on September 02, 2026
For years, lip care has largely followed the same routine: when lips feel dry, apply balm, enjoy temporary relief, then reapply.
Australian lip care brand Balmydays was created with a different idea, what if we treated our lips with the same care and consideration as the rest of our skin?
From frustration to formulation
Balmydays founder Melinda Gee didn't come from the traditional beauty industry. An architect who moved into project and development management within the property and construction sector, Melinda spent years working between air-conditioned offices, construction environments and long days filled with meetings and presentations.
One thing remained constant: dry lips.
“I was constantly reaching for lip products, but the relief never seemed to last,” says Melinda. “I started looking more closely at what I was actually putting on my lips and questioning why so many products seemed focused on temporary surface relief rather than taking a more skincare-inspired approach.”
That curiosity became the starting point for Balmydays.
Why Australia?
Developing the core lip treatment range in Australia was an important part of the vision from the beginning.
Australia is home to extraordinary native botanicals, biotechnology and formulation expertise. For Melinda, this presented an opportunity to create high-performance vegan lip care locally while harnessing ingredients and innovation available here in Australia.
“I kept coming back to the same question: why couldn't we use the incredible capability we have here to create a new generation of lip care?”
Over three years, Balmydays worked alongside Australian chemists to develop its core treatment formulas, bringing together skincare-inspired actives, botanical ingredients and Australian innovation.
The result is Balmydays, an Australian vegan lip care brand with its core treatment range developed and made in Australia, built around one simple philosophy:
Treat lips like skincare.
Award-winning lip care, beyond the balm
Balmydays approaches lip care as more than a single swipe of balm.
Just as facial skincare incorporates exfoliation, targeted treatments and barrier support, the Balmydays three-step routine was created around Prep, Revive and Protect/Glo.
This approach has now been recognised by the Organic Beauty Awards, with three Balmydays products receiving awards: Lip Sno. Lip Exfoliant, Kiss Me Lip Serum and Snatched Up Lip Liners.
Lip Sno. Lip Exfoliant is the Prep step, gently buffing away dry, flaky skin with sugar crystals while plant oils and butters leave lips feeling soft and smooth.
Kiss Me Lip Serum is the Revive step. Rather than being another lip oil, the lightweight serum is designed to absorb into the lips and combines peptides, hyaluronic acid, squalane and botanical oils to hydrate and help lips feel smoother and more conditioned.
The final Protect/Glo step is Hydra Glo. Lip Love Balm, Balmydays' peptide-powered postbiotic lip balm. The formula brings together peptides, hyaluronic acid, squalane, nourishing plant butters and fermented Australian botanicals to help keep lips feeling hydrated, smooth and comfortable.
Together, the three steps represent the Balmydays philosophy in its simplest form: prep the lips, treat them with targeted ingredients, then help protect and maintain hydration.
Award-winning colour with a considered approach
Balmydays' approach to lip care also extends into colour.
The award-winning Snatched Up Lip Liners combine definition and long-wearing performance with a vegan, waterproof formula featuring naturally derived plant oils and waxes, including castor seed oil, olive oil, sweet almond oil, carnauba wax and candelilla wax.
Designed to glide smoothly onto the lips, the liners were created to complement the Balmydays treatment routine and reflect the same philosophy of being more considered about the products we use on our lips every day.
For Melinda, having three products recognised by the Organic Beauty Awards is particularly meaningful.
“When I created Balmydays, I wanted to challenge the idea that lip care begins and ends with balm. Having our exfoliant, serum and lip liners recognised is wonderful validation of that philosophy, that performance, care and a more considered approach to ingredients can exist together.”
Beauty with a more considered footprint
Creating Balmydays also meant thinking beyond what goes inside each formula.
From vegan formulations and Australian manufacturing of the core treatment range to more considered packaging choices, Balmydays aims to reduce unnecessary impact wherever practical.
The brand uses packaging solutions including glass and sugarcane-derived materials, alongside recyclable components where possible, and continues to look for opportunities to make more responsible choices as it grows.
For Melinda, sustainability isn't about claiming perfection.
It's about continually asking better questions, about ingredients, sourcing, manufacturing, packaging and the long-term impact of the products we create.
Rethinking an everyday category
What began as a personal frustration with constantly dry lips has grown into a broader ambition to rethink what consumers should expect from lip care.
“I didn't want to create another product that simply looked good sitting in a handbag,” says Melinda. “I wanted to create lip care with purpose, products we genuinely love using, thoughtfully developed with the same consideration we increasingly expect from our skincare.”
For a young Australian brand, having three products recognised by the Organic Beauty Awards — Lip Sno. Lip Exfoliant, Kiss Me Lip Serum and Snatched Up Lip Liners — marks an incredibly exciting milestone.
But for Balmydays, the recognition also represents something bigger.
Lip care doesn't have to begin and end with balm.
It's time to treat lips like skincare.
