It seems like, no matter what season it is, my lips are at risk of becoming chapped. It’s partially due to the fact that the weather is so hugely unpredictable that it can be dry as hell in the middle of a humid season, and also there’s this thing where I have a lip-biting problem. More often than not, my lips are in need of repair, thus: my lip balm addiction and my collaboration with Nivea lip balms.
Nivea, who makes one of the oldest and most glamorous multi-use cold creams, have extended their hydration and healing expertise to lips, translated in five different lip products. They asked me to use one product a day for five full days, which is easy since I never leave my bed without a tube of lip balm on me.
Have you seen Nivea lip balms in the drugstore? They’re unbelievably inexpensive, but definitely don’t look like drugstore lip balm. Nivea’s best five lip care products (it’s kind of shocking how many lip care products Nivea has that I didn’t know about) to test for a week. As far as using one a day for five consecutive days – I mostly did that. The bottom line is that I’ve used them all, and a week (or more) has gone by, right? That’s all that matters.
There were four sheer balms and one unexpected shimmer balm. All of them were very soft and smooth, didn’t leave a gross residue and didn’t smear all over my face. Also, as a marketing and packaging nerd, I really love these tubes. They’re aesthetically pleasing, sure, but they twist at the bottom to extend the stick of balm – they don’t have gross, ridged wheels at the end of the tube that get all gunked up and gross. They just feel a little bit more luxurious than your average lip balm, and that’s something I can’t ignore!
The five Nivea lip balms that I reviewed are:
- Milk & Honey
- Mint & Minerals
- Smoothness SPF 15
- Moisture
- Shimmer
None of them really smell like anything which, for me, is a bonus. Just like their other products, Nivea utilizes oldschool, nothing-fancy ingredients to provide lots of hydration and some other add-ins for repairing and refreshing. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell them apart as far as application and effect go, which makes sense because all of the ingredients are pretty much identical for each different product – but when the same result is “makes my lips feel hydrated and soft and smooth” it’s hard to care too much.
Nivea Milk & Honey Lip Balm
This one was my initial favorite because it’s yellow. If you love shameless color favoritism in reviews written by a 30 year old woman, you’ve come to the right place!
Beauty products with milk in them have always appealed to me for some reason… Probably because I spent my childhood covered in rashes from various allergies like metal, random grass, and then a bout of eczema. Milk is a fabulous anti-inflammatory! Honey, on the other hand, means excellent skin nutrition and antibacterial protection. All in all, this is a good choice for lip hydration and lip repair. Next time you have cracked lips, reach for this!
Nivea Mint & Minerals Lip Balm
I mean, it doesn’t get more classic than mint lip balm, but adding in some extra-nutrition is like hiding digestible fiber in your mocha frappacino! Extra shea butter and peppermint extract make this refreshing, but “minerals” might not be the right word to use for this product… There’s jojoba oil (yes please), shea, and beeswax which is great, but it’s no more mineral-y than any other lip balm.
But peppermint! Yum!
Nivea Smoothness SPF 15 Lip Balm
Since I started wearing liquid lipsticks, I quickly learned how important it is to wear a lip balm under some liquid lipsticks. The flaking and cakey dryness that some lipsticks leave is horrendous, but the long-wearing matte deliciousness is kinda worth it. Luckily, throwing some smoothing lip balm under it solves that problem! I have been using this one the most, partially because of my liquid lipstick habits, but mostly because of the ultra-important SPF 15. Never forget, the skin on your lips is super sensitive and the sun will mercilessly throw you into aging before you’re ready if you’re not careful.
Nivea Moisture Lip Balm
Calling a lip balm “moisture lip balm” is either the most lazy description ever (that guy needs to be fired) or it’s a super-futuristic, modernist elite way to say “lip balm.” Moisture. Either way, this is good for your lips like all of the other ones are. This doesn’t have any ingredients that the others don’t. Do you see a trend here?
Nivea Shimmer Lip Balm
Now this is a departure! This baby pink, shimmery lip balm is kind of impressive for a little tube! There’s no glitter or anything, but there is a definite sheen from the pearl and hydrolized silk that are in the formula. I would call the tone of the shimmer a cool tone, and if I had to identify a color sheen, I would say it looked a little bit lavender in the light. It’s not highly pigmented at all, it really is just a layer of shimmery sheen for bare lips!
Plus, it has the added bonus of feeling really velvety and moisturizing, just like (let’s all say it together) all of the other lip balms. This one has some different ingredients because it’s shimmery, this one mostly relies on shea butter for its moisturizing duties.
At the end of my trial, I definitely felt like a responsible adult. Taking care of my lips is something I am ashamed to say I neglect to do on a regular basis. I have a great lip scrub and use it mayyybe once per month. I now use the Nivea Smoothness SPF 15 lip balm every day under my other lipsticks, but what I need to be doing is putting it on before I go to bed, after I shower, any time I’m in direct sunlight, yadda yadda yadda.
Nivea lip balms are under $3 and can be found at basically every drugstore and/or drugstore website. As far as accessibility goes, Nivea is a dream – they’re everywhere and they’re dirt cheap. One of my favorite combinations! So why not pass that joy on to you?
I am giving away these five Nivea lip balms to one winner!
Have five handbags? Perfect! One for every bag. Have four BFFs with chapped lips? That’s great! Have some time to kill and want to learn to juggle? Weird, but totally fine with me! You should enter this giveaway.
Giveaway closes on May 20, 2016 at 11:59pm PST! Good luck!