Village Lip Lickers: Why this retro lip balm from the 70s & 80s still sparks happy memories

If you were a kid or teen in the late 1970s or early 1980s, you probably remember Village Lip Lickers. These tiny tins of flavored lip gloss slid open with a flick of your thumb and smelled like a candy store. Half the fun was picking your favorite flavor, then sharing a swipe with a friend on the playground.

Village Lip Lickers were made by Village Bath Products of Minnetonka, Minnesota, and they became a staple in purses and backpacks across the country. Introduced in 1977, the tins came in both single flavors and double-flavor combos that divided the gloss into neat stripes. 

Single flavors we rediscovered included peach, tropical punch, strawberry, wild cherry, grape, watermelon, vanilla, orange juice, green apple, bubble gum, butterscotch, spearmint.

Double flavors (two separate stripes of gloss per tin) included watermelon & ice, strawberry & cream, lemonade & lime, banana & strawberry, pineapple & coconut, cherry & cola.

The clever metal packaging was part of the appeal. Instead of the twist-up tubes most lip balms used, Lip Lickers came in a slim, pocket-sized tin with a sliding lid. Kids loved the tactile feel of opening the tin and catching a whiff of the sweet scent inside. Each flavor came with the simple promise printed on the label: “For soft, smooth, scented lips.” The product quickly became a small but memorable part of everyday life for a generation of kids.

Fun fact: The original name for these products was apparently going to be “Original Lip Lickers Licketty Lip Balm,” per the trademark the company filed in 1976.

Village Bath Products rode the lip gloss craze through the early 1980s, even offering holiday-themed packaging like train cars and candy canes stuffed with five tiny tins for stocking stuffers. In 1987, Village Bath and the Softsoap brand were acquired by Colgate-Palmolive, and the Lip Lickers trademark remained active until 2002. By then, the little tins had mostly disappeared from store shelves, but the nostalgia never faded.

For anyone who grew up with Village Lip Lickers, these tiny tins are as memorable as Bonne Bell Lip Smackers or Love’s Baby Soft perfume. They’ve even made a comeback thanks to Tinte Cosmetics, which now offers flavors inspired by the originals. Below, we’ve collected a gallery of vintage photos, ads and packaging for a closer look at these retro lip glosses in their heyday.