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ChapStick is the brand name adopted in the United States and United Kingdom by Wyeth Consumer Healthcare for its range of lip balms produced to be used on chapped lips. Due to ChapStick's popularity, the term has become a genericized trademark. ChapStick comes in several different varieties, each with their own flavors and applicators. Various formulations include the Classics, Moisturizers, Medicated, Flava-Craze, Overnight, and All-Natural. ChapStick is named as such because it is generally sold in a lipstick-style tube.
ChapStick's SPF varies from 0 to 30, depending on the variety. Chapstick often creates flavors in connection with marketing partners such as Disney (Winnie the Pooh) or in one case, Breast Cancer Awareness (the "Susan G. Komen Pink Pack").
Any given ChapStick may contain camphor, beeswax, menthol, petrolatum, and phenol. However, there are hundreds of variants of ChapStick, each with its own composition.
Uses
Chapstick functions as both a sunscreen to prevent sunburn and works as a skin moisturizer and lubricant to help prevent and protect chafed, chapped, cracked, and windburned lips. Some varieties also contain analgesics to relieve sore lips, and many contain flavorings.
History of ChapStick
In the early 1880's, Dr. C. B. Fleet *, a physician and pharmacological tinkerer from Lynchburg, Virginia, invented ChapStick as a lip balm. The handmade product, which resembled a wickless candle wrapped in tin foil, was sold locally, but did not have much success.
In 1912, John Morton, also a Lynchburg resident, bought the rights to the product for five dollars. In their family kitchen, Mrs. Morton melted the pink ChapStick mixture, cooled it, and cut in into sticks. Their lucrative sales were used to found the Morton Manufacturing Corporation.
In 1963, The A. H. Robbins Company acquired ChapStick from Morton Manufacturing Corporation. At that time, only ChapStick Lip Balm regular stick was being marketed to consumers; subsequently, many more varieties have been introduced. This includes Chapstick flavored sticks in 1971, Chapstick Sunblock 15 in 1981, Chapstick Petroleum Jelly Plus in 1981, and Chapstick Medicated in 1992.
Trivia
- Chapstick tubes with hidden microphones played a role in the Watergate Scandal of the early 1970s.*
- US Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee starred in Chapstick commercials, where she was dubbed "Suzy Chapstick." *
- ChapStick is part of the Breast Cancer Awareness program. Chapstick will donate 20ยข to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for every Chapstick pink pack sold.*
- The slang term "Chapstick lesbian" refers to a lesbian who wears little makeup (as opposed to a "lipstick lesbian").
External links
- ChapStick - Official website
- ChapStick UK - Official UK website
- Chaptastic - Chapstick reviews and more
- ChapStick Pink Pack - Breast Cancer Awareness
- The History of Chapstick
- Lip Balm Anonymous
"ChapStick"