17 Survival Uses For Lipstick Everyone Should Know

If you’re preparing for an emergency, consider adding lipstick to your bug-out bag or your prepper stash. It could save your life one day.

Lipstick is important for survival due to its main makeup being petroleum which means you can make a great firestarter, leave a waterproof message and even use it as emergency sunscreen.

All of these suggestions are great, but there’s more to this lightweight, straightforward item. Here are several more reasons to have lipstick in your prepper cache, as well as some interesting statistics.

Uses For Lipstick In an Emergency

Lipstick’s usefulness in a survival emergency goes beyond the product’s evident purpose. It’s light, affordable, and compact enough to fit into even the most crammed bag. It’s also easy to find. You have no excuse not to have some in your BOB.

Here are some of the most inventive lipstick applications and how you can get a lot of mileage out of such a small item.

Firestarter

The number one reason to have lipstick in your prepper stash is for starting a fire. The most common element in lipstick is petroleum. Petroleum burns easily, as anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of science knows. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that lipstick can be used to start a fire.

Rub a little lipstick onto your kindling and light it up. Need some tips on starting a fire?

Prevent Rust

Hatchets, saws, axes, and knives can all benefit from the wax and oil found in lipstick to help prevent rust or slow it down. Wipe the lipstick tube directly on the item, or wipe the lipstick around on the metal surfaces with a little piece of cloth.

Writing Messages

Lipstick is great for writing messages that are waterproof. I’m sure you’ve seen the walking dead where they use the blood of walkers to write their loved ones a message. Keep things clean in the apocalpyse and use lipstick instead. The disadvantage of this application is that it can be removed if rubbed hard enough.

Grease

Are your gears stuck? Even if it isn’t petroleum-based, all lipstick contains some kind of grease. Its sole aim is to be slick, simple to apply and to cover something. Why not use it to free up some stuck gears? Better still, apply it before anything sticks to avoid wasting time and energy repairing it.

Waterproof Other Items

In just a few seconds, you can waterproof small items with lipstick. Granted, whatever you cover will become a little slick and sloppy, but it won’t be ruined in the rain. I like to use it for matches, but it works on just about anything that you don’t mind coloring.

Useful Tube

Don’t throw away that empty lipstick tube yet. Nothing is actually waste, as any competent survivalist knows—everything has a use. Lipstick tubes are the same way.

1. Lipstick tubes can sometimes lock shut and are water resistant, which may surprise you. Not every style is capable of this, but the majority of them have some sort of snap-together or twist-lock mechanism. Keep your matches dry by utilising their natural water resistance.
2. An empty lipstick tube is ideal for storing medications and cash in an emergency. Most persons trying to rob you won’t even glance twice at a tube of lipstick, so it’s easy to slip it into your pocket.
3. In an empty lipstick tube, roll up several adhesive bandages and a small container of antibiotic ointment.
4. You can safely slip paper notes inside an empty lipstick tube if you need to leave a note for a fellow prepper. Even if it rains, the note will be safe because it is normally water proof. Lipstick containers do not degrade over time and keep dirt and pests out if you choose to bury your treasure (which you should).
5. Spices and flavour enhancers can be stored in empty lipstick containers. We’ve all had bad experiences with MREs, and eating boring food every day in an emergency is a waste of time. So, to keep and protect your spices from the elements, use empty lipstick containers. Lipstick is harmless and safe—duh, it’s used on lips! As a result, you won’t have to be concerned about it contaminating your food. This is a two-for-one deal. You can even barter with lipstick tubes packed with salt, sugar, or other spices. You can divide out your valuable packets and charge more by making it appear as if you don’t have much to spare by concealing the main spice stash.
6. You’d have a lipstick tube loaded with soap in your pocket if you were planning ahead. Liquid, collected fragments from many bars of soap, or soap grains can all be used. It’s entirely up to you.
7. Bobby pins come in handy in a variety of survival circumstances. Money clip, lock pick, zipper head replacement, sewing and hemming aid, zip tie unlocker, and much more. They also have a nasty knack of disappearing just when you need them the most. You won’t have to look for bobby pins in an emergency if you keep them in an empty lipstick tube.

For Bartering

Any prepper understands the value of having high-value, lightweight barter items on hand. Money will be useless when society falls. Bartering will be the most popular method of exchange. Lipstick is an ideal barter commodity because of its weight, low initial cost, and emergency utility.

See also: Top 20 Barter Items To Stockpile

As Fishing Lure

To resemble a salmon egg, grub, or any other locally popular bait, form and mold a small slice of lipstick around a hook. The glob of lipstick is probably only good for one usage, but it might just catch you a fish.

See also: 6 Ways To Catch Fish In An Emergency

As A Flashlight

Admittedly, I haven’t don’t this one myself, but a good friend did. Because he’s a bit of a jokester, I was doubtful when he showed me, so I had to look this one up. An empty lipstick or lip balm tube and an apparently dead battery can be used to construct a flashlight.

You can make a little flashlight if you have the extra parts or happen to come across the items on this shortlist. This is fantastic for personal use or for making barter-worthy things. The following are the specifics.

As Sunscreen

Most lipsticks contain sunscreen, so if you want to make it through a hot, sunny survival situation, make sure you’re covered. Lipstick is a good sunscreen, despite the fact that it’s usually used to enhance the color of someone’s lips. Even without the certified sunscreen, the color is a mechanical sunblock in and of itself.

As Camouflage

Lipstick is available in any color you can think of. Greens, browns, and darker reds fall within this category. You can finish your dashing survival fashion all over your face by grabbing a bunch of shades that match your camo attire.

Lipstick FAQ

Survival Uses For Lipstick Bottom Line

Please tell me you think it’s a good idea to keep some lipstick in your BOB right now. This substance has a lot of applications, and even the empty tube is beneficial. Lipstick is one of the few survival products with such a large variety of uses, thus this simple, everyday, inexpensive item ought to be in your inventory.