Lip Smackers

When it comes to makeup, I'm a pretty big fan. One of the first things I did after making the transition from college student to "big girl job" was ditch most of the drugstore Maybelline, Revlon and CoverGirl cosmetics in favor of Dior, Laura Mercier, Nars, Benefit, and the like. The only drugstore purchase I kept around were the zillions and zillions of Bonne Belle LipSmackers that I owned. I never found another chapstick-type lip product that I liked better, and I bought multipacks like they were going out of style, in just about every flavor imaginable. I kept a tube in my car, in my purse, on the bathroom sink, in my desk at the office... see where I'm going with this?

Anyway, for various hoardingimpulse-purchasing-related reasons, I haven't had the need to actually buy new LipSmackers for, well, a couple of years even though I wore the stuff like it was going out of style. Yesterday, though, my stash at the office ran dry - off I went to CVS, figuring that a new multipack would get me through the zombie apocalypseforeseeable future. I grab a package and flip over to the ingredient list out of habit - it's just wax and scent, after all, right? - and find it in big, bold letters: wheat. WTH?

I placed the mutipack of my beloved LipSmackers back on the shelf and hunted around the store for a suitable substitute. I remembered hearing that Burt's Bees were safe, so I bought a few different tubes - figuring that at this point I'd e-mail the company before cracking any of the tubes open just to be on the safe side.

I text my husband this story, feeling terrible  (I suppose we've solved the mystery of how he's accidentally been glutened without eating anything that could have remotely had gluten in it). He told me not to feel bad, it was a mistake anyone could make, and then started to check if the Blistex he uses on a regular basis is gluten free - and within a few minutes my iPhone dinged with a Facebook post from his best man teasing me about the attempted poisoning of my husband by lipstick. Love ya! 

Within a couple of hours Burt's Bees responded to my inquiry with the following e-mail:

Thank you for contacting Burt's Bees.

All of our lip balms, lip glosses, lip shimmers and new tinted lip balms are gluten free except for the Res Q SPF 15 Lip Balm and the Beeswax Lip Balm in the round tin container.  The Beeswax Lip Balm in the tube container is gluten free.  

While we can identify products in which we do not use raw materials containing gluten, we cannot certify that our vendors did not process these ingredients on equipment where contamination could occur. For the most accurate source of information, please refer to the list of ingredients on our website or on the product.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

So now I have a handful of tubes that are safe for me to use and still give my husband a peck on the lips. Unfortunately... I don't like the product as much. The texture isn't that great, and it's a little sticky. So far I've tried the original tube, the honey tube, and the tinted tube. Not a huge fan. Readers, what products do you use to moisten dry lips???

Also - I am now paranoid that I've forgotten to check other products. I'm on a mission to find out if Olay, Nars, Benefit, Laura Mercier, etc. are gluten free. (I think I'm safe on the Dior, because if he's ingesting mascara there would be something insanely wrong). Anyone ever e-mail these companies to find out more information...? I will be hunting down information very shortly.