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 ChapStick logo | |
 ChapStick Classic Original lip balm | |
| Product type | Lip balm |
|---|---|
| Owner | Suave Brands Company |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | Early 1880s |
| Previous owners | |
| Website | chapstick |
ChapStick is abrand name oflip balm owned by Suave Brands Company and is used in many countries worldwide. It is intended to help treat and preventchapped lips, hence the name. Many varieties also include sunscreen to avoid sunburn.
Due to its popularity, the term has become agenericized trademark. It popularly refers to any lip balm contained in a lipstick-style tube and applied in the same manner as lipstick. However, the term is still aregistered trademark, with rights exclusively owned by Suave Brands Company.
ChapStick generated $142 million in revenue in 2023.[1]
In the early 1880s,Charles Browne Fleet,[2] a physician and pharmacological thinker fromLynchburg, Virginia, invented ChapStick as a lip balm product. The handmade product, which resembled a wickless candle wrapped in tin foil, was sold locally and did not have much success.[3]
In 1912, John Morton, also a Lynchburg resident, bought the rights to the product for five dollars. Mrs. Morton melted the pink ChapStick mixture in their kitchen, cooled it, and cut it into sticks. Their lucrative sales were used to found the Morton Manufacturing Corporation.[3]
In 1935,Frank Wright, Jr., a commercial artist from Lynchburg, Virginia, was commissioned to design the CHET ChapStick logo that is still used today. He was paid a one-time fee of $15.[3]
In 1963, The A.H. Robins Company acquired ChapStick from Morton Manufacturing Corporation. At that time, only the ChapStick Lip Balm regular stick was being marketed to consumers; subsequently, many more varieties were introduced. This includes ChapStick four-flavored sticks in 1971, ChapStickSunblock 15 in 1981, ChapStick Petroleum Jelly Plus in 1985, and ChapStick Medicated in 1992.
Robins was purchased by American Home Products (AHP) in 1988.[4] AHP later changed its name toWyeth. ChapStick was a Wyeth product until 2009 when Wyeth was acquired byPfizer. Pfizer sold the manufacturing facility in Richmond, Virginia, on October 3, 2011, to Fareva Richmond, which now manufactures and packages ChapStick for Pfizer.[5]
In 2019,GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare acquired ChapStick from Pfizer. In July 2022, GlaxoSmithKline spun off its consumer brands, including ChapStick, into a new consumer health company namedHaleon.[6]
In January 2024, it was announced that Suave Brands Co. (SBC) would acquire the brand from Haleon for $510 million.[7] SBC had been formed a year earlier by Yellow Wood Partners, aBoston-based private equity firm, to purchase theNorth American rights to theSuave brand previously owned byUnilever.
In June 2024, it was reported that SBC had completed the purchase of the brand in a deal valued at approximately $430 million.[8]
Ingredients commonly includecamphor,beeswax,menthol,petrolatum,phenol,vitamin E,aloe andoxybenzone.[9] However, there are many variants of ChapStick, each with its composition. Due to safety concerns, phenol is banned from use in cosmetic products in the European Union and Canada.
The full list of ingredients in a regular-flavored ChapStick is:
arachidyl propionate,camphor,carnauba wax,cetyl alcohol, D&C red no. 6 barium lake, FD&C yellow no. 5 aluminum lake, fragrance, isopropyl lanolate,isopropyl myristate,lanolin, lightmineral oil,methylparaben,octyldodecanol,oleyl alcohol,paraffin, phenyl trimethicone,propylparaben,titanium dioxide, whitewax,propanol.[10] Its net weight is usually 4 grams (0.14 oz).
When manufactured by Wyeth, Chapstick contained noparabens.
ChapStick functions as both asunscreen, available withSPFs as high as 50, and a skin lubricant to help prevent and protect chafed, chapped, sunburned, cracked, and windburned lips. "Medicated" varieties also containanalgesics to relieve sore lips. In addition to medical uses, ChapStick has had other uses; the lubricating properties have been useful on precision instruments such asslide rules. Other lubricants, while appropriate to the instruments, might have been harmful to the skin, while ChapStick is not.
ChapStick is sometimes available in special flavors developed in connection with marketing partners such as Disney (as in cross-promotions withWinnie the Pooh or the movieCars) or withcharitable causes such asbreast cancer awareness, in which 30¢ is donated for each stick sold (as in theSusan G. Komen Pink Pack). The Flava-Craze line is marketed to preteens and young teens, with colorful applicators and "fun" flavors such as Grape Craze and Blue Crazeberry.
USOlympic skierSuzy Chaffee starred in ChapStick television commercials in which she dubbed herself "Suzy ChapStick". Another very famous ChapStick advertisement includes basketball legendJulius Erving (commonly known as Dr. J) naming himself Dr. ChapStick and telling young children about the great things that ChapStick can do.[11]
Diana Golden, a U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning skier and 1988, Ski Racing Magazine andUnited States Olympic Committee female skier of the year, was also a spokesperson for ChapStick.[12] Former ski racerPicabo Street, for a time, was seen on television commercials as one of the company's endorsers.[13]
Its main competitors in theUnited States—Carmex andBlistex—also use the popular lipstick-style tube for their lip balm products. InIceland and in theUnited Kingdom, the product's main competitor isLypsyl, made byNovartis Consumer Health and distributed in similar packaging to ChapStick.
