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There was a specific social hierarchy in my sixth-grade class, and it was determined almost entirely by how many Lip Smackers you had rattling around your backpack. One was baseline. Three meant you were doing fine. The girl with the full tiered collection, organized by flavor family, was operating on a whole other level and she was our queen. (Bow down to Julie M.!)
I had four. Watermelon lived in my coat pocket, got applied roughly every eleven minutes and is still the smell I’d pick if I had to choose one to summarize being twelve. And although I’ve moved on to more “refined” lip products, I’ve never forgotten those middle school vibes.
Lip Smackers are not only still made but sold in multipacks at the drugstore, and I recently bought three of them: the Soda pack, the Tasty Treats pack and, because I was on a mission I’ll explain later, the Disney Princess pack. That’s somewhere around two dozen tubes and I do NOT regret a single purchase. (Well, maybe I regret one purchase; more on that in a minute!)
Here’s the part I didn’t know while I was busy hoarding them. Lip Smackers didn’t simply join the flavored lip balm category. They created it. Learn more about Bonne Bell Lip Smackers below, and check out which five flavors have stood the test of time (plus, the flavor that was a major letdown!).
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The Iconic Rise of Bonne Bell Lip Smackers in the ’90s
The company behind Lip Smackers, Bonne Bell, started in Ohio in 1927, founded by a man named Jesse Grover Bell. The lip balm came much later, arriving in 1973, and when it did there was nothing else like it on a drugstore shelf. Strawberry was the flavor that started everything. Hundreds more followed over the next few decades.
The flavor list expanded fast and got weird in the best way. Sour Grape, Orange Pop, Bubblegum and Lime Sherbert all showed up in the early years. Then came the soda partnerships and the candy tie-ins, which landed right as my generation hit middle school and had exactly enough allowance money to care.
What Happened to Bonne Bell?
If you’ve picked up a tube recently and noticed the packaging looks different, here’s why.
In January 2015, after close to 90 years in business, the family sold both the Bonne Bell and Lip Smacker names to Markwins International, a California company that also owns Wet N Wild. The Ohio operations closed and production moved west. The remaining family business kept a few other brands and took a new name.
Luckily, they kept Lip Smackers going and you can still buy them pretty much anywhere. They’re just not Bonne Bell products anymore, which explains why the pre-2015 tubes have turned into collector items. Vintage jumbo sets were listed on eBay for around $120 when I looked.
Retesting the Classics: Which Flavors Stood the Test of Time
My method was not scientific but it was thorough. I bought the multipacks at CVS, wore a different flavor each day for a few weeks and kept notes on two questions. Does the flavor match the memory, and does the balm actually work as a balm?
On that second question, lower your expectations ever so slightly. These are pleasant and glossy and they are not going to rescue badly chapped lips in a dry January. The flavors are a fun walk down memory lane but with so many excellent lip balms now on the market, they’re just not on that level.
Related: A Dermatologist Swears by This ‘Creamy, Soft and Budget-Friendly’ Lip Balm for Dry Lips
The Top 5 Lip Smacker Flavors Still Worth Buying
Best Overall Lip Smacker Flavor: Cherry Coke Best Lip Smacker Scent Memory: Watermelon Best Lip Smacker Formula Up Strawberry Best Cult Favorite Lip Smacker: Cotton Candy Hardest To Find Lip Smacker: Dr PepperBest Overall Lip Smacker Flavor: Cherry Coke, $11 (for variety pack of 8)
Amazon
Shop It on AmazonIt’s every bit as delicious as I remember and I have to literally stop myself from eating the tube. It’s just the exact right scent and transports me to the Walnut Creek mall, shopping in the Gap before heading to the movie theater to see Jurassic Park. It’s perfection.
Best Scent Memory: Watermelon, $6.25 (for variety pack of 3)
Amazon
Shop It on AmazonAh, the pink-and-green tube is probably the most recognizable one they’ve ever made. And let me tell you, this is the one. It smells exactly the same! It makes your mouth water in the most pleasant way and I could not stop smelling it. I even gave it to my husband and he immediately said it smelled like his sister Rachael’s childhood room.
Best Formula Up Strawberry, $6.25 (for variety pack of 3)
Amazon
Shop It on AmazonThe flavor that started it all in 1973, and the one that benefits most from the current formula, which goes on smoother and glossier than the slightly waxy tubes I remember. I liked it a lot and it will be in rotation.
Cult Favorite: Cotton Candy, $2.50
Amazon
Shop It on AmazonThis is the one I went looking for and could not locate at first. Not in the Soda pack, not in the Tasty Treats pack, not sold solo at any drugstore I checked.
I finally found it in the Disney Princess pack, which is not where any reasonable person would think to look. It was worth the hunt, though. It’s exactly as delicious as I remembered, which is a rare thing to be able to say about anything from 1996.
Hardest To Find Lip Smacker: Dr Pepper, $25
Ebay
Shop It on EbayI’d be run out of town for leaving this off the list. Dr Pepper is the flavor people name first when the brand comes up, and it dominates the nostalgia threads where grown adults argue about lip balm. (Honestly, I am very at home on these threads and have to stop myself from jumping into the fray.)
The problem is it’s no longer available and the Reddit threads are heartbroken. The Soda Pack now has a Barq’s Root Beer flavor, but it’s just not the same. If you want Dr. Pepper, you have to hunt eBay for it, and good luck to you!
Related: 9 Best Peptide Lip Treatments for a More Hydrated, Plumper Pout
The Flavor That Didn’t Hold Up
The most disappointing revisit? Sprite.
I had high hopes. Sprite was a staple of the soda era and I expected it to land somewhere near Cherry Coke.
It didn’t. Whatever made it register as thrilling in middle school hasn’t survived, and next to the other sodas in the pack, it reads flat.
Where To Find Classic Lip Smackers Today
Good news. You don’t need to hunt eBay for most of the flavors unless you specifically want the old packaging.
Multipacks are the efficient route and they’re stocked at CVS, Amazon and other drugstores. Single tubes turn up at Target, Walmart and Amazon, though the selection rotates constantly and specific flavors can disappear without warning.
If a flavor has vanished from the shelf, check the themed packs before you give up. Mine was sitting in a Disney Princess set the whole time.
Up Next:
Related: 11 Vintage Lipsticks That Deserve a Comeback, According to a Makeup Artist
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