Did you know that lip balm flavoring isn’t REALLY flavoring? Surprise! It’s actually scent that tricks the mind into thinking that you’re tasting whatever the scent is. Let’s explore the science behind lip balm (get ready to get Geeky!)
Lip balm is a staple in my make up and handbags. I’ve just gotta have it, otherwise I’d look like I had mummy lips-dry, cracked, and not so kissable. When we started to explore the possibility of making an all natural, good for you lip balm to add to our Alchemy line of awesomeness, the geek in me just HAD to find out what the heck goes into a balm and how we could have the best product for our customers. During my research, I found out the little nugget of geeky truth about lip balms-you really don’t TASTE anything!
What you are doing is SMELLING a scent, not tasting it. What manufacturers (and us) use is a lip safe fragrance oil, and the term “flavor oil” is a bit of a misnomer at that. Flavor oils are really lip-safe fragrances. They smell but do not taste. Flavor oils are used to scent your lips. Commercial products that seem to have a taste actually use a sweetener (commonly aspartame or other sugar substitute). The sweetener tricks the brain into thinking that it’s tasting the flavor when in actuality you are smelling it. If a sweetener is added to lip balms, the user has a tendency to lick their lips, which is drying, which kinda defeats the purpose right? So in our Alchemy lip balms, we do not use sweeteners in our balms (tain’t natural so it ain’t going in our products) just natural, lip safe fragrances. So now you know the science behind the awesome!
Namaste, my friends!