What the...? Blackheads on my lip-line??!

A question about : What the...? Blackheads on my lip-line??!

Need help! (OK this isn't life changing stuff, but I'd really welcome some advice here!)

I've been using Vaseline on my lips for the last fortnight because my lips got so cracked they were bleeding. I normally use a bees wax balm but had run out, Vaseline was on offer and now I have blocked pores or blackheads on my lip line!

Aside from not using the Vaseline anymore; does anyone have any tips on getting them off? (Aside from picking at them which I am struggling not to do right now :/ )

Best answers:

• Do a Google search and look for a face wash which contains salicylic acid (not as scary as it sounds). Unlike most other face washes, which will only clean the very surface of your skin, salicylic acid will work through the oil into your pores, and will really hep to dissolve and clean out all those sebum plugs.
  Off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure that Neutrogena may sell one, but there are sure to be more.
  Good luck!
• Just use steam to soften them and use a muslim cloth to extract them
• would those blackhead remover strips work? biore do some. used them once on my nose & whilst it was gross, they did work. if you just press them down where the blackhead is & don't let it stick to your actual lip.
  i read in a mag years ago not to put lip balm/vaseline over your lip line as it can cause spots, weird how that little tip stayed with me for some reason.
• Usually honey goes magic for my cracked lips - just spread thin layer and leave for as long as you can resist licking it off!!!
• Nuxe Reve de Miel is a wonderful lip balm. Expensive in the UK but worth it. If you're travelling to France anytime soon it's about 7 euros.
• I've found the Nivea lip salves really good for me this Winter when my lips started to feel sore with the cold. Would a very warm flannel open the pores enough to pop them?
• Thanks everyone- tried sitting in a sauna this evening to see if it helped but didn't seem to. Am a little worried I've pushed the spot debris in further or something because these things don't seem to want to move. They look bad but it's more the feeling that gets to me- and if I move my finger over my lips all I can feel are horrible little bumps in my lip-line; gross!
  Are blackheads like whiteheads in that do I leave them before they are more...(hard to find the words) produced and so easier to pull/pick/whatever? I know picking them isn't wise but I can't see how else to get them off my face.
  Honey sounds a bit scary- would it sting on cracked lips does anyone know? I have tried a hot cotton cloth on the area but maybe if I did try a warm rather than hot cloth- have just been trying to keep my hands off my face at the moment!
• I'd use a warm cloth as warm as you can bear and that will open the pores. A blackhead shouldn't be squeezed but skin rolled between fingers either side and the debris should come out easily. If not it's not ready. Also use a warm clean cloth and gently massage lips for some of the dry skin to come off and keep massaging lip balm to to lips to help heal. Also drink more water. We kick or lips more when we are dehydrated and this makes chapped lips in cold. I sympathise we all get it and it's bloody sore.
• The honey should not sting - it never did for me. It is the first remedy that I go to if my lips are really bad and lip balm doesn't help.
  Just try it - if it stings, just lick it off!!!!!
• If your lips are chapped and sore, lip balm/beeswax/Vaseline WILL NOT heal them. You need this:
  When mine are chapped, this sorts it out and within 48 hrs my lips are back to being soft and smooth. I can then go back to using lip balm to protect them.
• I third the recommendation for Blistex, it really is very effective stuff.
  Vaseline is the greasy work of the devil - it acts as a barrier but won't moisturise your lips at all. I used to use it religiously until I realised it was actually making my lips drier in the long run.
  As for the blackheads, you should be able to gently squeeze them out when they're ready...I've always found it quite satisfying squeezing them out
• Thanks everyone- the reason I'd not opted for saylicylic acid wasn't because of any fears over what it would do to my skin; it was because my lips which were millimetres away from the blackheads, were (as I've already said here) cracked and in one case, bleeding.
  Sorry if it sounds daft but putting anything labelled "acid" near the cracks and bleeding places doesn't fill me with confidence. I've used saylicylic acid before, it's not a soft product to use.
• Elizabeth Arden eight hour cream also works brilliantly. I think they do a lip version, but a tiny amount of the real thing does the job and you get the cream for use on hands, elbows, feet, etc.
  Rather than picking, I'd describe more as easing the gunk out by putting pressure either side with the back of your nails.