My favourite Fresh Sugar lip balm dupe

I’m Canadian. Lip balms are a must. I’ve been buying Fresh Sugar lip balm from Sephora religiously for years. (It’s basically a fancy New York upgrade from the Bonne Belle Lipsmackers of yore.) I’ve got a tube stashed in my purse, my work bag, and a few coat pockets. And the tubes do last for a decently long time. But the eye-watering price of Fresh Sugar lip balm made me start researching alternative options on a budget.

So I went down the rabbit hole of online recommendations and found the following options for Fresh Sugar lip balm dupes around the web:

• Clean Fresh lip balm by CoverGirl
• Organic Wear Lip Treatment by Physicians Formula
• Blackberry Tinted Lip Care by Nivea

I haven’t tried all of the above, as I started with the first one and am very happy. I’m delighted to report that CoverGirl’s Clean Fresh lip balm is a very passable dupe. I buy the Berry colour in the Fresh Sugar lip balm, and the CoverGirl Clean Fresh lip balm in Bliss You Berry is an almost perfect match. It has a similar feel, is super moisturizing, and I think I even prefer CoverGirl’s flavour/scent to the original Fresh Sugar version. Incidentally, CoverGirl Clean Fresh in Bliss You Berry is also listed as a dupe for Clinique’s cult-classic Black Honey lipstick. So it seems pretty versatile and generally beloved.

A caveat: the one downside is that the lid of the CoverGirl lip balm isn’t nearly as secure as the screw-on version for Fresh Sugar. I’ve had the lid come off a few times in my purse and work bag. So I might keep using Fresh Sugar on the go, and keep the CoverGirl version at home and at my desk.