When I’m on my desert island with the one product I’m able to bring along with me, I will be soaking up the sun rays as red as a lobster, burnt to a crisp with frizzy hair and starved for entertainment. But I will be coating my lips in lip balm, and I’ll be happy.
I am a self-confessed lip balm addict. Before I even ventured down the path of reviewing beauty products in an official capacity, I had a lip balm in every bag, bedside table and room in the house. Back then the Nivea Original Care Lip Balm was my holy grail – and while the nourishing formula does stand the test of time, brands have got more creative and advanced in their pout protection.
We are a nation obsessed with lips. So much so that lip augmentation is the most Googled beauty treatment in the UK. Before you go under the knife, plumped perfection need not require injectables. But more on that in a minute.
One may attribute our lipsession to celebrities like Kylie Jenner or all the way back to Leslie Ash’s famously botched fillers, but it’s a procedure that dates back to the early 1900s and led to phenomena like the trout pout of the 60s or duck lips of the 90s.
Full lips have long been considered desirable, attributed to having strong mating potential by evolutionary psychologists. There’s also our collective obsession with stopping the ageing process in its track – as collagen production starts to slow down as we get older; our luscious lips can become thinner and flatter.
Advancement in the lip balm space includes a cocktail of plumping ingredients incorporated into formulas and consumers can’t get enough. Look to Hailey Bieber’s rhode line. In just 11 days of selling, the brand was able to reach eight-figure sales and a huge proportion of that is on account of the peptide lip treatment that the model-turned-entrepreneur has made the centre of innumerable social media crazes.
Since Vaseline’s petroleum jelly was created back in 1865 and lip balm entered the mainstream back in the 1880s, the wax salve has changed dramatically. The Carmex, Lip Smackers and Burt’s Bees that dominated our childhood paved the way for more supercharged creations using ingredients popular in the skincare world. This includes the likes of vitamin C and squalane as well as nourishing heroes like shea butter and sunflower oil.
So, which deserves its place on your desk, in your handbag, in your gym bag, in your overnight bag and in every pocket of every jacket you own (as you must have one for each), we’ve put them to the test.
After sampling hundreds if not thousands of iterations, below you will find the lip balms that I’d rebuy over and over again.
Best lip plumpers: Products to achieve fuller lips without filler
Best brown lip liners to add to your makeup collection, tried and tested
Best smudge-proof mascara to keep your lashes looking great all night
Best colour changing makeup to match your tone
Best lip masks to soften and smooth your lips
Best concealers tried and tested: Deal with dark circles and blemishes
Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm lip balm
This absolutely heavenly lip balm from Summer Fridays deserves its place on your bedside table, desk, in your handbag or wherever you store your most prized product. It is glossy but not sticky and impressively long-lasting. The vanilla aroma is subtle but stunning but there’s also pink sugar that ties in first place, poppy, brown sugar, sweet mint and vanilla beige. A cherry variation exists too but we find the red tint less seamless to apply and prone to teeth smudges. Its formulation is vegan - packed with plant-derived shea and murumuru butter - and so nourishing. Use it as an overnight lip mask or during the day to fight against your parched pout.
Buy now £23.00, Cult Beauty
Peptide Lip Treatment
I’ve tried hundreds, if not thousands, of lip balms over the years, yet there are few that I would consider holy grail. This is now one of them.
The lip treatment forms a protective veil on the pout with the ingredient line-up offering nourishment on nourishment. The cocktail includes shea butter, peptides (of course), cupuaçu that improves elasticity and babassu to replenish the skin’s moisture. While it’s not plumping as it is described, it is certainly moisturising and long-lasting too. It reminds me of one of my favourite-ever balms, the Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm.
The scents are lovely. Watermelon is a sweet treat, while Salted Caramel is like eating an ice cream in the same flavour. There's also Vanilla. The Unfragrance is probably my least favourite as I enjoy the sugary taste of the others. Bieber brought out a limited-edition Vanilla Cake aroma for her birthday and Jelly Bean the year after so hopefully, more will be arriving soon. I’ll take the lot.
Buy now £16.00, rhode
Glossier Balm Dotcom
If you’ve not heard of Glossier’s Balm Dotcom - where have you been? Much like anything the Instagram-favourite label releases, it’s a cult sensation. The delicious flavours are matched only by the impressive staying power of the balm. There’s a revolving door of new flavour releases, but the hero iteration is the Original (which also doubles as a skin-boosting salve). Other favourites include the mango that will take you right back to your childhood, rose, birthday balm and berry. Some are clear but others carry a slight or sheer tint. They are formulated with the nourishing benefits of castor oil, beeswax and lanolin. The brand created a frenzy on social media by changing up its beloved formula to make it vegan-friendly - much to the chagrin of its fans. The result is not quite as nourishing but the applicator is a welcomed addition.
Buy now £10.00, Glossier
Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask
Whether it’s the harsh winter, stuffy heating or blaring sun, our lips never seem to catch a break. Stop parched pouts in their tracks with Laneige and its hero lip mask, designed to work overnight but can really be applied any time that you notice your lips are dry, flaky or cracking.
It is hugely hydrating but also gently exfoliates to remove dead skin cells. The formula is made up of antioxidants including vitamin C and it comes in an array of fragrances including sweet candy, berry, lemon sorbet, chocolate, grapefruit and vanilla. LANEIGE is a Korean label credited as an authority on water-based hydration heroes - this product is a case in point.
Buy now £16.10, BeautyBay
Malin + Goetz Mojito lip balm
Giving you a much-welcomed soft minty tingle upon application, this lip balm has a gel texture and slathers onto lips, conditioning and smoothing as it goes. The formula is long-lasting and the applicator is a dream. The product contains super nourishing fatty acids that form a protective layer across your lips. Pair easily with your favourite shade of lippy.
Buy now £12.00, Space NK
NIVEA Lip Balm
Proving that luxury doesn’t always have to come with a high price tag, we’ve long been a fan of Nivea’s Original balm for its thick, moisturising effects that are a godsend for parched lips no matter the season. It has a velvety smooth finish when applied and has long-lasting protection.
Buy now £2.65, Superdrug
Burt's Bees Coconut & Pear Lip Balm
Another true lip balm classic, the Burt Bees products centre around the nourishing ingredient of beeswax. It offers impressive moisturisation with long-lasting effects. For this specific flavour, the balm is given a coconut and pear twist, but there are many others to choose from too. All the ingredients are entirely natural.
Buy now £4.49, Boots
Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments
A bestseller from the brand, the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments are some of the most nourishing lip balms on the market. The pout-perfecting product features cranberry seed oil. This is sourced and upcycled from the food and wine industries and repurposed with vitamin E and omegas to give long-lasting hydration throughout the day. There are 12 shades including three new hues as well as the return of the beloved Plum berry tint.
Buy now £19.50, Fresh
Gisou Honey Infused Lip Oil Golden Shimmer Glow
If you’re already a fan of Gisou’s viral Honey Infused Lip Oil, we have some good news. The beloved formula has been treated to a glitzy makeover. It still retains that mirror-like shine that has earned the product its cult status and the hydrating heroes hyaluronic acid, buriti fruit oil, blueberry seed oil and of course, honey - as is the brand’s signature ingredient - providing the moisturising benefits.
Buy now £24.00, Gisou
NATURIUM Phyto-Glow Lip Balms
Our lips can never seem to catch a break, from stress from the cold winter air to hotter temperatures drying out our pouts all the more, they’re always in need of some TLC. NATURIUM comes to the rescue with its moisture-rich new launch. The tinted Phyto-Glow Lip Balms work to lock in moisture, while providing a swipe of shine and gloss. This is achieved through plant derived esters that also give a plumped effect. There’s also shea butter, capacu butter, and squalane that is enhanced through a vanilla flavour. Five shades available; pink, cherry, berry and nude as well as clear.
Buy now £12.00, Space NK
Eve Lom Kiss Mix
Applying Eve Lom’s Kiss Mix balm is a luxurious experience. The product combines zinc oxide with tingling menthol to create a lathering formula ideal for chapped lips. Our go-to for applying just before bed, it works wonders in transforming your pout as you sleep. It is also impressively long-lasting and comes with subtle tinted variations.
Buy now £18.00, Space NK
