With $25 to spend, a $12.99 lip balm gift set leaves about $12 for a second small present, or it can be split four ways. Each of our four variety packs, Citrus, Floral, Spiced and Fruit, holds four 0.15 oz beeswax tubes. Balm is small and gets used up. It also comes in enough flavors to suit a particular person.
Matching the flavor takes a little thought, though the packs split cleanly by taste.
The four variety packs
| Pack | The four tubes | Suits | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citrus Variety | Navel Orange, Eureka Lemon, Pink Grapefruit, Key Lime | Someone you don't know well | $12.99 |
| Floral Variety | Lavender, California Rose, Wild Violet ×2 | Gardeners, rose and lavender people | $12.99 |
| Spiced Variety | Orange Peppermint, Orange Cinnamon, Orange Clove, Lemon Bay | Holiday stockings, winter birthdays | $12.99 |
| Fruit Variety | Prickly Pear, Date Shake, Orange Pomegranate, Ojai Pixie Tangerine | Adventurous tasters, homesick Californians | $12.99 |
A stocking stuffer for someone you barely know
Citrus is the most classic set we make, and orange and lemon are flavors nearly everyone has met; grapefruit and lime give it some range. The flavors come out of the old Citrus Belt around Redlands and Riverside. For an in-law or a new colleague, it's the pack least likely to sit unopened in a drawer.
Floral, for the gardener
Lavender and California Rose share this pack with two tubes of Wild Violet, a flavor inspired by vintage sweets and old-fashioned gardens. The oil in our Lavender balm is California grown: Grosso and Provencal lavender that a San Luis Obispo County family farm distills on site.
Give it to someone who keeps roses or comes home from the farmers market with lavender. A committed rose person might rather have our single-flavor California Rose 4-pack, four of the same for the same $12.99.
Which pack suits a Christmas stocking?
Spiced is the winter set. Orange appears in three of the tubes, paired with peppermint, cinnamon or clove, and the fourth, Lemon Bay, sets lemon against the green, savory smell of bay leaf. Orange Clove takes its cue from orange pomanders and runs deeper than Orange Cinnamon, the softer of the two.
Of the four packs, it's the one that belongs to December. Orange Clove and Orange Peppermint also come as single-flavor 4-packs for people who stick to one.
Fruit, for the adventurous or homesick
Desert fruit and specialty citrus make this the least expected set. Date Shake is dates and vanilla, after the date shakes of the Coachella Valley. The Pixie is a small, seedless tangerine bred at UC Riverside from a 1927 cross, released in 1965, and grown by small family farms in the Ojai Valley.
It's the one for the relative who moved away from Southern California, or anyone who's had enough of cherry and mint.
For cracked, sensitive or flavor-averse lips
Anyone with cracked or sensitive lips is better off with the Simply Beeswax 4-pack, which has no added flavor. The AAD, the US body for dermatologists, tells people to avoid flavorings (citrus and cinnamon among them) while lips are chapped. Simply Beeswax is our base on its own, three ingredients and nothing added, so all you smell is the wax's own faint honey scent. It's also the easy answer for a household where you don't know everyone's taste.
Splitting a pack across stockings
Each 4-pack is four small gifts, so one pack at $12.99 covers four stockings for children, cousins or a small team at work. Two mixed packs give you eight tubes and more flavors to deal out, for $25.98, just over the $25 line.
Buying for a crowd pays. Four 4-packs come to $51.96, enough to clear the $50 threshold for our complimentary standard shipping on US orders. Gifts for several households can still go in one order: with multi-address shipping, each item in the cart gets its own recipient and address, and you check out once.
If the stockings hang over a fireplace you'll be lighting, add the balm after the fire's out. The coconut oil in every tube softens in the heat.
What to pair with it
One pack and one small, flat thing fit under $25 together. A pocket notebook with a good pencil slides in beside the tubes. Wool socks fill the toe, so smaller gifts sit higher where they're found. Seed packets suit whoever gets the Floral pack, and a small jar of local honey is an easy match for a beeswax gift. For someone who spends winter mornings outdoors, hand warmers do the job.
Our single-flavor packs, from Navel Orange to Wild Violet, are on the lip balm page if you'd rather give four of one favorite.
