ChapStick Launches Hydrabalm Lip Tubes

For the first time in its 145-year history, ChapStick is launching lip tubes.

Called Hydrabalm, the new format comes in five variations — vanilla, cherry, guava, watermelon and a fragrance-free version — and is part of ChapStick’s plan to rev its competitive engine as the lip care category continues to gain momentum.

“Data was telling us that tubes have been the fastest-growing subcategory, [up] 27 percent from 2022 to 2024,” said Rachel Behm, chief marketing officer of ChapStick parent company Evermark. “Chapstick is the number-one lip balm brand by household penetration; it’s been around the longest, but was not serving our customer in the way that we could with a squeeze-tube format.”

ChapStick leads lip balm sales in the U.S. in terms of volume, according to NielsenIQ data provided by the brand. But as lip care has boomed in recent years, competition and formats have proliferated across the market.

Still, with prices as low as $4.99 for a three-pack of lip balms and $3.88 for a two-pack of the new Hydrabalms, ChapStick’s affordability is a key differentiator, even among other mass-market players. (Vaseline’s Lip Therapy tubes are slightly more expensive at around $5 for a two-pack; E.l.f. Beauty’s viral Squeeze Me lip tubes retail for $5 each.)

Hydrabalm will roll out this summer to ChapStick’s full retail footprint including Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy, Amazon and a number of dollar-store chains. In tandem with the launch, ChapStick’s classic lip balms have gained a subtle design refresh and new bundle themes including a fruity Mocktails trio; a Vacation Getaway Collection; Ice Cream Collection, and more.

“We want to honor our heritage of hydration from a functional standpoint — people need to trust the product is going to perform for them — but we also wanted to have more fun in the packaging and flavors that come to our consumers,” Behm said.

Evermark was established earlier this year out of private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners, which combined Suave Brands Co. and Elida Beauty to create the entity. Among Evermark’s brands are Suave, Noxzema, Q-Tips, St.Ives and other mass personal care companies including ChapStick, which Yellow Wood acquired from Haleon in 2024 for $430 million.

While she did not specify numbers, Behm said ChapStick saw growth during its first full year under new ownership in 2025. The brand’s blue-colored Classic Lip Moisturizer Lip Balm with SPF 15 is its top-seller, comprising roughly a quarter of the business.

“ChapStick has been owned by a number of different OTC and pharma companies, so the ability to bring it into Evermark and have a beauty focus and a fun flavor focus — it builds on that functional pillar, but it also brings that fun momentum that we know we used to have as a brand,” Behm said.

Five years down the line, Behm anticipates that Hydrabalm could comprise up to a quarter of ChapStick’s business. Between now and then, though, the brand is doubling down on nascent efforts to build fandom via social media — it most recently tapped Knicks point guard Jose Alvarado for a sponsored post during the NBA finals; invested in TikTok Shop, where ChapStick has so far sold more than 24,000 products, and gone deeper into smaller-scale retail including bodegas, hotels and beyond.

“The more places you are in the store and online, the more opportunities people have for that purchase,” said Behm. “There are certainly aspirations to grow this business this fiscal year, and we have the building blocks and plans to be able to do that.”