Pickle-flavoured lip balm has entered the beauty conversation, and it sold out fast. From Lip Smackers nostalgia to food-as-aspiration marketing, the return of edible beauty raises one uncomfortable question: how weird are we willing to go?
Strawberry Shortcake, Vanilla Soft Serve and… Big Dill?
Over the past 24 hours, e.l.f.’s pickle-flavoured Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balm has confused the beauty community. As one Redditor put it, “tasting pickles all day on your lips is a choice.” A bold choice, I might add. Another asked, “Did anyone move April Fool’s to February?”
I’ll admit it upfront: I haven’t tested it myself. I don’t know whether to feel relieved or professionally negligent. Mostly, I just have questions. Why? How? Should you plan lunch around wearing it? Is it the ultimate boy-repellent?
Pickles aren’t alone. Other food groups have been infiltrating our lips via viral beauty products. Take Sephora’s Tabasco lip quartet – plumping and packaged as photo-friendly bag charms, they were engineered with virality in mind and duly delivered. And then there’s the original Y2K beauty bag staple: Lip Smackers. Especially the soft drink flavours, which felt thrilling at the time and mildly unhinged in hindsight.
A decade ago bacon-scented balm was declared “the best thing to happen to vegetarians,” promising to “grease up those lips.” A phrase that did not need to exist. Thus, strangely scented and/or aggressively flavoured lip balms became part of the millennial pantheon. A hallmark of our most cringe-worthy era, filed neatly alongside owl-shaped necklaces, chevron and moustache tattoos.