Beezin trend, putting lip balm on eyelids for natural high, goes viral

OKLAHOMA CITY, April 25 (UPI) -- According to YouTube, Twitter and a few online news sites, "beezin" -- the act of rubbing peppermint lip balm on one's eyelids -- is trending.

Kids are apparently into beezin for the natural high it provides -- at least according to local Oklahoma City news station WKRC, which reported that users describe the "experience of being drunk or high." Others claim Beezin helps them stay alert.

"It's the peppermint oil that's causing the burning sensation and I suppose some people think that is kind of funny," Dr. Brett Cauthen, from the local Today Clinic, told WKRC. Dr. Cauthen said young people might assume because Burt's Bees products are supposedly "all natural," that Beezin is safe. "Our big message is natural does not equate with safety," added Dr. Cauthen.

James Hamblin, senior editor at The Atlantic, isn't buying the hype. He said the phenomenon is more "trend-rumor" than actual trend -- one "which seems to have actually had, at best, a fleeting moment of popularity in 2012."

But Cooper Lund, a 25-year-old from Washington D.C., told Gothamist that beezin has been around for at least a decade. Lund said he smeared Burt's Bees over his eyes for the first time in 2005.

"We were feeling particularly squirrely one night in high school and I got dared to do it," Lund said. "It was the same concept as smoking banana peels, for kids who didn't have access to drugs to pretend that they were hardcore. It was like getting VIcks VapoRub in your eye. It isn't unpleasant."