Is it ok if I was wearing lip balm and my bow touched my lips by accident and then that part of the bow touched the wood on my viola?

Question

I was practicing and I fumbled my bow for a second. It touched my lips and I was wearing lip balm. I then managed to get control of my bow again, but in the process, the part of the bow that touched my lips touched the wood on my viola.

Answer 1

Disclaimer: Don't put anything on purpose on your viola, or anything other than rosin on your bow.

But you should be fine. The instrument is varnished, so it's protected somewhat. And lip balms are made of things like beeswax or paraffin, which is similar to many waxes that are intentionally applied to varnished woodworking. Again, I don't recommend applying any kind of polish or wax to your instrument on purpose, but it's not likely a problem.

Really, the bow is the bigger concern. The bow works because of friction. Any kind of oil or fat can reduce friction; that's why we're not supposed to touch the hair of the bow. Oil from our hands can create spots where the rosin doesn't stick and the bow doesn't make a sound. This is more of a concern with habitual touching, though. A brief, light touch isn't likely to have been a big problem.

Answer 2

Depending on how much balm you had on your lips and the pressure you used to push your bow into your lips I’d doubt that there should be any significant transfer from the lips to the bow. But then even if there was, this would be much more of an issue for the bow hair than for the instrument. That is because lip balm contains oils and waxes, and these can cause the bow hairs to not grip the string anymore. In case something like this has happened the bow hair can still be cleaned.

Now, for the actual question: Can lip balm harm the viola?

Your viola has a protective layer called varnish. This is usually either spirit varnish (shellac and resins dissolved in alcohol) or oil varnish (linseed oil and resins cooked with turpentine). On cheap instruments you will also get nitrocellulose varnish or even polyester varnish.

All of these varnishes offer some level of protection. Especially oil varnish (once cured) is quite stable, and you need really aggressive stuff to get if off again. But even shellac protects well against water and acids, but gets dissolved in alcohol or alkalines.

Now usually lip balm won’t be made of very aggressive stuff, so I see little danger of harming the varnish. It is important though with spirit varnish that while shellac is not dissolved by water, it will still interact with the shellac and should thus be removed quickly.

Also (although this is rather a problem when you decide to oil the instrument) oils can make is hard to fix open glue joints. But this would not be a cause for concern when accidentally getting a little lip balm on the varnish.

Answer 3

Basically a non-issue. You could plant kisses all over your viola and do it no harm! If the lip balm shows, wipe it off. It might have a more noticeable effect on the bow hair. But that, too, can be cleaned.