Naturium Phyto-Glow Lip Balm

This is the balm we rank third of four on our squalane lip balm roundup, and it is the one product on this site where reading the ingredient list carefully turned up something we had not seen anywhere else: the list changes depending on which shade you buy. Everything below comes from Naturium's own published ingredient lists, a live availability and price check on the exact Amazon listing we link to, and three named beauty writers quoted with attribution. We did not lab-test this balm and we do not claim to have worn it. Where an impression of how it feels appears on this page, we say whose impression it is.

Start with the list for the shade we actually link to, because that is the only claim on a lip balm you can check for free. The Amazon listing is the Latte shade, and a live product lookup on October 5, 2026 returned it as "Naturium Phyto-Glow Lip Balm | With Shea Butter & Squalane, Sheer Tinted Colour | 10 ml, Latte", In Stock. Naturium publishes sixteen ingredients for it, in this order: phytosteryl/isostearyl/cetyl/stearyl/behenyl dimer dilinoleate, diisostearyl malate, hydrogenated polyisobutene, polybutene, polyglyceryl-2 diisostearate, shea butter, microcrystalline wax, Flavor, synthetic wax, mica, castor seed oil, squalane, cupuacu seed butter, isopropyl titanium triisostearate, tocopherol and citric acid — followed by a "may contain" line covering titanium dioxide, iron oxides and five lake dyes. Squalane is twelfth of sixteen.

Now the shade problem, which is the useful part of this page. The Clear version of the same balm publishes a shorter list — fourteen ingredients, with the castor seed oil and the isopropyl titanium triisostearate gone — and on that list squalane is eleventh of fourteen. That is the figure in our spec table above, because the clear formula is the balm with nothing added to it, and it is the number we have carried on our roundup since we first ranked these. One position of difference is not a scandal and we are not pretending it is. We are flagging it because almost nobody reads a lip balm list shade by shade, and because it is a clean little demonstration of what a tint actually costs you: two more ingredients ahead of the one on the front of the tube, both of them there to carry and hold pigment rather than to look after your lips.

The bigger thing the list tells you is what this balm is made of, and it is not squalane. The first four ingredients are phytosteryl/isostearyl/cetyl/stearyl/behenyl dimer dilinoleate, diisostearyl malate, hydrogenated polyisobutene and polybutene. The first is a phytosterol-based ester used as a thickener and cushioning agent; the second is the ester the entire modern lipstick and lip-gloss category is built on; the last two are the synthetic shine polymers that make a gloss look wet and keep it from running off. Those four things, together, are the product. Naturium's own copy is honest enough about this — it says the balm is "formulated with phyto-derived esters, shea butter, cupuacu butter and plant squalane", and the esters really are first and second. This is a well-built gloss-textured balm. It is simply not a squalane treatment that happens to be glossy.

Shea butter at sixth is the ingredient above squalane we would actually credit for how this feels. It is a genuine emollient with a long record in lip care, it is solid at room temperature so it adds body rather than slip, and at sixth on a sixteen-item list there is a real amount of it. Cupuacu butter, which Naturium names on the front of the pack alongside the squalane, is thirteenth — one place below the squalane. It is worth knowing what the evidence for it looks like, because it is usually oversold: the striking number you will see quoted, that cupuacu butter can absorb something like 440% of its weight in water, is a laboratory property of the raw material and not a measure of what it delivers into skin, and the functional data behind it is a supplier pilot on a 5% cream in around twenty volunteers reporting a reduction in water loss. That is plausible and it is not nothing, but it is supplier testing rather than independent trial evidence, and we would rather say so than repeat the 440% figure as though it were a benefit.

Then the ingredient we think most people should notice, which is Flavor at eighth. It sits four places above the squalane. Naturium is upfront about what it is — the brand states the balm "contains natural vanilla flavor, which provides a subtle scent in addition to flavoring the formula" — and on a lip product that is the right disclosure to make. But US labeling rules let a brand declare an entire flavor system as the single word Flavor, the same way fragrance can be declared as Fragrance, so what is in it is not knowable from the label. On lips, flavor is the ingredient class that fragrance is everywhere else on the face: it is a common cause of stinging, and chapped, split lips are the worst possible place to find out you react to something. That is why this balm sits where it does on our roundup, and it is the single most important line on this page for anyone whose lips are currently in bad shape.

So what is squalane doing in here? At twelfth of sixteen, behind an ester base, a wax, a flavor and a mica, it is a supporting emollient. It is the same molecule it is anywhere else — the stable, hydrogenated form of a lipid your own sebum already contains, fragrance-free, commonly rated 0 to 1 on the comedogenic scale, and lightweight enough that it softens without adding drag — and it makes a real contribution to the finish. It is not the reason this balm works, and it is not an efficient way to buy squalane. If the word on the tube is why you clicked, the two honest alternatives are The Ordinary Squalane + Amino Acids Hydrating Lip Balm, which lists squalane first of twenty-seven with no flavor or fragrance anywhere on it, or a bottle of plain 100% squalane oil used with a fingertip, which costs a small fraction per ounce and is what our squalane for lips guide is built around. We earn less when you take either route, which is exactly why it is worth writing down.

A word on the color, since that is what most people are buying. Mica is tenth, above the squalane, and the shade itself comes from the "may contain" line: titanium dioxide, iron oxides, Red 7 Lake, Blue 1 Lake, Red 6 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake and Red 33 Lake. That is an ordinary cosmetic colorant set and it is fine for the large majority of people. It is worth knowing about for two groups: anyone who has reacted to lake dyes before, and anyone who wants the shortest possible list on damaged lips, who should buy the Clear version instead and skip the pigments entirely. The titanium dioxide here is a colorant, declared as one — it is not a sunscreen filter and it gives this balm no sun protection.

Which brings us to the thing people search for most often about this balm after the shades, and the answer is not what the search suggests. There is a separate Phyto-Glow Lip Balm SPF 45, and it is a different formula rather than the same balm with sunscreen added. Its actives are avobenzone at 3%, homosalate at 3% and octisalate at 5% — chemical filters, so this is not a mineral SPF — and its inactive list is longer and considerably more fragranced than the plain balm's: alongside the familiar ester base and the squalane, it declares BHT, carvone, cinnamal, eugenol, limonene, menthol, methyl salicylate and vanillin. Six of those are named fragrance allergens of the kind European labeling rules require to be called out individually, and menthol and methyl salicylate are the two ingredients most likely to make an already-sore lip tingle or sting. If you are shopping for the gentlest version of this balm, the SPF 45 is emphatically not it. Sun protection on lips is a real need and worth meeting — just go in knowing that this particular product carries that list.

How it actually wears, from people who have worn it. Nica Lina, writing in October 2023, describes a "silky, non-sticky, delightful finish" that "doesn't have that stickiness that a regular gloss does", puts the wear at "2-4 hours (as long as you're not eating/drinking)", and notes that it "leaves behind a subtle tint from the coloring as it fades" — which is the behavior of a sheer wash rather than a lipstick, and the reason people end up owning several. Ree, at Really Ree in May 2024, writes that the balms "feel super nourishing", that "the shiny finish is nice and long lasting", and that "the applicator is lovely and it's great for quickly spreading product over the lip"; Latte is the shade she singles out as her favorite. Jane Cunningham at British Beauty Blogger, August 2024, reads the formula the same way we do — "the notable working parts are shea, capuacu butter and plant squalane" — and offers the one practical criticism we found worth passing on: "If I'm being just a tiny bit picky, the tip tends to let out a bit too much product so go easy on your first squeeze until you get used to the flow." Three people's experience is not evidence, and we present it as what it is.

The size is where the price stops looking quite so good. This is a 10 ml tube, the smallest unit of the four balms on our roundup, and lip products are sold in units small enough that the sticker price hides some genuinely wide gaps. The sticker is low — this is the cheap end of tinted lip care, not a splurge — but cost per ounce is the number that compares honestly across a category, and on that measure it is not the value pick on its own page. Check the live price and the computed cost per ounce in the spec table above rather than trusting any figure written in prose here, because retailers move these and a number typed into a paragraph goes stale the day after it is written.

Two things this balm is not for, stated plainly. It is not for lips that are currently split, peeling or chapped raw: the added Flavor is the wrong ingredient for that situation and a flavor-free balm or a plain oil is the right one. And it is not for anyone buying primarily for the squalane, because twelfth of sixteen is not where you buy an ingredient. We would add a third, softer caution: it is a cosmetic as much as a treatment, so if you want one tube to do everything including overnight repair, a plain balm and a tinted balm bought separately will serve you better than asking this one to be both.

Who should buy it. Someone who wants a sheer, glossy tinted balm that is pleasant to wear every day, from a short and readable ingredient list, with a real emollient high on that list and a low sticker price — and who is not bothered by vanilla flavor. On those terms it is a good product and we are happy to recommend it, and the Clear version is the one to pick if you want the same formula with the fewest extras. Anyone shopping for squalane specifically, or for a balm to rescue damaged lips, should buy The Ordinary's balm or a bottle of plain oil instead, and we say so on the roundup card as well as here.

The bottom line. The Naturium Phyto-Glow Lip Balm is a nicely made sheer tinted gloss-balm that contains squalane, rather than a squalane lip balm — and the gap between those two descriptions is the entire reason this page exists. Squalane is eleventh of fourteen on the clear formula and twelfth of sixteen on the tint we link to; the ester base, the shea butter, the wax and the flavor all sit ahead of it. None of that makes it a bad buy. It makes it a cosmetic with a good supporting cast, priced like one, and we would rather label it accurately and still tell you it is nice to wear than let the front of the tube do the talking.