South Haven, Michigan — where it started
Why we exist
South Haven, Michigan
The Standard Was Set in South Haven
I'd spent months quietly working on a lip balm for my six-year-old niece — trying it, tweaking it, trying it again, the way you do when it's just for one specific kid you adore. I never planned to sell it. I just wanted her to have something good on her lips that I'd made myself.
We were in South Haven, Michigan, late that summer, the lake a block away, wandering through one of those little downtown shops the way you do on vacation with nowhere to be. That was the moment I finally handed it to her — the surprise I'd been sitting on all those months.
She held the tube by the very end, between her fingertips, like it was evidence. Swiped it on. Pressed her lips together. Paused — actually paused, like she was taking it seriously. And then, loud enough that strangers an aisle over turned to look, she delivered her verdict: “My lips love it.” Nobody coached her. Nobody asked her to perform for an audience of one very hopeful uncle. The company had its name right then, standing in that aisle, long before it ever had a label.
Her standing orders ever since, for every batch that's followed: swipe it on, smack your lips, and tell the truth. That's still the only quality standard that matters here.
We engineered our balm differently. We replaced the industrial fillers with active, whole-food nutrition. Every single ingredient in our tube earns its place — chosen to condition, seal in moisture, and leave your lips genuinely soft. If it didn't make your lips feel better, it didn't make the cut.
When you swipe this on, you aren't just using a balm — you're using the standard that earned our name. You shouldn't have to guess what you're putting on your mouth. Crafted with over 95% organic ingredients. 100% niece-approved.
That could have ended as a nice family memory. Except I started making my own because the brands I'd trusted had gotten bought out by corporate giants like Clorox, and the quality just vanished. The products stopped working — I was done applying a proprietary chemistry experiment to my mouth and calling it "natural."
A category that got hollowed out
A lot of the "natural" lip care aisle isn't independent anymore — Burt's Bees, for one, is owned by Clorox. And "natural" on a label often just means "natural flavors": a lab product, not the real ingredient. My Lips Love It is the counter-move — clean, truly natural, genuinely flavorful, with no "natural flavors" ever, at a price real people can afford.
The independence pledge
Best-in-market natural quality at a fair price, not luxury pricing — and independent. Never for sale to a Clorox.
Mission
Make lip care you can actually read — every ingredient named, real, and there for a reason — at a price anyone can afford.
Vision
The natural lip balm that never sells out: not to synthetic shortcuts, not to "natural flavors," not to a company like Clorox.
Purpose
It started with one honest reaction from my niece in a South Haven store: "My lips love it." We exist to earn that same reaction from everyone else.
South Haven, MI → San Diego, CA
The origin story, drawn as a line.
Named in
South Haven, MI
Poured in
San Diego, CA