Splurge vs. Save

Rose Lip Balms

By Terry Baume de Rose / Smith’s Rosebud Salve

As someone with perpetually dry lips, my arm can always be twisted to try a new lip balm. I wrangled a small sample of the By Terry Baume de Rose and I won’t lie: it’s a really, really good product. It does a beautiful job of conditioning and reducing those vertical lip lines and flakiness. I can apply it at night and my lips still feel conditioned when I wake up the next morning. Based on the small amount needed, I’d guess that small jar would last for several months. The rose fragrance is subtle and natural. Ingredients include shea butter and “rose wax” (whatever that is).

I’ve used Smith’s Rosebud Salve as a lip balm for years and also use on my cuticles when I remember. At around $4 per tin, I don’t have to be stingy. But granted, it’s not as emollient a product as the Baume de Rose, nor does it seem to last as long. It’s petroleum-based, with “essential oils” and cottonseed oil. $55 worth of difference?  I’m not completely sold.

Do you have a favorite lip balm?

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38 Comments

    1. Best for this 62 yr old, Burt’s Bees pomegranate balm, and newly discovered Fresh Sugar balm. Sort of the same analogyy to the above, and a $4 to $18 ration in price. Cheers, Mame

      1. Burt’s Bees have lovely coloured lip balms – subtle but pretty and they work pretty well at keeping lips moist.

  1. Oh, perpetual chapped lips — do I know about them! I have tried every kind of lip grease out there, and while I love the Fresh Sugar range, it’s too pricy for me in my current reduced circumstances.

    My fave cheapo is Trader Joe’s “Lip Balm Virtuoso,” but I haven’t yet secured an overseas source for this. Maybe the next time MamaRubi sends me a care package, she’ll throw a three pack in.

    Paula’s Choice “Lip and Body Treatment Balm” is wonderful — good for dry lips and dry cuticles, and it lasts all night if I put it on before bedtime. About $11 at full price (but on sale for $8.75 right now).

    If you can find it on eBay or Amazon, I recommend Gal Collection Vaselina, from a venerable Spanish brand. The red currant flavor is my favorite, but peach is also good. A little tin lasts about a year — I have one next to the bed and one on my desk. Expect to pay around $10.

  2. I second Paula’s Choice lip and body balm. I have used it for ten+ years before bed. No more cracked lips, not even during ski/snowboard season. My #1 beauty holy grail. I have six in backup and I will collapse in grief if it is ever discontinued.

    1. I ordered the Paula’s Choice lip and body balm, received it yesterday. It is wonderful. My cuticles are already looking and feeling better.

    1. Kathy, same here! I love me some Aquaphor. Mostly I use on heels, elbows, rough patches, but find it’s also good for rashy, irritated skin. The Windex reference from MBFGW always cracks me up.

  3. Definitely on the “save” team, here! I buy whatever’s cheap or on sale, so that could be Blistex, Chapstick, Nivea etc. Perhaps because I go through so much of the stuff, I even have to do the cosmetician’s no-no, put some kind of balm UNDER my lip colour! I’m re-applying numerous times a day, so always carry some with me, stashed in various places around the house,and definitely before bed! Although the Baume de Rose sounds like such a treat, I would be broke in no time!

    1. Balm under lip colour is great – I can’t image why anyone would say it wasn’t? As long as the balm isn’t too slippery and glossy, it acts as a primer to make lipstick look smoother and less dry.

    2. I’ve found Chapstick to be the best if I actually have dry lips (as opposed to just adding some colour or gloss). I like the strawberry flavour.

  4. The most emollient stick I personally know of is alba botanica Hawai’ian lip balm (I use passion fruit)

    It goes on quite thick, but I use it for overnight so I can wake up without dry lips in the morning.

  5. I have been using Bonne Bell Dr. Pepper lip gloss since 1977 when it first came out on a cord you wore around your neck…. Anyone else remember this? I still use it for the light tint, the moisturizing, the smell, the cost, and the nostalgia…. 🙂

  6. Glad you got a sample, if only to see how it is. I wouldn’t spend that much! I get a terrific lip balm free from my dentist; no name (except his practice) and truly lovely flavours ike fig/pear. Beats the heck out of a toothbrush.

  7. Most likely a “treat” purchase. Given that I have lip balms in every drawer and bag I probably wouldn’t use it exclusively. I’m sure I’m not the only person who has frittered twice that much away on make-up items I hardly use. It might be good as a gift.

  8. The perfect perfect perfect lip balm for dry lips is from Dr Hauschka (called, I think, the Lip Care Stick). At $14 it’s not free, but better than $59! I’m a connoisseur (so to speak–more like an obsessive) of lip balms and I don’t think anything else matches this one for serious, lasting moisture. It’s happily not gooey or sticky yet provides a gentle shine. Try it! 🙂

    1. This is also my all time favourite!!! Got onto it while living in Europe and still hunt it out back in Australia – worth every cent. Gentle rose fragrance, beeswax base and works a treat!!!

  9. I must be one of the few here who does not suffer from dry lips and never seem to have the need of a lip balm. I think I have to count myself fortunate. I did receive the Rosebud salve as a stocking stuffer a few years ago and have used it as a gloss. Now, dark circles under eyes? Can we discuss that?

    1. I must be the other one here, who never has used lip balm. I always keep wondering why women scrub balm on their lips -several times a day!

  10. I just use a retinol rub-in at bedtime, and that seems enough as my lips don’t dry particularly easily. But I gotta tell you, because of the restaurant and all my pets I wash my hands more than anyone I know, and I get horrible dry cuticles. Until I started using Bag Balm. I’m not kidding. I massage just a dab in daily, and it cures anything cuticle related. Sounds gross, I know, but it’s a miracle cure and lasts forever. Not glam at all, but I swear by it.
    I sound like such a country mouse, sometimes!

    1. When I had a garden, Bag Balm sa(l)ved my life! (Sorry.) I used to put a thick coat on my hands before I put on my gardening gloves and then wash the whole dirty mess off when I was done. Had gorgeous hands and nails then!

  11. The best thing that I have discovered is coconut oil – I use it on almost anything – after my lips I usually smooth down my eyebrows moisturizing the eyebrow hair as well.

  12. I have used Paula” Choice for years – but I think she may have a new formula. Used a new one and my lips swelled up!

  13. Living in a desert climate it’s a perpetual problem-hot, dry summers and dry winters. My favorite lip balm by far has been “The Lip Slip” by Sara Happ

  14. Splurge; Aerin Rose Lip Balm, Save: L’Occitane shea butter, Aquaphor and when the lips are really, really chapped on an Rx will do, desonide ointment! NO MENTHOL or MINTY if you have really dry lips.

  15. Long-time, buy-6-at-a-time best: Kiehl’s No. 1. Has to be in the tub though, the formula in the squeeze tube is somehow different. Good for cuticles also. For day, because nicely tinted: Burt’s Bees (in the brown tube; the ones in the yellow tubes are opaque and metallic and I find them drying).

  16. I couldn’t help myself, and went out in search of the baume rose this morning. Found it at Barney’s, which is half a block from where I live. So far, I’m loving it…great on the lips, and even better on the cuticles. Tried a dab on the outer edges of my eyes, too (don’t recommend that…) It’s pricey, but it’s definitely the least expensive thing they sell at Barney’s!