The Hit List: Worst Lip Balm
Worst Lip Balm? What product wins this category?
Worst Lip Balm? What product wins this category?
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
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!
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!
I typically like all things Chapstick brand (Hello Cherry Chapstick?!?!). However, the Chapstick Smoothies lip balms are horrible. They are more drying that conditioning & leave a very thick balm residue on your inner lip that tastes gross. Ick!
I can’t stand Chapstick products usually, they feel too waxy and residue-y to me. Particularly the roll-on “hydration” one, whatever it’s called…it dries my lips out faster than anything I’ve ever put on them.
But then, I’m picky as hell about lip balms. I just found Yes To Carrots C Me Smile Lip Butters and I think I’ve FINALLY, after about four years of searching, found The One. Yay! All thanks to this website, in fact, since I’d never heard of them before stumbling across your review from last winter. 🙂
Oh man I love Yes To Carrots C Me Smile Lip Butters.
SOOOO GOOD!!
Plus there Eco Friendly!!!
Peace Love && Lipstick.
XOXOXOXOXO
JordanMayTwigs.
95% organic is definitely a great benefit, too. I need to collect more flavors; I only have the berry one right now. I want to try the citrus and mint ones.
I fourth that motion! I loooove the YTC lip butters!! I tried the berry one, and it smelled SO good and made my lips shiny, smooth, moisture-rich and pigment-ready! Yes, TRIED.. I accidentally put the cap on before twisting down the stick, and it smooshed up in the lid and ended up goingbad and smelling like camphor 🙁
Worst lip balm has GOT to be any Lip Smackers balm. This stuff is simply cheap let’s-play-dress-up colored waxes with a bit of emollient and artificial flavors! It slipped off in five minutes, leaving a weird line of goop on the edge between my mouth and inner lips. Blech!
Where have you bought the Yes to Carrots C Me Smile Lip Butters? I think I remember seeing them in my drugstore, but where else can I get them? I’ve been wanting to try them 🙂
Hey! Try a Walgreens by you because when I Googled Yes to Carrots lip butter Target has them just available online while Walgreens has them in stock in stores for around five dollars less. Good Luck! 🙂
Honestly I dislike all flavored lip balms from Lip Smackers to Bath + Body Works because it seems they taste better than they condition.
I don’t like ANY Lip Balms.
I find them to be too greasy.
And have that weird waxing residue left behind.
I do like .C.O. Bigalow’s Mentha Lip Products though.
Those seem to work well.
Plus they freshen your breathe!!!
Peace Love && Lipstick.
XOXOXOXOXO
JordanMayTwigs.
ugh the vaseline lip balms make me so angry. they over moisturize and are so greasy, they get everywhere! and they are very clogging to the pores around your lips so if you are prone to chin acne, it’s your worst nightmare!
Uggh I can’t stand Chapstick. Using it dries out my lips faster than not using anything at all. And my lips peel and become pretty painful after use.
CARMEX. The scent of it makes me want to vomit forever, and it didn’t even moisturize my lips that well. Thankfully it only cost 99 cents or whatever.
I definitely can’t stand Carmex. Taste awful and makes me want to puke. So gross!!
I love Karmex, but it just heals, dont hidratate, and sometime it dries out my lips.
Carmex is meant to dry out cold sores. It’s not really an every day lip balm, but lots of people use it that way.
Ugh I tried this Blistex Roller Ball or something- AWFUL! It was liquidy and made my lips in worse condition than before! Also some sort of Blistex Smooth and Shine- again, too slippery so I kept pursing my lips and making them worse!
omigosh….
i totally forgot about that one
i can’t believe i wasted my money on that!!!
I do not know why Chapstick is so Popular! it does not heal, moisturize or anything else! maybe the flavor is nice (I like grape) but mostly of the times y prefer to use a really lip conditioner (like M•A•C´s).
Idk why people buy a NUMBER of things! Good marketing, I guess, is the trick. For example, everybody loves Lay’s Original Classic Potato Chips, but they’re about the worst chips I’ve ever eaten in my life – greasy, too much salt, breaks in any dip and doesn’t even have a good potato flavor! Why do people buy it? It’s cheap, it appeals to kids who don’t really have an exotic, critical palette and will settle for these, it’s advertised where ever you go and its readily available everywhere. Why does everyone buy Chapstick? It’s cheap, it’s readily available everywhere and it’s widely advertised.
MY OPINIONS EXACTLY!
Mylipstuff balms…sooo greasy (at least when i first tried them about 8 years ago)
chapstick..residue-ey, nasty, all around a waste of money
carmex…ugh, no
Aquafina’s line of lip products are blah to me.
Aquafina as in water bottle brand Aquafina? Haha! I guess it sorta makes sense, since the goal of lip balms is to add water to your lips. LOL, Cheetos (like the cheesy snack brand) produces a Cheeto-flavored lip balm a few years back, but it was laughed off the shelves! I’m sure it tasted TERRIBLE, and nothing like the holy grail cheesy amazingness that is Cheetos 😉
I understand in concept why they would try it but I havent been impressed by what Ive tried. \n\nhttp://www.aquafinaskincare.com/product_center.asp?product_id=10014dept_id=1001
I totally agree i use to have one and i just lovrd the flavor but right when i would put it on i would lick it off!!
Korres Lip Butter in Guava.
ugh ! ; seriously.
lmao; i stinks. Hate the smell.
It`s suppose to be a ‘lip butter’, but its a horrible consistansy.
Doesn`t absorb into the lips &&; doesn`t moisturize.
RantOver=]
Korres lip butters are my favorite lip balm ever! They don’t absorb too quickly, but I use guava overnight and wake up with perfect lips every morning!
My least favorite is Yes to Carrots lip balm. I love the thought behind the product, but it’s too waxy for me, and just sits on toip of my lips all day.
omg; yu like it ? ..
ugh that smell almost made me vomit=)
I really don’t even notice a smell, unless I stick my nose in the jar (which I avoid!). Maybe you just got a bad one.
Hm. I have really dry lips, I’m allergic to chem ss, and I have tried just about everything.
Lip balms that I was allergic to/had skin irritation from:
Blistex Medicated
Chapstick (I don’t even remember which one it was)
Rosebud Salve
Boscia Jujube Salve
Bourjois Balm de Nuit
Caudalie Grapeseed Lip Conditioner
L’Occitane 10% Shea lip balm
Philosophy Kiss Me
Burt’s Bees Beeswax lip balm
Burt’s Bees ResQ lip balm
Carmex
Lip balms that didn’t work/were more drying:
Burt’s Bees Pomegranate Oil lip balm
Burt’s Bees Honey lip balm
Juice Beauty Lip Trio SPF 15
Skyn Iceland Angelica Lip Repair
What actually works?
Garden Botanika Vit E lip balm
Dr. Hauschka Lip Care stick
Soapalaya Soaps Matcha Green Tea lip butter
Oiseau lip balm
oh my gosh, you poor thing. at least you were persistent in finding out what worked for you.
aw man, carmex is my favorite 🙁
Chapstick brand is disgusting.
Burrs bees was my hg lip balm for years until it swell up my lips.
Now, my hg lip balm is korres guava lip butter.
Blistex – ugh, and the flavors are awful tasting!
I love Labello! Soooo moisturizing 😉
i’ll probably get a lot of heat for this one because it’s always tauted as THE best lip balm in all the magazines, but i like Catherine have super dry, sensitive lips and have tried just about everything on the market (except Catherine’s a better person than I am because I’m not listing them all here) and the absolute worst is Kiehl’s Lip Balm #1. personally, plain old vaseline works better than this stuff and it’s cheaper! (not that i recommend it 😉
I love their other products but Kiehls lip balm is a DON’T! Great when you put it on but a second later it’s gone!!
E45 (available in the UK) lip balm is the worst: it does not seem to moisturise my (dry) lips at all, and when the skin breaks, it collects around all the little cracks and edges, giving me nice white-streaked lips. From a distance it looks even worse – furry white lips. And by the time I saw this in a mirror I had been walking around for about an hour, sigh…
I tried Smashboxs’ tinted lipbalm w/spf and my lips ended really dry! i like karite vanilla shea butter lip balm(whole foods grocery)and my new thang is from MAC, honey salve in a pot. My lips feel like buttah!!!
um i guess people forgot about how horrible SMACKERS LIP BALMS are!!!!!!!!!
the only reason we ever bought them was for the yummy smells
they DO NOT moisterize they just leave an ickkky waxy feeling that you can wipe off
GROSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS……..
but i do love some lipblams
1) Green by nature lip butter in coconut milk …. THE BEST BALM EVER and eco friendly
2) Palmers cocoa butter stick … it can go any where and it huge and works fan freakin tastic
3) Kiehls #1 balm (similar cosistancy to vasaline but not as icky)
4) MAC TLCs
I completely agree with you about the Palmers cocoa butter stick, it moisturizes my lips really well, it’s really cheap and it smells delicious. I used to love the body shop’s lip butter in pink grapefruit, but it does nothing to my lips. It smells fantastic though, so maybe i shall continue using them…
Rosebud Salve makes me nauseous and it doesn’t moisturize!! Like at all…it’s like putting grease on your lips, so nasty.
LOL, I can’t imagine putting that stuff on my lips- I use it for dry spots on the elbows of my mother’s dogs. 🙂
Hate hate hate Kiehl’s lip balm. It smells awful and doesn’t do anything at all, especially for its price it’s just a plain bad beauty investment. 🙁
the balm I love often gets bad reviews though — Nude Skincare Nude Lips. I adore this stuff. Ah well, bad reviewers can send all their pots to me. 😀
I have a Nude one I used once & hate – if you’d like it email me! firedancer424 @ mac . com (just remove spaces)
Blistex Raspberry Lemonade Blast. Tastes like artificially flavored gum, which is not something I like in a lip balm, and made everything I ate and drank taste like it. After a while, it started irritating my lips – ended up with dry, rough patches all over.
I´m allergic to lipsmackers… anything BonneBell really.
i hate carmex and smackers!!!! my fave though is nivea- a kiss of moisture lip balm….it really does moisturize my lips for quite some time…i tried a lot of lip balms like chapstick, burt’s bees, rosebud salve, MAC’s lip conditioner, YTC lip butters, Vintage Sister Lip Indulgence & Lickers, Lush Honey Trap Lip Balm and a lot more…they’re good but i just really love my nivea….
i dont like the original carmex,
but the strawberry one, i loveee
I hate burt’s bees, soft lips and chapsticks… they are all SO drying and annoying!
My faves are rosebud salve, carmex and blistex deep renewal and silk and shine.
Nivea A Kiss of Protection – It smells mildly unpleasant, tastes awful, and leaves my lips feeling very dry. (I like the Nivea Glossy Lip Care, though.)
Burt’s Bees – I wanted to like it (so many people do), but it too left my lips feeling dry.
ChapStick 100% Naturals – I LOVE regular ChapStick, but the Naturals just didn’t work for me. It did nothing to moisturize my lips.
I hate labello and ohhhh lush let them eat cake lipbalm….yakk…the smell, the taste, the substance, I hate it…
wow, to think Chapstick is one of my fav 🙂
I do not like Labello, they dry out my lips too much. Not a fan of Lush lipbalm either, it cost an arm, and the smell is eeeew…
wow im surprised many people don’t like chapstick. I love it! It’s one of my favourites. I also use blistex and labello (NOT the chalky one). Whatever is yummy or plain and comes in a lip tube NOT a squeeze or jar then I’m fine with anything. Except lip smackers, those are strictly for grade school girls.
I hate The Body Shop lip butters…
I don’t like Vaseline lipbalm. in no time its all over te place, haha! I do use it when i go to sleep, just because i have it 😉
Well, to be honest, almost every lipbalm i tried was DISGUSTING. Labello, carmex, .. You name it
Untill i discovered this little brand that is selling lip balms in tiny iron tins, with the smell and taste of vanilla and various fruits. And i completely adore it. I dont know what brand it is, it just says ‘Natural Lip Balm’
After trying Burt’s Bees, I finally realized how much better it is than Carmex. Carmex always made my lips more chap that I had to consistently reapply but now I found my new found love– Burt’s Bees! And it smells way better than Carmex.
The absolute worst for me are the Jello lip smackers, because they apply very thick and sticky. I love all other lip smackers, though! I liked using Burt’s Bees Honey lip balm, because of the smell, but it really dried out my lips.
Blistex- awful. my lips were MORE chapped after using the stuff. Also smelt stiflingly of old ladies
I absolutely hate the Artdeco lip balm. It dries out my lips and it smells and tastes awful.
carmex..
where do you get YTC items? i notice my lips get more dry lately, and i only use lip gloss to moisten them… any recomendations?? i know everyones different.. but i like a very light.. smell-less or good smelling balm.. no grapefruits
I find the YTC to be very subtle in both scent and flavor. You can smell it a tiny bit, and it has a gently fruity flavor (for the berry one) rather than just tasting like chapstick, but it’s not overpowering.
I got mine at Target, a small display on the natural-cosmetics isle, bottom shelf, in a corner. Good thing I knew what I was looking for!
I HATE burts bees
i have always had chapped lips and they were really bad but a couple days ago i was in kansas city on a trip and we were shopping. we went into this really expensive store and most of the stuff was horrible so i, being bored, wandered into the back of the store and i found lip balm i was like what the heck ill try it. the first time i put on oiseau lip balm i knew it was working it feels funny when you put it on but it lasts for a while and it moisturizes your lips and it smells so good. i couldnt believe my good fortune my only regret is that the tin is so small and i didnt get more than one. i tried a lot of lip balm but i have to say the worst is chapstick, it always made my lips worse i cant wait to find another store that sells oiseau if you know of one email me at tiggerfieldhad4@yahoo.com i really want some more i recommend this to anyone who has a dry lip problem.
hi for me the most bad is blistex moisture splash it dries my lips a lot! and it done so fast! and also Carmex i got it very excited thinking that it will works amazing but the smell is like gasoline!! and dries a lot but i stay with my classic chapstick strawberry.
there’s some people that carmex or any chapstick work for them but there’s some that doesn’t
i luv soft lips balms.they are nice and smooth and is not thick and greasy.
I can’t stand the little pocket tins of Vaseline. Theyre messy, too thin so that loads goes on, very greasy, and they actual somehow make my lips dryer!
NIVEA fo sho
Favorite: Blistex Medicated SPF 15. It doesn’t dry out my lips and leaves them feeling like silk, even when I don’t have it on. If I have chapped lips it heals them within like, an hour.
Least Favorite (as of now): Nivea A Kiss of Moisture. I used this for two days when I couldn’t find my Blistex and it really irritated my lips, they almost burned. It had a nice consistency but as I said, made my lips BURN (not an exaggeration) and left these little rough patches all over my bottom lip. Hate, hate, hate.
I use vaseline and eos lipbalm. Good conditioning.