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Owner Review for Nanak's Lip Smoothee
September 20, 2006
Tester Information:
Name: Heather Oakes Palmer
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Height: 5'5" (1.65 m)
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Email address: alekto”at”yahoo”dot”com
City, State, Country: Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Backpacking Background: I consider myself an intermediate hiker and beginning backpacker for over five years; my longest backpacking trip being only three nights. Day hiking and weekend backpacking comprise most of my weekend warrior experience averaging one backpacking trip per month and two day hikes per month averaging between 10-15 miles (16.1- 24.2 km) per day. I tend to backpack in warm, humid climates, with a good amount of hiking in the southern Appalachian Mountains and I have rarely hiked in below freezing or snowy conditions yet. I am a lightweight backpacker and buy my gear accordingly, often splitting various objects and amounts of weight with my husband.
Product Information:
Manufacturer: Nanak’s Lip Smoothee
Year of Manufacture: 2005, 2006
Web site: http://www.nanakslipsmoothee.com
MSRP: none listed
Dimensions: 2.6 x 0.6 “/ 6.6 x 1.5 cm
Listed Net Weight: 0.18 oz / 5.1 g
Measured Weight (unused container): 1.3 oz / 36.8 g
Other Flavors/Scents Available: Almond, Coconut, Spearmint
Product Description: From a company based in Taos, NM; Nanak’s Lip Smoothee is advertised as a natural lip moisturizer that helps protect against wind and sun. Rated at SPF 10, this lip balm is also advertised as helping heal chapped lips. Scents available are: Almond, Coconut, Spearmint, and Unscented. Product is available online through various websites, or through many natural food stores including national chains such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats
Testing Conditions:
Since my discovery of this product in October of 2005, I have used Nanak’s on all outdoors activities since. In Arizona conditions varied from low desert hiking at 98 F (36.6 C), to a windy, sunny summit at 8,600 ft (2621 m). Having used Nanak’s through all seasons of backpacking in the southern Appalachians with elevations ranging from 2000 – 5500 ft (610-1676 m); I’ve been through heavy rain, sun, wind, snow, highs of 100 F (32 C) during the humid summer, and average winter nighttime lows of 25 F (-3.8 C). The Nanak’s has been used both and day and night while day hiking and backpacking, and also has functioned as an everyday lip balm when not outdoors.
Observations:
Moisture and Protection
As a long time fan of preventing my lips from chapping and burning, when I first started hiking and backpacking years ago I’ve been searching for a good outdoors lip balm. My lips tend to easily dry out in the sun, then chap or crack in the wind and cold so I wanted a thick balm that protected well. Given that I live in the South, I also needed an SPF rating to prevent sun damage. All the times I had been in Arizona I was unused to this completely opposite climate and my skin would quickly dry out. After I discovered Nanak’s, I went on a week long travel and backpacking trip near Tucson, Arizona and I used the balm multiple times per day. The lip balm protected my lips from drying out in the arid climate, in temperatures ranging from 98 F (36.6 C) on the desert floor to 50 F (10 C) on top of a windy mountain, and it protected my lips from sunburn. Even back in my normal hiking areas, the Nanak’s has been my lip balm of choice even with the heat going over 100 F (32 C), relative humidity as high as 100%, and clouds of bugs surrounding my face. Temperatures as low as 20 F (-6.6 C), combined with no tree cover sometimes made things uncomfortable for my lips during cold and oftentimes windy winters here in Georgia; but the Nanak’s worked equally well in both the heat and the cold.
Taste, Smell, Feel
After trying many different kinds of lip balm while hiking and backpacking I discovered that I also needed the least scented, least flavored balm I could find because I hated walking around smelling like vanilla or candy. Not only did flavored and scented lip balm make me either hungry or nauseated, it also attracted bugs. While I can’t say if the Nanak’s is unscented so much that a bear would ignore it, the faint wax scent it does have is not noticeable to me. It also has no taste, but does lie heavily on the lips. The Nanak’s is a thick lip balm, and I like the feeling that there is literally a layer of something protecting my lips.
Durability
The lip balm has traveled with me through cold, heat, humid, arid, and even dunked in some pretty cold water; and the balm has never varied much in consistency. It has never melted, froze, dried up to be unusable, or ‘sweat’. Of course, the balm does get slighter harder or softer depending on the weather but I’ve never needed to replace it or clean its melted contents out of my pack. Since the Nanak’s has no color, flavor, or scent, it has a very mild reaction to fabrics. When rubbed onto any fabric I use, the balm leaves no stain but just leaves the area slightly sticky.
This balm is perfect for me. No flavor, color, or scent; and the thick balm makes me ‘feel’ as if something is really protecting my lips. This lip balm has never let me down through both hot and cold weather, and it has ably protected me from both wind and sun.
Read more gear reviews by Heather Oakes
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