Summer Fridays Turned Its Lip Balm Into a Body Butter
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In the six years since Summer Fridays launched its lip butter balms, we’ve seen several newtinted, glossy balmsfrom the likes of Rhode, Eadem, and Ole Henriksen. Summer Fridays, in the meantime, has released a steady stream of new shades to compete. Most recently, though, the brand has taken some of its most popular balm scents — including vanilla and pink guava — and used them in a whole new product: body butter.
The body butters launched on August 5 alongside a trio of accompanyingfragrance mists, both of which I’m betting will be high onteens’ wish liststhis holiday season. Unlike traditional body butters, which typically don’t contain water, these are characteristic of what my colleague Tembe Denton-Hurst describes asSecond Wave body butters: In comparison to the ultrathick body butters of yore, they’re thinner, slicker and easier to spread and have water listed as their first ingredient. Also near the top of Summer Fridays’ ingredient list: the same moisturizing butters you’ll find in the lip butter balms, shea and murumuru, along with a third butter, illipe. (On the ingredients list, it’s listed asShorea stenoptera–seed butter.) The shea butter of the lip balm has clogged the acne-prone skin near my lips, but in the body butters, it works with nourishing oils (coconut, jojoba, and oat), moisture-locking squalane, and even more moisturizing hyaluronic acid to calm my chronically dry, itchy legs. Previously, my go-tobody lotionfromClarinswas the only lotion I’d found that was up to the task.
The balms are available in three scents — vanilla, pink guava, and a new (to Summer Fridays) scent, pistachio milk — and they’re strong enough to last all day and then some. Whenever I apply the body butter at night, my itchiness is gone by the morning and replaced with a subtle smell of whichever balm I applied the night before. Each scent is decidedly food-y, which is perhaps a reflection of the current scent moment: Vijay Uttam ofLucky Scenttold me earlier this year that gourmand scents, especially those that are reminiscent of food and pastries, have been especially trendy in recent years. The scents are so convincing that I have to hide my legs from my new puppy’s licks whenever the butter is soaking in.
My favorite of the three is the vanilla, which the brand says has notes of vanilla cake, radiant amber, and “fluffy musk.” If you can imagine the smell of the vanilla lip butter balm, both the mist and the body butter are more concentrated versions. To me, it smells convincingly of the vanilla-bean paste in my kitchen closet, and since I can’t drink that, rubbing the scent all over my body is the next best thing. The balm is thick and white, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think a bowl of it would be fit to hold together my gingerbread houses this December. Rubbing it on my legs feels almost wrong — like a baker gone mad from sleep deprivation — but its ability to get rid of any flakiness, dry patches, and itchiness are proof that the moisturizing ingredients actually work.
The pink guava, in comparison, reminds me of the most popular girls at my high school, and the scent is a strong match for what you’d find in a tube of the pink-guava lip butter balm. With notes of guava nectar, strawberry, and pear blossom, it’s a sweeter take on guava than theCeremonia rescue sprayso many Strategist staffers swear by — and the scent lingers both on the body and in the air. When I returned to my car after a Sephora run while wearing it, I felt like I had entered the fruity realm of a 16-year-old girl rather than the secondhand car I share with my siblings. I imagine it’d be the perfect last step to an everything shower.
As someone who prefers lighter, floral scents, I’d only use the pistachio-milk balm in a pinch. It’s a heavier fragrance, especially compared to the others, with notes of pistachio milk, creamy woods, and raspberry sugar. Rather than being pistachio-forward, like pistachio gelato or a bag of Wonderful Pistachios, the nutty smell is in the backdrop of the fragrance, like a loaf of bread with a touch of pistachio extract. In the fragrance mist, this nuttier note is more pronounced.
As I savor the last several weeks of summer, I imagine I’ll be wearing the guava body butter more often than the others. It’s fruity and slightly floral — perfect for moisturizing my skin after a day in the water. That’s enough fragrance for me, but for Gen-Zers who love to scent layer, these body butters and their accompanying mists are both potent and long-lasting enough to hold their own in a sweet scent stack.
More body butters and lotions we love
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Denton-Hurst first learned about it from beauty-editor friends who liked it, and she's a fan too.
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It’s instantly nourishing and applies nicely on wet or dry skin.
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It’s fragrance free, thick but easily spreadable, long-lasting, and soothes one writer's dry skin.
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We've called this the Goldilocks of body lotions since it’s not too thick and not too thin.
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This hydrating and lightweight lotion comes recommended by dermatologist Dr. Brendan Camp.
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Five dermatologists mentioned it when we asked them about the best body lotions for dry skin.
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