Like pretty much every
person with dry lips in Australia, I grew up with chapstick and because I’m a
girl, lipsmackers were bloody everywhere as well. I had no interest in
lipsmackers because I didn’t see the point in making something smell yummy and
put it on my lips, if I wasn’t meant to just eat it. Also because there was way
too much pink in the marketing for me. I hate pink.
So in an attempt to stop me
from continuously peeling dead skin off my lips, my mum bought chapsticks for
me regularly and when Nivea’s lipbalms came to her attention, those too. All in
all, I spent most of my childhood picking at my lips anyway because for me
chapsticks didn’t moisturise, just kept more water from leaving my lips, and
since I only ever remembered to put lipbalm on after they were already dry, it
didn’t do much. (8 year olds have more important things to think about than
drinking water regularly).
I can’t remember why I
picked this up, especially since I’m not found of pot packaging for lipbalms,
but this lip balm opened my eyes to the possibility that lip balms COULD
ACTUALLY FIX DRY LIPS O_O, instead of just being this weird waxy layer on my
lips that I would soon eat along with my lunch. This is how the magic went: I
had dry lips, I put this lip balm on, forgot all about it until I realised my
lips weren’t cracked and flaky anymore. A MIRACLE! And then to top it off,
since you don’t need to use a lot, this 7g pot will last you forever (alright
not literally but if you apply it once everyday it’ll still last you over 2
years).
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| unsealing a fresh pot muhahaha |
The lip balm itself is a slightly
waxy, warm golden yellow balm, kinda like pictures I’ve seen of the Elizabeth
Arden 8 hour lip treatment, though I don’t have it so I can’t compare them.
It’s relatively hard in winter so you have to warm it up a bit, but you’ll get
a thin clear layer of oil/ balm, reminiscent of old multipurpose ointments,
which I have actually sometimes used this as such. The pot smells relatively
strongly of something, slightly sweet but also something tingly like menthol,
but when you apply it, the smell isn’t very strong (still present though). Also
because of the something-like-menthol in it, when you first apply it there is a
slight cooling feeling. It looks greasy, but it doesn’t feel greasy and it lasts
quite a while.
 |
| the one with the cracked lid |
 |
| attempted swatch |
I use this primarily as a
night treatment, since it’s so long lasting (I apply a slightly thicker layer
at night than I would during the day and it lasts all night). This conditioner
is also perfectly comfortable during the day (it’s just that at night, you
won’t eat it), and in fact the newer versions have SPF15. This may annoy people
who don’t want to have SPF in their night treatment (myself included), but this
lip balm is just such a great night treatment I just suck it up and hope I’m
not eating too much sunscreen in my sleep (on the plus side it’s only 15 so it
cant’ be too much sunscreen . . . right?).
On the pot the ingredients
list consists of Octyl methoxycinnamate 9.0% w/w, Saccharine, Thymol, Benzoic
acid and Butyl hydroxybenzoate. As this balm has SPF 15, the sunscreen must be
listed as an active ingredient first and here it’s Octyl methoxycinnamate,
which is a chemical sunscreen. It’s an ester that primarily absorbs UVB rays.
Saccharine is an artificial sweetener which the body doesn’t digest so it’s
purpose here is probably to counter the potentially gross flavours of the other
ingredients and probably contributes to the more sticky feel of the warmed up
product (it’s more cohesive than candle wax as a comparison). Also the presence
of a lot of sugar on the outside of the lips may encourage osmosis of water
through the thin lip-skin, drawing water into the lips. I only say this as all
the other ingredients turned out to be preservatives. Thymol is derived from
thyme and is an anti-septic, so it serves as the first preservative and
probably contributes to the menthol-like smell. Benzoic acid is an anti-fungal
and a mild anti-bacterial and so serves as the second preservative, and is often
in sensitive skin products as it’s considered milder than other preservatives. Butyl
hydroxybenzoate is another preservative and is related to camphor so it is
probably the source of the menthol-like smell.
I’ve repurchased this twice
and the first time they changed the packaging to a more translucent shimmery
plastic which resulted in a cracked lid the first time I opened it but the
second time it looked the same but didn’t crack so I don’t know if I got a dud
lid the first time or if they fixed the plastic, but yay to no broken lids! On
that note though, it is packaged in a pot so not as hygienic as a twist up
stick and also inconvenient when you’re out and just got your fingers dirty
(now you have to find a bathroom or find your hand sanitiser bottle in your bag
because argh your lips are dying~) I should note that this is the only lipbalm
I was willing to buy in a pot for 5 years (it would have been forever but I
tried the korres tinted lipbalms and they’re pretty good too *sigh for pot
packaging*)
Effectiveness:
8/10
Feel:
7/10
Formulation:
6/10
Packaging:
6/10 (or 3/10 for the cracked lid one)
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