Nivea Fruity Shine Lip Balm SPF10

Saw these Nivea A Kiss of Flavor on Citrine's Blog spring of last year and she had good things to say about the Strawberry Tinted Lip Care SPF4 (though not so much for the Cherry Tinted one from 2009). Fast forward a year and Nivea reformulated and repackaged these balms as A Kiss of "insert flavor" Fruity Lip Care SPF10. Here in Taiwan, they are called Fruity Shine Lip Balm SPF10. I thought they are localized products but nope, all are imported from Germany, same as the ones in the US, which makes the name variations even harder to understand. Can you get any more convoluted, Nivea? 

Nivea Fruity Shine Lip Balm SPF10 Pink Guava and Strawberry, with the Chinese descriptions taped over the original English. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

The outer packaging changed slightly as well, and they went from a chubby round tube with cap that's flat at the end to a "pudgier" tube with cap that's slanted at the end. The ones in Taiwan have the same new packaging. Flavor wise, there are only Cherry and Strawberry available in the US. In Taiwan, instead of Cherry they have Pink Guava, in addition to Strawberry. That said, the Nivea Taiwanese website no longer shows these 2 flavors, which makes me think perhaps they are being discontinued. From kuri I learned there is Pomegranate in Singapore, and for Japan, other than Strawberry there are also Pink Grapefruit and Peach, as shown on Nivea Japanese website. Garhh...want!!!

New US packaging (left 2 pictures) and Taiwan's Pink Guava and Strawberry (right picture), also in new packaging.

***Left 2 pictures from Nivea USA.

These Nivea Fruity Shine Lip Balms are fantastic and I absolutely love them! They're wax based but don't feel anything like wax and are very much a part of the watery wet lip balm trend. Actually, such lip balms have existed way before they become trendy, SoftLips Lip Conditioner is one such example. The major problem with them, then and now, is that they don't last very long at all. SoftLips lasted for about 15-20 minutes on my lips and with daily use I went through a stick in about a week. Maybelline Baby Lips lasts a bit longer, about an hour and with daily use, a clear stick lasted me a little over a month. Because I can't and don't slather on the ones with color (they're potent on me!), I still haven't gotten half way through any of my colored sticks yet.

Let's just say that within a mere couple of weeks of daily use, these Nivea balms have reached must-buy-back-ups status with me. In fact, I now have at least 2 back-ups each of Pink Guava and Strawberry. I might have chanced upon them on sale at Watsons and picked them up on impulse, but the subsequent hunts for the elusive Pink Guava (and Olive & Lemon, will review in a separate post) were anything but impulse. They are way better than SoftLips or Maybelline, gliding on smoothly and leaving a pretty sheen no different than the L'Oreal Colour Riche Balms SPF15. If anything, I think they're even better than L'Oreal in terms of moisture and lasting power, even if their texture is just slightly thinner.

In my humble opinion, these Nivea balms are the "true" tinted lip balms, as in they're first and foremost excellent lip balms in terms of texture, moisture level, and lasting power, with the added benefit of a slight tint. I feel both Revlon Lip Butters and Maybelline focus too much on color, or packaging in the case of L'Oreal and Revlon, and less so on the actual formula of the balm. And while L'Oreal might have outperformed Revlon and Maybelline in terms of formula, the fact that each stick retails for $7.99 for a mere 0.10 oz./2.9 g of product is just absurd! The Nivea balms, on the other hand, are $2.99 for 0.17 oz./4.8 g of product, and you can often get them for about $1.50-$2 each with coupons and promotions. Now that's more like it! 

- Pink Guava: a cool berry pink with fine silver shimmers that don't show. Swatches a sheer translucent cool pink but goes on my lips with more color, turning a brighter but still very natural pink.  Smells similar to Korres' Guava Lip Butter, only a tad more tart. Very lovely!

- Strawberry: a yellow based translucent red with scattered gold shimmers that don't show. Swatched even sheerer than Pink Guava but goes on with more color, not sure how that computes but that's just how it is ^.^ Even better is that this one actually stains my lips! When I put this on for a couple of hours and then wipe it off, say for lunch, my lips look like I'd just eaten a cherry popsicle! If I were to reapply a clear balm and wipe off my lips again, I would see more color coming off on the tissue. So after the meal and I want to revive my lip color, I just need to apply a clear gloss to bring out the stain. Neato!

Pink Guava (left) and Strawberry (right).