The Ordinary Squalane + Amino Acids Hydrating Lip Balm

This is the balm that came out on top of our squalane lip balm roundup, and it won on a single measure that nothing else came close to matching: squalane is the first ingredient on its list. Not eighth, not sixteenth — first, out of twenty-seven. Across every format we have looked at on this site, from body lotions to eye creams, this is the only product where the ingredient on the front of the pack is genuinely the ingredient the formula is built on. That fact does most of the work in this review, but it is not the whole story, so here is the rest of it.

Start with what is actually in the tube. After squalane come sorbitan olivate and water, which is how an oil-first formula gets any structure at all, and then the part the name is advertising: betaine, sodium PCA and nine free amino acids — serine, alanine, arginine, proline, glycine, glutamic acid, lysine, threonine — plus sodium lactate. Those are humectants. They hold water at the surface. Squalane on its own is an emollient and cannot hydrate anything; it slows the water that is already there from leaving. Pairing the two is the textbook structure for a moisturizer, and it is more thought than most lip balms get.

Behind the humectants sit the ingredients that make it a balm rather than an oil: jojoba esters, sunflower seed wax, acacia decurrens flower wax and trihydroxystearin, with baobab seed oil and caprylic/capric triglyceride adding a little richness. There is also hydroxymethoxyphenyl decanone near the end — a synthetic antioxidant and anti-irritant that turns up in formulas aimed at skin that stings easily. On a product designed for lips that are already cracked, that is a sensible inclusion rather than a marketing one.

Now the part that matters most for lips specifically, and the reason we ranked this first even before price entered the picture: there is no fragrance, no parfum, no flavor and no essential oil anywhere on the twenty-seven-ingredient list. On the rest of your face, fragrance is the ingredient to watch. On lips it is flavor, which is the same class of thing wearing a different label, and it is in most of the balms this one competes with. Added flavor is one of the most common causes of stinging on lips that are split or peeling, and it is exactly what keeps people reapplying a balm that is quietly not helping. This one has nothing in it designed to be tasted.

That absence has a consequence worth knowing about before you buy. A balm with no masking fragrance smells like its raw ingredients, and whether you notice that varies by person — it is a common enough question that Google autocompletes it. Nothing was added to make it smell of anything, which is the trade-off you accept for a formula with nothing added to sting. If a scented balm is part of why you enjoy using one, this is not the product for you, and that is a legitimate preference rather than a flaw in the formula.

On how it actually behaves, we will hand over to someone who used it, because we did not. Refinery29's tester described "a true balm-like consistency that tends towards a slightly oily feel" with "a satin-gloss finish on the lip," noted that it "applies clear and feels lighter on the lip than many of the newer lip balms," and reported that half an hour later "there wasn't much product left on my lips, though it didn't feel like it had rubbed off exactly, but rather, had soaked in." That last observation is what you would predict from an oil-first formula with relatively little wax in it: it sinks in rather than sitting on top, which is comfortable, and it means reapplying more often than you would with a heavy wax stick.

The packaging is unusual and worth a sentence. It is a small teardrop-shaped squeeze tube with a narrow applicator tip rather than the click-up stick most people expect from a lip balm — distinctive enough that "how to open" is one of the most-searched things about it. You squeeze it; there is no twist mechanism. It holds 15 ml, which is a genuinely large amount for lip care and part of why the cost per ounce comes out as well as it does. It is also less convenient to use one-handed in a coat pocket than a stick, which is the honest trade for the format.

On price, look at the spec table above rather than at us. The Ordinary's whole proposition is charging close to ingredient cost, and this balm sits in the same budget bracket as its plain squalane oil. On our lip roundup it came out cheaper per ounce than every pick except one, and that one puts squalane sixteenth on its list. Being both the best-formulated option on the page and nearly the cheapest is unusual, and it is the reason this review has fewer caveats than most of what we publish.

Which raises the obvious question, and the one this site is obliged to answer honestly: do you need this at all, when The Ordinary also sells a bottle of 100% squalane for a similar price? If your lips are simply dry, no — a drop of plain squalane rubbed in with a fingertip is the same molecule, works as a softening and sealing step, and costs less per ounce than any balm. What the balm adds is structure, so it stays put instead of migrating, and the humectant complex, which plain squalane does not have at all. For overnight or for genuinely chapped lips, the balm is the better-built product. For a bottle that also does your face, hair ends and cuticles, the plain oil is the better buy. Plenty of people should own the oil and not this.

It is also worth saying what this cannot do, because the tube's "for lips, elbows and cuticles" framing invites you to expect more than a lip balm delivers. It will not heal severely cracked or bleeding lips on its own, it does nothing for cold sores or angular cheilitis, and it does not plump. Lips that stay painful, split at the corners, or peel in sheets despite consistent balm use belong in front of a doctor rather than in front of a more expensive balm. And the elbows-and-cuticles line is marketing: 15 ml is a generous amount for lips and a trivial amount for a body part.

So who is this for? Anyone who wants a lip balm where squalane is genuinely the active rather than a word on the front; anyone whose lips are chapped enough that a flavored balm stings; anyone who wants humectants as well as an emollient in one product; and anyone shopping on ingredient quality per dollar, where this is close to unbeatable in its category. It is a poor fit if you want a click-up stick, if you want tint or shine, if the scent of an unfragranced formula bothers you, or if a plain bottle of squalane oil would genuinely do the job for you — which, for a lot of readers, it would.

The bottom line: this is the rare product where the marketing and the ingredient list agree. Squalane is first of twenty-seven, the humectant complex behind it is real rather than decorative, there is nothing added to flavor or scent it, and the price sits at the bottom of its category. We rank it first on our lip balm roundup and would rank it first again if it cost twice as much. The only serious argument against buying it is that a bottle of plain squalane oil is cheaper still and nearly as good on lips that are merely dry — which is an argument we would rather make than not.