I remember back in grade school how I had a classmate who had chapped and bruised lips forever. Yep. She has been using chapstick since we were young girls who’d rather play than get stuck bored in school. I didn’t have problems with chapped lips - not until I turned out to be too girly for my own good. I can’t remember when I first had my own stick of lip balm. Chapstick (particularly the one in red) was all the rage then. I bought one to look cool.

When college came, my lips became sensitive and soon, I found myself battling with chapped and bruised lips every single day. I tried everything: from piling on lip balm almost every hour to keep my lips from drying up to sleeping with my lips literally drenched in petroleum jelly so I’d wake up with softer lips in the morning. The petroleum jelly did wonders at first but when my gay friend commented how I look like I had lechon for lunch once, I ditched my bottle of petroleum jelly for good.

My discovery of The Face Shop’s Plus+1 Intensive Lip Care Cream was an accident. I was checking out my mom’s make up case one night when I saw this old tube that she hasn’t been using for weeks. She eventually gave it to me. That night, I was nursing a really badly chapped lips (think, bleeding) because I again unconsciously played with my lips and peeled the chapping skin off. I put on some before I went to bed. What I found the next morning was a pleasant surprise. My lips were really soft and the best part? My bruises were on their way to healing. The bruises had closed and were no longer fresh. Before, that would have taken me two to three days but it all happened overnight! Since then, I no longer parted with my trusted tube. Applying it on my lips every night has been a routine. Yes. My lips still chap every now and then and I still get bruises because of my very bad habit - but at least I have something in my stash to combat it.

Plus+1 Intensive Lip Care Cream is loooove.