Yes, I know, you are too smart to use lip balm, knowing as you do that it only makes your lips worse and that you should rely on the natural moisture of the lips.
For those of us who are not as smart as that, here is an observation.
In my life I have gone through more than a few sticks of lip balm, i use sticks for convenience. If I use the kind in a little tub, it leaves a residue on my finger such that I have to wipe it off before I can do anything else with that hand. I expect there are other delivery methods of which I am not aware, so far I have used the sticks. For convenience.
My frugal nature has always been irritated by the remains of the stick that always stays ineluctably out of reach, when the mechanism stops turning. I’ve often wondered just how much is being wasted. Today I found out, at least in one instance.
The target of my investigation was Chapstick brand Sweet Papaya 100% Natural Lip Butter. When it reached its final state where I could not get any more good from passing it over my lips, I dug out the remainder with a toothpick. Then I screwed it backwards all the way, to see how long the original stick was. It was 5 cm long. Then I screwed it all the way out, to see how much had remained in the stick when it was finished. That was 1 cm long. So fully 20% of the stick is wasted, when the stick is used as intended.
Now my frugal nature is at war with convenience. I am thinking that now that I am retired and spend a lot of time at home (even in normal times) I could switch from convenient sticks to more frugal little tubs, where at least I can get probably 99% of the stuff out under normal use. In the meantime, I have a few sticks already purchased still to use. Perhaps when each of those is finished I can dig out the residue and deposit in a tiny container (if I can find one around the house) and use it up that way. It will be hard on my frugal nature to just throw them away, now that I know.
I am a lip balm addict and I’m ok with my addiction. I have a tube in the pocket of every jacket I own, one in the car, one by my bedside, one on either end of the couch, one in the kitchen, one at work in my desk drawer and numerous tubes in my purse. In other words, I always have one at hand. I don’t like the little tubs. Like you said, what do you do with the gunk left on your finger? Wipe it on your pants? The little tubs also seem to get kind of grimy inside. Your fingers aren’t always freshly washed when you go to use it. Lip balm isn’t that expensive (I usually use Avon which is $1.79 on sale). Once you have one everywhere, you don’t have to purchase one for a while.
When I as a kid, I developed the bad habit of licking my lips. This lasted for about 3 years, til I was able to break the habit. Needless to say, due to the licking of my lips, they were severely chapped and cracked. As such my lips continue to be susceptible to being chapped.
So I am always on the hunt for good lip balm. Chapstick used to have great stuff through their botanicals line. But they are no more. Alba has some great lip balm, but are hard to find. I primarily use EOS now.
I’m not at the stage that I worry about getting every last smidgen out of the container. But I might.
Is that actually so? My lips used to crack to bleeding in the winter before I discovered lip balm. Not since.
I dig the bit out of the bottom of the tube, and don’t think I get significant loss. And a tube fits in my pocket, which a tub wouldn’t.
I like LipIvo, which is hard to come by; but it lasts me a long time. I don’t remember which year I last bought a dozen tubes in, but I’ve still got several untouched as well as a couple of them opened.
I don’t actually know. I was just trying (perhaps too hard) to ward off the almost inevitable smartier-than-thou comments that seem to come up whenever lip balm is mentioned around here.
I use lip balm only for outdoor activities where I will be risking sunburn and/or wind, such as skiing/snowboarding, bicycling, and hiking in the mountains. I always seek lip protection with SPF.
With every visit, my dentist gives us a little goodie bag with a new toothbrush, small tube of toothpaste, floss, and these little sticks of lip balm (with SPF15) like these. As TRC4941 says, they are everywhere. The nice thing about these mini-me sticks is that there is no mechanism to rob me of even the smallest amount of product, since the stick is manually pushed-up using my pinkie, and I can get every last bit.
I have a tube in the pocket of every jacket I own, one in the car, one by my bedside, one on either end of the couch, one in the kitchen, one at work in my desk drawer and numerous tubes in my purse. In other words, I always have one at hand. I don’t like the little tubs. Like you said, what do you do with the gunk left on your finger? Wipe it on your pants? The little tubs also seem to get kind of grimy inside. Your fingers aren’t always freshly washed when you go to use it. Lip balm isn’t that expensive (I usually use Avon which is $1.79 on sale). Once you have one everywhere, you don’t have to purchase one for a while.