. It's smooth all over and I don't believe it is thrush. It usually gets worse overnight while I sleep, or when I consume dairy products. I manage that by using a tongue scraper when I brush my teeth.

From a family background perspective, I don't believe anyone else has this except for my dad who seems to have quite dry lips. It also seems to peel a bit sometimes but nothing like what I have.

So what symptoms do I have? I believe I have peeling lips / EC but maybe someone can confirm. It doesn't seem as some others on here so I would consider myself lucky in that way. So comparing to you Daniel Miller (By the way, really proud of what you've done and would like to say please keep up what you're doing and keep staying positive! Many of us look up to you and you don't even know it!), it wouldn't be as bad. So I have a peeling cycle of around 3 days. On the 3rd day, you can see white bits when it gets wet where the skin joins to the inside of my lips. It happens both on the top and bottom of my lips. That's the extent of 'peeling' I get. I don't get crusts or anything (except maybe if I leave it and don't peel it off)...but definitely nothing yellow or hard. No bleeding and no inflammation whatsoever. Just a layer of lip skin that doesn't seem to 'stick' on my lip. So lip Psoriasis is what I've found so far that describes my situation the best...but who knows!

I've tried many things. Basically any treatment on here I've tried...except the more expensive meds or anything involving hospitals or biopsies. Nothing seems to help. Once I tried using lemon and the acidic treatment, and that made my lips crack and bleed so that was it at its worst! I'm currently trying the saliva / cocoa butter method mentioned on this board recently. The reason why I tried it is that I believe I had my condition a while back but I never noticed it get so bad until I read up about it and realised I should stop licking. I think ever since then is when it started getting worse. The last few days I've been licking and using Palmers Cocoa Butter. Although it is not getting better, it does seem to be the best thing to ever happen to my lips. They seem softer and smooth during the day, and I usually start to see that white peeling border when they get wet (e.g. shower) but after I wipe it off it looks pretty good. That said, it's only been a few days so we will have to see.

I've also been to a dermatologist before and he recommended I use some stupid QV moisturiser which of course didn't work! Cost me $100+ or so as well. Never going there again.

So yeah, I don't really have anything important to contribute - except just to introduce myself and tell me of my story. Reading this board more recently, it gives me inspiration that everything can be solved. My heart goes out to all those with this condition and especially those with a worse condition. But one thing that I found really special about this board is that we (mostly anyway) are all so supportive of each other and that's what we really need!! Without this, where would we be? Just hiding in our own homes trying to wonder why the @#$# this is happening to us!!!! So let's all stay and support each other. Hopefully one day not too far in the future we will find a cure.

Cheers! DFX Tweet