I am what you might call a lip balm addict. Like when I don’t have lip balm in my pocket or bag I get PANICKY. The times I’ve actually forgotten to pack one of the lil’ suckers I’ve had to go to the drug store to buy a jar or a tube of the stuff. Like my lips feel cracked and shriveled when I don’t have lip balm on. The slippery film, the greasy slide of rubbing lips together, that makes my day. I go through them like nobody’s business. My addiction is one thing, but another thing is that I’m allergic to most lip balms. My lips gets bumpy and swells to a red blimpy mess. Tragic, right? I can’t do the Chapstick or Lobello, and I even react to Carmex if I use it too often (sad, since I like that sweet, mediciney Carmex smell).
But I consider myself lucky because I’ve found my best friend lip balms. First, the ubiquitous classic Burt’s Bees.
This lip balm is beeswax based, and contains peppermint oil and rosemary extract, which give it a bracing tingly minty sensation to the lips (a lot of people find it too harsh, but not me!). I have about 6 or 7 of these lying around in my desk at the office, my bag, apartment, and various random jacket pockets. Why so many? Well, like with earrings, I have a habit of losing my lip balms. They appear and disappear, like stray cats. Burt’s comes in the jar or the stick. I prefer the jar, even though I’ve heard it said that it’s unhygienic. But I’ve had sticks that twist up on its own, smooshing itself to the lid of the balm. It’s unpleasant. Plus, weirdly, I like rubbing my index finger in the jar, them vigorously rubbing my lips. Burt’s Bees also come in Honey and Pomegranate types, but I’m not so fond of those. I am so happy Burt’s is so widely available here in Canada. It used to be that only organic stores have it, but now you can get it everywhere. Hurrah!My other best friend is a bit pricer, posher and luxurious: Rêve de Miel, which means ‘Dream of Honey’ in French. How romantic, right?
The company that makes it is called Nuxe and it was founded in 1957 in Paris. I purchased this at Shopper’s Drug Mart , for about $16 for 15 grams. It’s comes in a frosted glass jar with a white lid, and it’s rather heavy so it’s not too portable(but it has a good heft to the hand, feels like a cool stone in your palm). The smell is fantastic, faint honey mixed with grapefruit, and it goes on really thick. Sometimes you might find beeswax granules, but with a little rubbing it melts rather quickly. It feels very ‘present’ on your lips, if you know what I mean, but it’s a good feeling because you feel like your lips are protected somehow. It’s especially good used at night because it stays on a while and absorbs and makes your lips feel soft in the middle of the night so you don’t have obsessively reach out to your bedside table. I only have two of these jars, one at work and one next to my bed.
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