Skin-Nomad's Take — At a Glance

• Nourishing lip balm for smooth, hydrated lips
• Sweet almond, agave and olive oils with Vitamins C and E
• Sweet black cherry flavour

Cold weather splits lips long before it does anything visible to the rest of your face. The NCLA Beauty Balm Babe Black Cherry Lip Balm answers that with sweet almond and olive fruit oils alongside agave nectar, so the balm softens the skin as well as covering it. NCLA Beauty makes it in Los Angeles, where the brand's lip range runs from quick daytime balms through to overnight masks.

Key Benefits

• Agave nectar goes after the water, not the surface: It is a sugar syrup that pulls water into the top layers of the lip and holds it there, which is a different job from laying a barrier over the top. Lips feel supple rather than merely smooth.
• Where lips split, fatty acids do the repairing: Sweet almond and olive fruit oils are rich in the fatty acids lip skin uses to stay flexible, and flexible skin cracks less at the centre of the lower lip where the movement is greatest. The rough edge you keep catching with your teeth settles down.
• Antioxidants are why the base does not turn: Vitamins C and E both do antioxidant work on the lip, and Vitamin E does a second job keeping an oil-rich formula from going stale over the months a tube lasts. It is a small thing that decides whether the last application is as good as the first.

Texture & Finish

For something this oil-rich it sits surprisingly light, with a slight cushion on the lip and no drag as it goes on. The finish is a low sheen rather than a gloss, and it does not slide about or leave a tacky edge. The black cherry flavour is deep and sweet, closer to dark fruit than to a boiled sweet, and the least sharp of the Balm Babe flavours.

Ideal For

• Skin types: All skin types; lip skin behaves much the same whether the rest of your face runs oily or dry.
• Skin concerns: Chapped, cracked or peeling lips, cold-weather dryness and the sore patch that keeps returning in the same spot.
• Best used by: People who only think about their lips once the skin has already split will get the most out of keeping this one within reach through the winter.

FAQ

Q: How does this compare to a lip oil?
A: Lip oils are built for shine and slip. A fluid oil base spreads glossily, reapplies in seconds and gives an immediate soft feel, but oil alone does nothing to hold water in the lip. The NCLA Beauty Balm Babe Black Cherry Lip Balm is a solid balm carrying agave nectar as well as sweet almond and olive fruit oils, so it binds moisture into the lip as well as slowing its escape, and a solid balm stays put longer than a fluid one.

Q: Does a sweet-tasting balm mean sugar sitting on my lips and drying them out?
A: No. The sweetness of the black cherry is aroma and flavour rather than a coating of sugar, and the one sugar in the formula, agave nectar, is there precisely because sugars hold onto water. The real drying culprit is licking your lips, since saliva evaporates and takes lip moisture with it.

Q: Do I need an overnight lip mask as well as this?
A: Not for ordinary dryness. This balm is a complete step on its own, and a daytime balm topped up when lips feel tight covers most of what lips need. A richer overnight mask earns its place when lips are actively peeling or you wake up with them dry, because one heavy layer with uninterrupted hours of contact does something repeated light layers do not.

A lip balm gets judged on the day you are already in trouble, when the ones worth owning are the ones you wear while nothing is wrong.