Carmex Strawberry Lip Balm: review

Curiosity killed the cat!

I don't have any issues connected with dry, flaking lips, a lip scrub and a bit of vaseline before sleep to the trick when needed. I hardly ever use any lip balms, if so it's more for pleasure than because I need to. I simply love wearing something on my lips.

I'd read so many enthusiastic reviews of Carmex lip products so when I saw this balm I immediately identified the brand and felt the urge to have it. Of course I couldn't pick anything nice and simple, I went strawberry!

And it's disgusting!

There's nothing strawberry about it! What struck me at first was the strong smell of camphor (I thought it was used to rub your back when you're suffering from bronchitis) mixed with something plasticky artificial. Yuck!

I checked the ingredients and located camphor there, which surprised me a lot. Why do you need that in a lip product? Obviously it's responsible for the stinging feel on your lips but every Polish child knows that camphor is highly irritating, keep it away from the eyes as you will make them water, the volatile elements will dry your throat and make you cough. And camphor combined with menthol? Can you imagine that? 

So then I thought I'd bear the camphor and the menthol and wait for a miracle to happen. It didn't. Actually it made my lips feel drier than before. Perhaps this is intentional. It says on the packaging 'apply liberally as often as necessary', so the more often you apply the more you need to buy. But who would buy this kind of thing again?

Finally, the product separates. Sometimes I experienced liquid oil flowing out instead of something creamy.

The only thing I liked was the packaging. Small, nice, cheerful, hygenic and convenient.

So that's my curiosity satisfied, I'm turning back to my good old petrolatum in pure form, which is actually the main ingredient of Carmex, but unspoilt by a number of allergens of irritants.

Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.