Ole Henriksen didn’t set out to make a lip balm. He set out to fix skin—first in Copenhagen, then on Melrose. This little tube is basically a 40-year-old skincare manifesto squeezed into a lip applicator.
What got me? The man is still the face of his brand. No faceless corporate ghost. He’s 70-something, still doing facials, still yelling about peptides. That energy is in the tube.
It’s a peptide lip treatment, not a gloss. $28. Ole Henriksen claims it “plumps and smooths” without the tingle. I called bullshit. Tried it anyway.
Peptide Complex
Three peptides that tell your lips to hold water. No needles. No fire.
Shea Butter
The actual MVP. Sits on the lip like a security blanket.
Hyaluronic Acid
Not the fancy filler kind—the kind that just hydrates without drama.
Photo: Ali Pazani / Unsplash
Here’s the thing—most lip plumpers use cinnamon oil or capsicum to irritate your lips into looking bigger. This uses actual signal peptides. They tell your collagen to get its ass to work. Slower, but no one looks like they got stung by a bee.
- Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1: Signals collagen production
- Shea Butter: Locks moisture for 6+ hours
- Hyaluronic Acid: Holds 1000x its weight in water
- Ceramide NP: Repairs cracked lip barrier
Photo: Atikh Bana / Unsplash
First dip—it’s thick. Like, “did I just scoop butter?” thick. But it melts in 10 seconds into something that feels like nothing. Not sticky. Not shiny. Just… soft. I kept touching my lips to check they were still there.
Week two: My chronically chapped lower lip stopped flaking. That never happens. The surprise? It actually stays on through coffee. Not through a burger. But coffee? Yes.
My lip lines didn’t vanish. But they looked less like a topographical map. The texture changed—smoother, softer, less “I forgot to drink water for three days.” Not a miracle. A solid upgrade.
It’s not sexy. It’s not viral. It’s just a really fucking good lip treatment from a man who’s been doing skincare since before “clean beauty” was a hashtag. Buy it if you want lips that actually behave, not just look good for a photo.