Lip bomb

When it comes to certain things, I have found the answer.

Among them is lip balm.

I'm one of those people who simply cannot go without something coating my lips.

Twenty-four seven, three-sixty-five, as they say. Bare lips are not an option.

Why? Because me pirate lips be dry.

In public, I always wear lipstick. I wear it well; my lipstick doesn't fade. In the event it does begin to falter, I put it right back on.

Why? Because I look a fright without it. Lipstick was made for pale girls like me. 

When it comes to protecting my lips at home during down time, in the past I've used most of the things that are out there for the treatment of dry lips: Carmex. Blistex. Aquaphor Lip Repair. Vaseline Lip Therapy. Burt's Bees Beeswax. Smith's Rosebud Salve. CeraVé Healing Ointment. 

And that is not all: I've also tried Avon Moisture Therapy. Lancôme Absolue Precious Cells Nourishing Lip Balm. Mary Kay Extra Emollient Night Cream (splendid for dry lips). Just a dab.

Tiny tins and tubes of lip lubrication littered the landscape. There was something for my lips at every place in my house that I might settle in -- whether to sit or stand -- to do anything for any length of time.

It's still true. If I'm cooking and my lips feel parched, I reach into a nearby drawer. My lip balm is there.

If I perch at my desk, all I have to do is reach over and it's there. If I relax in any one of my lounging places throughout the house, it's there on the tables beside all chairs. As I go to bed, the last thing I do is to grab the lip emollient from my bedside table.

It's in my cosmetic bag that goes everywhere with me in my purse. Right beside the lipstick. So for example if we've eaten out and we're going straight home afterwards and no one will see me, in lieu of reapplying lipstick I reach for the lip balm.

By the way, I do not have chapped lips. They've never had a chance to become chapped because they're always treated with something that softens and conditions them.

I know you're champing at the bit to know what kind of lip balm I now use exclusively, after trying all the others.

Chap Stick Candy Cane.

And only Chap Stick Candy Cane.

I discovered this Limited Edition variety of ubiquitous Chap Stick (which was probably the one tried-and-true, old-school lip balm I'd never taken seriously; I thought it was waxy, and the original flavor/scent leaves a lot to be desired) a few Christmases ago.

Walmart had strategically placed it where weary shoppers wait in one of three active (out of eighty-five) checkout lines.

They were so candy-stripey cute. Primed to spend even more money than I'd already shelled out during the Christmas season, I grabbed several to use as stocking stuffers. And so it was that I tried Chap Stick Candy Cane and was hooked.

It's the most refreshing, tantalizing, soothing feeling on your lips. Exquisitely cool. Pepperminty and tingly. Above all, it lasts and lasts.

See, that was my complaint with many of the products I'd used before: slick it on, turn around, smack your lips a time or two, and it was naught but a vague memory.

Chap Stick Candy Cane hangs out on the lippy till the cows come home.

I will brook no argument when it comes to lip balm brands, flavors, formulas, methods of delivery to the lip -- any of the myriad choices out there.

I don't have to. I have my Chap Stick Candy Cane and I have it all the time, all over the house and in my purse.

But -- you may be thinking -- how do I accomplish that when Candy Cane flavor is available only at Christmastime? 

Good question. And the answer is, I buy it in bulk on Amazon.

Because I cannot and will not be without it.

I keep my unopened, ready-to-grab sticks of Chap Stick Candy Cane inside a clear glass pumpkin that stays in the cabinet above our kitchen desk. The minute my supply runs low, I order more.

I'm locked in. At the risk of coming across as inflexible, I promise that I don't require help or input or suggestions or sales pitches on this subject.

So you can imagine the dismissive wave of my hand when, returning home from a golf fundraiser he'd participated in with several friends at The Citadel in Charleston last week, TG offered me a random stick of lip balm.

At the event, golfers had been given a goodie bag. It contained various items like magnetic ball markers, a Citadel koozie, a hat, et cetera.

And one of the freebies was the aforementioned lip balm.

I barely glanced at it, knowing that within ten feet of where I stood, there were at least a half dozen broken-in sticks of Chap Stick Candy Cane at my fingertips.

(Dagny often retrieves them for me. She'll see a Chap Stick Candy Cane on a table that's not beside the chair I'm sitting in. Not understanding that they're everywhere, she'll bring it to me -- Here, Mamaw! -- because she knows I depend on it.)

(I say Thank you, baby, but then I have to tell her to please go and put it back where she found it, lest I reach over onto that table the next time I sit in that particular chair, and find my Chap Stick Candy Cane missing.)

But then I got curious and took the proffered golf-game goody from TG and looked at it.

Panama Jack Vanilla Lip Balm, SPF 45. The Original.

Whaaaaaat? That sounded fantastically good. I adore vanilla. Reminds me of cake.

TG didn't want it; he likes Carmex. I removed the protective shrink wrap from the cap and opened the lip balm. I twisted some up. I put the back of my hand up to my mouth to rub off the Chap Stick Candy Cane I was wearing.

I applied the Panama Jack Vanilla Lip Balm SPF 45. I inhaled.

Wow, guys. Woweeee. Wowwwwwwwza. The pirate approves.

Wonderful. Delightful. Heartbreaking. Breathtaking. Soooooo vanilla! So soft! So silky. So very very smooth.

I immediately loved it. 

But not enough to supplant my beloved Chap Stick Candy Cane.

Here's the deal: I have no need of SPF 45 on my lips. I rarely spend any amount of time in the sun and when I do, my lips are always protected with sun block.

And upon doing a click or two of research, I found that Panama Jack Vanilla SPF 45 will set you back fourteen dollars for three sticks on Amazon.

That's almost five bucks a throw as compared to one dollar for the Chap Stick Candy Cane. (Actually it's a trifle more when bought in quantities on Amazon, coming to more like a buck fifty per stick. But still. It's available year-round, not only as a Limited Edition.)

So I won't be falling for that. But I will keep and enjoy the stick of Panama Jack Vanilla SPF 45 that my TG gave me.

And if you don't have a favorite of your own and you don't like the sound of Chap Stick Candy Cane, or if like me you're partial to vanilla, or if it would make sense for you to wear a 45 SPF lip balm when you're outdoors?

Try the Panama Jack. It's the bomb. When I've used up the one TG gave me and feel the need for another, I may be in the market, as it were.

Until then, my lips belong to Chap Stick Candy Cane.

Just because. Because because because because because ... because of the wonderful things it does.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Thursday

Comments

[Mari]

Verrrry Interesting! I too am a chap stick fanatic! I don't leave the house without it, and when I'm working it's always in my pocket. So, I loved reading your review. I have tried many types and usually use Blistex, it has to be the mint variety for me. I've never seen the candy cane chapstick, but I'm going to be looking for it!

[irene]

Wow, you should get a fee for this advertisement. I don't think I've ever seen candy cane.
.

[Jennifer]

@Mari ... I shall send you some! Because you simply must try it. But I admit, Blistex makes a nice product. I'll use it in a pinch. xoxo

@Irene ... I know, right? Chap Stick is welcome to pay me a dividend. But at Christmastime, I hope you'll look for it and try it. It's a happy thing to give your lips. xoxo