Mackenzie’s love letter to EOS lip balm last week—and the ensuing comments—confirmed what I know to be true: bitches love lip balm. Be it high (La Mer, Nuxe Rêve de Miel), low (Burt’s Bees, Labello), or beside the point (Aquaphor ointment, Homeoplasmine nipple cream), we love touching it, applying it, and, probably, ingesting gallons of it over our lifetimes. Even Cat McNeil—who shuns beauty anything outside of fashion week—admitted to being a “mascara and lip balm girl” when she stopped by for a visit a few weeks ago.
My first lip balms were Bonne Bell Lip Smackers, which, correct me if I’m wrong, sometimes had little bracelets attached to the caps—meaning your lip balm could idly dangle from your wrist like a charm bracelet when not in use, not unlike some iPhone accessories. New York magazine recently reported that some 66% of people suffer from “Nomophobia,” no-mobile-phone-phobia; I’d wager that the number would be comparable or higher if you subbed-in lip balm. So why not keep it on your person at all times? That’s what Linda Rodin—BFF of Laetitia Casta, inventor of Olio Lusso, owner of poodle Winky—thought when she filled up a batch of clear plastic rings with her own pale pink, jasmine-scented lip balm. “I made them as a lark,” she told me via email. “For beauty editors etc. They are fab!” They are more than fab; they are like the grown-up version of the Hard Candy ones from 1999, and you can’t buy them, which of course makes you want them more—no matter that the a full-size is readily available on Net-A-Porter. Cat wanted the ring, but I wouldn’t give her mine, so I gave her the putty-gray She Wolf Tom Ford eye shadow palette she wore for these pictures. Fair enough, right? Eh. I know, no fair. So Linda sent over ten rings, and now I’m giving them to YOU (and saving one for Miss McNeil), because these are just too good not to share. Oh, and feel free to wax poetic on your favorite lip balms in the comments. I'm always on the hunt for more...
UPDATE: The giveaway has ended and winners will be notified shortly. Thanks to all who entered!
—Emily Weiss
Catherine McNeil photographed by Emily Weiss in New York on September 5, 2013.
