My craze over lip balms striked again! Over the weekend I picked up two lip balms at Daiso out of curiosity. Both of them was under the Daiso LipStick brand and I chose the Sweet Sour Peach and Menthol balms.
Unopened packs.
Opened from the packs (Left: Sweet Sour Peach, Right: Menthol). No safety seal attached to the lip balm's caps.
The lip balms were packaged inside standard plastic tubes with a twister mechanism at the bottom. Both the tubes were slightly bigger than the average tubes of lip balms. The Menthol balm weighed 5g and the Sweet Sour Peach weighed a little bit more at 5.1g. The label for the Menthol balm was simply printed words whereas the Sweet Sour Peach's label was printed with a few four sided pink stars and some letterings which made the tube looked simple and sweet. I really liked the play of colours on the Sweet and Sour Peach balm with the cap and the twister being pink in contra to the white tube. Both labels were printed directly onto the body of the tubes. There were also some descriptions printed on the tube in Japanese.
Ingredients for Sweet Sour Peach: Mineral oil, Microcrystalline wax, Paraffin, Petrolatum, Ceresin, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Isopropyl Palmitate, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Pyridoxine Dipalmitate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Fragrance.
Ingredients for the Menthol balm: Mineral oil, Paraffin, Lanolin, Petrolatum, Beeswax, Isopropyl Myristate, Ceresin, Menthol, Camphor, Eucalyptus Oil (E), Methyl Salicylate, Turpentine.
Ingredients for the Menthol balm: Mineral oil, Paraffin, Lanolin, Petrolatum, Beeswax, Isopropyl Myristate, Ceresin, Menthol, Camphor, Eucalyptus Oil (E), Methyl Salicylate, Turpentine.
Both of these lip balms are obviously not natural nor vegan and both of them contains Paraffin.
This is how the balm looked like opened:
The Menthol balm had a slightly off-whitish colour to the texture whereas the Sweet Sour Peach is more to transluscent white. The Menthol balm felt a little bit heavier when twisted out of the tube compared to the Sweet Sour Peach. Both balms felt thick and compact when twisted in and out of their tubes.
The Menthol lip balm had this very menthol smell almost like nasal inhalers. The texture of the Mentol balm was quite thick and hard. I had to tug the lip balm across my lips a couple of times to break it in and after it had warmed up to my body temperature a little bit, I did get quite a decent glide. It goes on clear and the shine was very subtle. I find the texture a little bit waxy. The initial tingle of the mint might catch some people off guard because it was very minty. The minty/menthol feeling lasted quite for some time and for someone who likes minty stuff, I guess it's okay but for some people who don't, this might become a put off factor.
The Sweet Sour Peach trully smelled like yummy sweet peach. The tangy but subtle sourness kind off crept on after some time completing the whole scent description. The scent was so spot on it made me want to eat peach! The glide was a tad smoother compared to the Menthol balm. The balm goes on clear and doesn't have any taste which I thought was quite disappointing because a little bit of sweetness would have made the balm completely peachy!
Both the balm had the same not-so-moisturizing effect and the same subtle shine (almost matte). Both of them also didn't have any taste. Only the Menthol balm had a tingling effect when applied to the lips. The lasting power of both balms is a couple of hours, tops.
Here's what both balm looked like on my skin:
Left: Sweet Sour Peach lip balm swatch, Right: Menthol lip balm swatch.
My verdict: The balms were surprisingly not bad considering the price of RM5 for each tube. The glide was only so-so to me and they didn't really leave my lips feeling moisturized as MLS' or Crazy Rumors' lip balms did. At least I thought these balms fared better than Carmex's. Would I repurchase? No, I really don't think I would.
