One of my favourites is Nivea SOS Lip Balm currently priced £3.19 at Boots. Mind you as usual I wait until the lip balms are on special offer, which they often are, and buy three for the price of two. You might know I’d have a bargain there somewhere!

The lip balm comes fixed to a piece of cardboard by means of clear plastic so all the packaging is recycleable then, so that’s a good start as far as I am concerned. The tube itself also ends up in the recycling bag when it is empty too!

The writing on the cardboard promises ‘first aid for lips’ and ‘instant relief for sore, dry lips’. The cream lives up to both of these promises as I will tell you later.

The tube itself is about three inches long (or eight centimetres if you are a youngster!). It is white with a pale turquoise screw cap and contains 10ml of cream. The only marking on the tube is the words Nivea Lip Care SOS Lip Balm on the front and the address of the manufacturers in Germany on the back together with the web site address of www.nivea.com

When the cap is removed the top of the tube is angled similar to a new lipstick in shape, with a hole through which the cream will be squeezed.

There are now two choices for the method of application and I use either depending on how I feel at the time. The main thing in both cases is to squeeze the tube gently – you don’t need much to cover your lips.

Sometimes I squeeze the cream onto the angled head of the tube and use that to apply the cream directly to my lips and then spread it using either the top of the tube or my finger and other times I squeeze some cream onto my finger and then rub it onto my lips. Either way works just as well. The only problem with using the head of the tube to apply the balm is that I sometimes end up getting the inside of the screw cap a bit messy and have to clean it out.

The consistency of the cream itself is quite thick, but it is easy to spread over the lips. It isn’t sticky as such but it does leave a light film coating on your lips after use, which the information on the web site assures me is a protective barrier. The cream has a fairly light fragrance which is best described as flowery and again having looked at the web site I find that it contains Calendula Oil so that figures.

Sadly I find the taste of the cream quite pleasant. I say sadly because I do tend to lick my lips when I am using the cream which means that I have to apply it more frequently. Silly me!

When I use this product I find that my lips feel instantly hydrated, smooth and comfortable. My lips also have a light sheen to them when I use this product. A bit more information form the web site – the active ingredient is Panthenol, which I have to admit I have never heard of before!

The cream has been dermatologically approved and is preservative free so I assume that it would still be ideal if your lips were chapped or sore following a cold. I am pleased to say that since moving to Llandudno 5 years ago I have not had a cold so I can’t comment on the effectiveness of SOS Lip Balm under these conditions!

All in all I find this cream really effective. It smells nice, it tastes good, it protects, soothes and hydrates my lips and a 10ml tube lasts a long time as it doesn’t take much to coat my lips.

The little tube is small enough to fit in the smallest of handbags so I can take it anywhere with me for instant relief.