Archived Post

Rant & Rave: Lip Balm

Tell us what you love and hate about...

Lip Balm

There’s little not to like about a good lip balm that keeps your lips soft, smooth, and hydrated! I wish more lip balms, generally, contained SPF (but didn’t have any taste!).

— Christine

30 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
Momo Avatar

As Christine said, there’s truly little to dislike about a lip balm. For myself, the only dislikes I have are if the balm’s formula has too much beeswax (it tugs really hard on my dry lips), or if the product contains any mint, lemon, or “lip boosting” properties (these items quickly irritate and create a rash on my lip). I have excessively dry and sensitive lips, so moisture and protection are my number one concerns when buying a lip balm. I often use ChapStick® Moisturizer [Balm] Skin Protectant/Sunscreen with SPF 15 in Original (love this stuff!!), or Vaseline Lip Therapy in Rosy Lips (my holy grail when my lips go crazy from dryness or from a rash).

Katie Avatar

I always have a few lip balms in my purse at any given time. I also have to put on lip balm before I go to bed. It’s a great tool for sheering out lipsticks and I use it as a primer for drying lip products. They have such different formulas that can be used for many different purposes.

Amy Avatar

YES, agreed! I’d love it if more companies made SPF standard on their balms. The best one I’ve tried in terms of taste is the yellow ball from EOS. It’d be nice to have more variety though. And the EOS balms don’t usually do much for my lips.

I find that brands often try to mask the taste by lacing them with some awful fruity concoction that I can’t even say is preferable to the taste of plain sunscreen.

Ok, just to be clear, I’m not sitting there eating sunscreen all day.

Katherine T. Avatar

My lips are very sensitive to sun and also get dried out quickly, so I always have SPF lip balm on during the day, then regular lip balm on at night, so pretty much 24/7. The bad thing is that lip balm can make your lipstick slide or bleed, so I always use a lip pencil or a slightly drier lipstick formula. But I think the SPF really helps. I’m 46 but my lips are still plump, no fine lines.

Claire L Avatar

I like Pixi tinted balm at the moment, it’s lovely and hydrating without irritating my lips. I can react to some lipsticks and lip balms, sometimes they can leave me with little spots around the edges of my lips (such a great look, ha!). I wish they’d have SPF too. Sometimes I use moisturiser on my lips when they’re really dry and chapped instead of a balm (even if it doesn’t taste very nice!).

fuji Avatar

I love them, basically all of them. They are a must in my pocket, purse and pen sleeves even! I buy cheap ones like Burts bees in pack of 4, to make sure I have one in every of those locations. I buy fancy ones like Kenzoki or things above $15 for overnight/mask usage. Recently I’ve been loving Bite Beauty’s agave lip mask. I have emptied 2 tubes since winter…

Kat Avatar

Same with the SPF. Our lips, along with the eyelids, are the thinnest and most delicate bits of skin on our faces! They need all the protection they can get. I also like ones that are intensely moisturizing for the nighttime. I use the Bite Agave mask overnight (and I can still feel it on my lips in the morning, which is incredible for me).

Nancy T Avatar

No rants, only a big RAVE: I have worn lip balm to bed every single night for over 25 years, and my lips look dang good for a 56 y.o. ex-smoker ( I had smoked for 17 years, 2 1/2 packs a day, and QUIT 22 years ago ), only have slight upper lip lines if I pucker my lips a bit, so I think lip balm is great!

alexandra Avatar

Love me some lip balm, but I wish most of the colorless ones didn’t give a weird zombie-grayish white cast on the lips. My Nivea lip butters are only applied at night before bed because if I wore them in the day, people would ask me if I was sick.

Kristin Avatar

I don’t like the ones that seem to dry my lips out (Softlips) or the ones that have that awful SPF taste.
Love Rosebud salve (inexpensive & multipurpose- seriously, whenever I burn myself on my flatiron it takes the pain away instantly) and Fresh Lemon Sugar for SPF. And as for scent- Tokyo Milk Dark in salted caramel. How I wish they bottled that smell…

Julie Avatar

I have very large pores, and some lip balms leave me with blackheads around my lip line. I have noticed if they have salicylic acid, they seem to help get rid of this problem, and don’t break me out. Otherwise, I usually don’t need lip balm for the ‘too oily’ reason, or it slides right off.

Victoria Avatar

I love any kind of lip balm and I’m a sore loser with mint and fruit scented/flavored lip balms. My only problem if it contains lanolin because I have a bad allergy to it and it sucks so much. :c

Cat Avatar

I found the perfect combination for my lips. I use Reve de Miel Lip Balm before bed, and Bite Agave Lip Mask during the day and under my lipsticks. The only improvement that could be made with both products is an easier application method, like the tube that Carmex or Jack Black come in. (I love Jack Black balms but I can’t use them for fear that my husband then wouldn’t! It was difficult enough just to get him to use a lip product!)

Rachel R. Avatar

Rant: Personally, I don’t like lip balms that are too waxy or too oily. I have always hated Chapstick and anything with that candle-wax-like texture. I also am not fan of super-oily formulas that melt on your lips but not into them quickly. They occasionally make a good overnight treatment if my lips are super-chapped, but for wear during the daytime, they suck. They make my lips feel gross and you can’t really put lip color on top of an oily layer.

Rave: Otherwise, I love lip balms. I wear them under my lip color and whenever I’m not wearing a lip color. My lips rarely get chapped, so that tells me they work. My favorites are Blistex, eos, Burt’s Bees, Maybelline Baby Lips, and Lip Smackers. They’re great for helping me sheer out a lipstick.

Ray Avatar

Lip balm is one of those products where “all natural” isn’t always the way to go. The natural brands pack their balms full of heavy oils that can break you out in the skin around your mouth (I love Burt’s Bees body lotions, but their balms are horribly comedegenic).

I’m boring, I always go back to plain old chapstick. I’ve been thinking about trying Elf’s tinted spf balms though.

Floortje Avatar

I’m actually pretty picky about lipbalm! If I feel like it doesn’t moisturize enough for me, I tend to dislike it, even when the smell/taste/consistency/brand is awesome. If it contains any mineral oil, I stay away from it. It will only come back to bite me in the buttocks if I continue to use it! Ain’t nobody got time for a lipbalm addiction. 🙂 Burt’s Bees is my favourite!

Michele @Binxcat4ever Avatar

I’m a big fan of lip balms for pretty much the same reasons everyone else is. I work from home and I keep a lip balm right on my desk (currently it’s the NYX All Over Balm with coconut oil – I also use this one on my cuticles). There’s always one or two different balms in my handbag when I go out; right now it’s the Fresh version both untinted and rose tinted. I typically apply a balm after my foundation and powder but before my eye and cheek makeup to allow it to “do the job” before I apply lipstick or gloss. And I always, always use some before bed. I dislike Chapstick and Vaseline products. I have to disagree though on the wish for SPF – I am allergic to most forms of SPF so SPF in a lip balm would be a deal breaker for me.

helen Avatar

I have to say that most lip balms would dry out my lips instead of moisturize. I’ve tried them all from Jack Black to Bite, i just didn’t understand how everyone was raving about them while my lips looked prunish and felt dry.
I have found my HG in RMS lip balm. This is chock full of natural ingredients (coconut oil). This is the only product that actually plumps my lips and keeps them soft and flake free. I’m so glad that i found this product. Worth a try (IMO).

Lacey Avatar

More brand-related than products, specifically!

Rant: I feel like a lot of “trendy” balms aren’t all that moisturizing when you have chronic chapped lips! Those cute egg-shaped EOS balms are no better than standard Chapstick for me. Maybelline Baby Lips, nothing. And back when everyone used the original Burt’s Bees, all that mint was not kind.

Rave: I’ve fallen for the tinted lip oils (YSL, with Sephora as a decent budget option.) Jack Black (so long as it’s not the mint one!) work well for me also. Fresh Sugar sets always find their way into my holiday hauls.

Amanda Avatar

Hat when they don’t have an spf and feel slippery and have a waxy texture. Also hate sticky, gooey, too thick, overly fragranced, and when they sit on the lips.

LOVE when they glide on, don’t melt, are easy to apply, and have a nice gentle scent or taste.

Blistex Five Star Lip Protection is my winner right now for day. SPF 30, not too fragranced, glides on, feels awesome, softens the lips, light scent. Love it!

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!