I did an informal poll on Facebook recently and more than 80% of responding friends said they prefer lip balm tubes to jars. (If you’d like to lend your voice, you’re welcome to vote here.)

I’m not surprised by this. Tubes are a convenient size and shape, more sanitary (keep your fingers clean), easy to tuck into a pocket…what’s not to love? A couple months ago (well, maybe it was longer than that—thank you for your patience!) several of my excellent customers were kind enough to point out a real problem with my website: it was nearly impossible to find the tube balms. They were so right about that, and I promised to do something about it. I’m almost finished putting together a new page that’s all about lip balm tubes: standard flavors, Limited Editions, and lip balm sets. I’d love to know what you think!
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Lately I’ve been a little wishy-washy about lip balm tube shrink bands (a fascinating topic, right? I promise there’s a point…). Our original bands had perforations down the side, which worked perfectly for preventing tampering. But then I found another kind, one that had the perforation around the cap. We used those for a while with great results, then ordered the lengthwise perforation wraps by accident. Gah! Never again!

All new balms will be wrapped with bands that are perforated just along the base of the cap (see photo), and here’s why: if you remove the shrink wrap gently along that perforation and leave the bottom wrapped, the shrink band will protect your label and keep it looking pretty longer! Look for the new wraps the next time you order a tube balm. And let me know what you think of the tubes page!

So what’s YOUR preference: tube or jar?