Written by: Ben Miller and Matt Cohen, arts & entertainment editor and sports editor, respectively
Frigid temperatures and brisk winds make it perfectly normal to see Burt’s Bees™ lip balm being applied to chapped lips, but a new craze is changing how college students use the nourishing mango butter formula.
The trend referred to as “beezin’” began when some thrill seeker applied BB lip balm to his or her upper eyelid. The sensation of beezin’ is described by one UrbanDictionary.com entry as “a freaky yet pleasurable tingling.”
This trend has spread to the Ohio Wesleyan campus. We’ve even seen it firsthand at parties. Parties! This raises one question in our minds: Why?
After completing some intense research, we’ve come the conclusion that this can’t possibly be good for your eyelids, eyes or reputation. Nobody sees a kid at a party applying lip wax to his eyelids and says, “Man, I want to hang out with him.” Nobody even says “man” anymore.
“The peppermint oil in the lip balm is a very strong irritant and can cause inflammation,” Dr. Brett Cauthen said in an article published by reason.com.
This brings us back to our earlier question: Why? This stupid trend can cause pink eye-like symptoms. But then again, college students will do anything to get weird on the weekends.
In the same article by Dr. Cauthen, some teens said that “beezin’” simulates the experience of being drunk or high. Let’s say this does actually get a person “high.” Do the benefits of the short-lived tingle outweigh the cost of irritating your eyes and causing damage to your dignity?
In an article published on gothamist.com, Scott Heins gives some insight into this “beezin’.” “Having Burt’s Bees™ on your eyelids feels like riding in a convertible through a mint field in January. It’s cold yet somehow comforting,” Heins wrote.
Honestly, we’re scared for our generation. What could we possibly come up with next? We’ve made it through the glue-sniffing era and the horrific cinnamon challenge epidemic, but how many lives do we have left?