True confession time. If you were to sneak a peek at my vanity counter snuggled in amongst the tubes and jars and brushes and pots of costly cosmetics, creams, mascaras, lipsticks and blushes you would spy a collection of Bonne Bell Lip Smackers. Yup, there are parts of my childhood I may never let go of! We collected them and traded them and planned a Saturday around heading into the center to check out the pharmacy aisles for new flavors we saw in Seventeen Magazine. My Lip Smackers were stashed with my gum wrapper chains and just seeing a tube sends me back. I admit to still on a silly day casually strolling up the aisles at CVS to see what new
flavors there might be and watching for the holiday collection tubes
filled with mini colored smackers that I so looked forward to and collected
as a kid. Lip Smackers are a part of my tween-age fascination with anything advertised in my Seventeen and Young Miss Magazines...as much as Love's Baby Soft, Lemon Up, Ten O Six, Yardley...
The youth cosmetic company that introduced me to make-up is closing its doors. Bonne Bell has been in business since 1927, founded
by traveling salesman J. G. Belle and named after his daughter Bonne.
Lip Smackers were created in 1973 , supposedly
the world's first flavored lip gloss. The sweet emollient balms packed in happy colored fat tubes are perhaps most famous for their flavors. Lip Smackers started with strawberry but over time expanded its flavor line to include popular soda flavors like Orange Crush and 7UP, candy flavors like Tootsie Roll, Cotton Candy, Good and Plenty... and my fave of all time Bubble Gum!
To this day, mixed among my Dior Lipsticks and Chanel glosses, you will in fact find Bonne Bell Lip Smackers. I prefer the original fat tubes-we could wear these around our neck-but having a basket of the mini colored tubes still makes me smile. Some things never change and on a winter's day they are still the best for dry chapping lips...and just the scent, which could probably give you a sugar headache, sends me back...they hold such great memories.
The good news is that Bonne Bell has been acquired, so fingers crossed when I am old and grey I will still be able to find a tube of bubble gum Lip Smacker :) for now I am off to CVS to grab a few Lip Smackers to hide away just in case and keep nearby for a nostalgic day.
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