Vaseline - The Perfect Ingredient for Cold Sores?

Several Herstat products - our Lip Care Stick in Canada, UK and USA, our Cold Sore Treatment in Canada and our Cold Sore Ointment in the UK use a blend of mineral oils and waxes (petroleum jelly) to create a barrier effect, producing the perfect moist environment the skin needs for effective healing or protection. This physical barrier also helps protect affected tissue from contamination.

Why Vaseline?

Our skin protects the body from unwanted contaminants and harmful conditions present in the surrounding environment. It helps prevent excessive water loss from the body and, when healthy, the skin is able to retain its own moisture.

Dead flat cells, called corneocytes, embedded in a lipid matrix, constitute the stratum corneum, which acts as the skin's barrier. The stratum corneum is the outermost layer of the epidermis; it also contains the basal layer and is responsible for the continuous regeneration of skin cells. A perpetual dynamic balancing process takes place within these layers, whereby cells lost from the surface of the epidermis, in the stratum corneum, are replaced by new cell growth in the lower basal layer of the epidermis.

When skin is damaged, its natural barrier function is compromised, and excessive water loss can occur. This is why a cold sore appears, causing the skin to feel hard and flaky. Using an emollient, such as petroleum jelly, can help control this moisture loss.

For many years, it was thought that the barrier effect exerted by emollients such as petroleum jelly could impair the skin's healing ability, but numerous studies have shown that petroleum jelly and other types of airtight and watertight (occlusive) dressings can help speed up recovery.

What is Vaseline?

Petrolatum is an extremely stable hydrocarbon compound that exists in a semi-solid state at room temperature. It is a refined product obtained by depilating mineral oils.

First discovered by Robert Chesebrough in 1859, petroleum jelly was patented and marketed under the name Vaseline for use in the treatment of chapped skin on the hands.

In Europe, we refer to petroleum jelly as white soft paraffin or yellow soft paraffin. The substance used in Herstat lip care products is a highly refined white soft paraffin that meets strict medical grades and complies with the standards set by the United States Pharmacopeia, the European Pharmacopoeia, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

How can petroleum jelly benefit a cold sore?

The concept of moist wound healing emerged in the mid-20th century, and two articles published in the 1960s provided important evidence demonstrating how maintaining optimal hydration of exposed tissue in partial-thickness wounds could reduce healing time. Various types of occlusive and semi-occlusive (airtight and watertight) dressings were used, and in each case, the skin healed faster than if left to dry out.

The herpes simplex virus (the cold sore virus) creates a partial-thickness wound in which skin lesions can extend into the dermis (the layer beneath the epidermis). It is widely recognized that moist wound healing methods are therefore particularly well-suited to help alleviate the symptoms of cold sores, and Herstat uses petroleum jelly to create the necessary barrier for a suitable moist environment.