From byrdie
The prospect of gendered beauty products is peculiar. If women want to wear cologne instead of a pink-packaged eau du parfum, we’ll spritz away; if we want to borrow our guy friend’s pomade to piece out our hair, we’ll take a scoopful, thanks. Celebrities don’t discern between the two, either: Kylie Jenner, for one, credits a men’s post-shave balm as the perfect base for makeup (a hack first made public by NikkieTutorials). All this to say it’s perfectly fine to blur the lines between men’s and women’s products, especially if items from the “opposite” category yield favorable results.
Sephora shoppers certainly know this to be true: Jack Black, a brand touted as number one in men’s skincare, has a cult-loved lip treatment with over 2000 positive reviews on the retailer’s website: Intense Therapy Lip Balm ($8). The product page is flooded with images of women flaunting smooth, supple lips post-application, and rave female reviews such as “Amazing. The best lip balm I have ever used … I keep tubes of this stuff in every room of the house and I keep multiples in my purse. Love it.” Unsurprisingly, men are big proponents of the hydrating treatment, too.
Lip balm is easily one of those universal products, so it’s no wonder this little blue tube’s audience knows no bounds. But what makes it stand out among the pack is that it’s paraben-free, field-tested in extreme conditions, and packed with SPF 25 (personally, we tend to neglect our lips when it comes to sun protection).
Five enticing scents encourage return shoppers too: Grapefruit & Ginger, Black Tea & Blackberry, Natural Mint & Shea Butter, Lemon & Shea Butter, and Shea Butter & Vitamin E. Users say it’s smooth (not sticky), low-shine, and long-lasting and that it far outrivals other popular balm brands. Plus, its plastic-tip application makes Intense Therapy far more hygienic than a pot. Now, excuse us while we replace the bottom-of-our-handbag-dwelling tubes with this hero product.
Next up, This Eye Cream Sells Every 3 Minutes at Sephora, So I Tried It