The fascinating history of ChapStick, your winter essential
What’s that one thing you can’t do without, during the winter season? Well, a lot of things come to mind – socks, bunnies and of course, lip balm. That makes us wonder, which is your go-to lip balm? ChapStick, you say? Well, it is indeed a global favourite. On that note, it is time for us to tell you about how lip balm, especially ChapStick came into being.
Earwax: The precursor of ChapStick
Believe it or not, the first ever lip balm can be traced back to ancient Egypt around 40 B.C. when the people created a lip care for their Queen Cleopatra from a mixture of beeswax, olive oil and animal fat.
While this particular recipe did wonders and was a popular choice for years to come, its pungent odour was disliked by many. This is when, in the early 19th century, an American women’s rights activist named Lydia Maria Child recommended earwax as a cure for chapped lips in her book The American Frugal Housewife. In fact, she insisted that earwax worked wonders, better than the earlier formulas and this remedy became a household treatment overnight.
Petroleum jelly is born
While earwax continued to be a chosen remedy of cracked lips, it too had its share of bad odour. With that in mind, American chemist Robert Chesebrough in 1872 accidentally discovered that the petroleum he worked with had the potential for skin repair. It didn’t take him long to sample this petroleum and turn it into a jelly suitable for human use. Long story short, he soon sold this product as “Wonder Jelly” and promoted it as a “natural, waxy ingredient, rich in minerals from deep within the earth.” Later, he renamed his product as Vaseline, now a world-renowned brand for skin care.
World welcomes ChapStick
Inspired by both Ms. Child and Chesebrough, another American physician and pharmaceutical thinker named Charles Brown Fleet invented ChapStick as the ultimate lip balm in early 1880s. His recipe primarily contained earwax alongside a bit of petroleum jelly, camphor, and aloe and resembled a mini wickless candle wrapped in tin foil. Interestingly, people didn’t receive this product well as they weren’t accustomed to using sticks as lip care.
Until 1912, Fleet kept trying to sell his product, however, he didn’t gain much success. This is when he decided to sell the rights to John Morton, a friend, for only five dollars. Mrs. Morton came upon the ChapStick and spun a brilliant idea. She melted the ChapStick in their kitchen, added some pink dye into it, cooled the mixture and then cut it into mini sticks and moulded it with brass tubes, thus giving it a packed look. She then gave away these sticks as free samples among this community. Guess what? Within a few years, Mrs. Morton’s venture was a success and by 1935, she had to move her business from her kitchen to a warehouse.
Realising that the production might stop altogether in their absence, in 1963, the Mortons sold their rights to A.H. Robbins Company who in turn developed different kinds of ChapSticks; from flavoured ChapSticks (mint, strawberry and more) to ChapStick Sunblock and ChapStick Petroleum. Since then, ChapStick became more of a generic name for lip balm rather than a brand itself and has continued to rule till date.