Eos, the company that made us fall in love with lip balm again, just launched a new Ultra Care collection that includes two formulas we didn’t see coming: The Hero Extra Dry Lip Treatment and The Fixer Medicated Lip Ointment ($5 each). This is the brand’s first foray into medicated lip care and its first time creating lip products in a tube format, abandoning the playful spheres we love so much. This launch also marks the brand’s largest distribution ever: The two new SKUs will be available in more than 30,000 retail locations.
On a Zoom call to introduce the product to beauty editors, Carley Caldas, vice president of global marketing & innovation at eos Products, said they polled consumers and found out they were really demanding a better experience for their lip care. “Medicated products typically have a terrible taste, leave behind a white residue on the lips and/or contain potentially irritating ingredients,” she said. “These formulas treat, but also soothe, and give the lips pretty shine rather than residue.”
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New York dermatologist Marnie Nussbaum, MD, also on the Zoom call, said our lips only have three to five layers of skin cells compared to the 16 layers that make up the rest of our facial skin. “Lips don’t have melanocytes either, so they don’t tan, and instead, they burn really easily. They also get really dry and chapped faster than facial skin, especially for those who lick their lips often.” It’s for these reasons, among others, that more people are looking for medicated lip-care products with increased efficacy.
The first product of the two, The Hero Extra Dry Lip Treatment, is made for severely dry lips and has a rich, buttery feel that isn’t sticky in the least. It’s chock-full of shea and cocoa seed butters and avocado, olive and sunflower oils, which give it just the right cushion so it stays in place and doesn’t migrate off of your lips. “When it comes to lip repair treatments, a common consumer complaint revolves around taste and the fact that most treatment formulas taste medicinal. We added natural strawberry extract to improve that consumer experience,” says Caldas.
The second product—The Fixer Medicated Lip Ointment, a surprising pivot for eos—is an analgesic ointment for pain relief associated with cold sores and fever blisters. “It’s an analgesic and lip protectant in one without phenol, which is known to be an irritant and consumers told us they didn’t feel good about it,” says Caldas. “As a lifelong cold sore sufferer, I was impressed with this formula. Most products on the market have that medicinal taste, as well as a tingle that’s almost a burning sensation. This one has natural mint extract in it for a little burst of cool, minty taste, and gives a gentle, soothing tingle—both of these aspects are cool differentiators from other products out there.”
Dr. Nussbaum appreciates this approach to treating cold sores because “about 90 percent of people worldwide have HSV-1 or HSV-2 viruses that contribute to them, and they should really be destigmatized. The cool thing about The Fixer is that you don’t have to feel embarrassed using it; no one will know it’s a cold sore medicine. It’s truly an innovation in lip care.”
