Nivea Creme (My lips' Savior) & Other Lip Balms

My current favourite cream is an old classic product, which is Nivea Creme. It helps me battled the dryness effectively, I used it on my feet, body and face. Very versatile and cost effective cream. 

I first knew about Nivea Creme from Naver Matome (a Japanese website which let users summarize or curate any contents and post it on the website, and the person who published can earn some money based on the number of page views). Normally I would only go to the girls and recipe section. Hahaha. I didn't go and buy a bottle of Nivea Creme after I first read about this, but it certainly stayed in my mind. Finally I bought one in 2015 when I was browsing in a pharmacy. I was thinking that if this Nivea Creme was not suitable for my face, then I would treat it as body butter.

I applied this after my moisturizers, to my surprise, I didn't feel sticky or greasy after I applied this on my face. It's a decent face cream and didn't break me out. I think the star ingredient "Eucerit" must have some benefits since this product remains in the market for so many years. However, I wanted to try other creams too. So, after awhile, I stopped using this on my face and occasionally I used it on my feet before I sleep.

Nivea Creme

For this 250 ml blue tin, initially I felt that it's a big tin. However, now that it's almost finished, I felt that it's not a lot at all. I already ordered a new tin online.

ANivea Creme

Nivea Creme

How Nivea Creme became my lips' savior? I should start the story with my lip balm's purchases. First, I bought  a Mentholatum Lip Balm without realising it's with sun protection property. Since I normally use  lip balm before sleep only, I just keep the lip balm for outings. I don't want to use a lip balm with SPF 15 when I sleep. Then, I ordered another tube of lip balm. I think it's my first organic skin care item. It's Sierra Bees Unflavoured Lip Balm with organic extra virgin olive oil, organic beeswax, organic Shea Butter and non GMO Vitamin E. I had high expectation from this lip balm. I mean, all the ingredients sounded very moisturising.

Lip Balm (Sierra Bees & Mentholatum)

Since I didn't use any lips product for quit some time prior to this Sierra Bees lip balm (due to the carelessness when buying the SPF lip balm), my lips were dry and cracked. When I was using this Sierra Bees for the first few nights (applied before sleep), the cracked lips didn't improve, but I felt that I should give it a longer testing period, so I carried on using this lip balm. In a week time, my lips become very red (I think it's inflamed) and painful, not to mention that the crack lips didn't improve at all. I stopped to use this lip balm but after a few days, it's still not subsiding.

not suitable lip balms

Then, I remembered that I read somewhere that Nivea Creme is good for lips too. Since my lips were not in good shape, I decided to smear a thick coat of Nivea Creme on my lips. Luckily, it works! My lips went back to normal in a few days time. Nivea Creme didn't make my lips plump or fully moisturised, but it did a good job on helping the prevention of moisture losses from the lips. So far, after few months, I didn't have any issue on crack lips.

I think I might be allergic to one of the ingredients in Sierra Bees lip balm. Anyway, currently I am ok with Nivea Creme for my lips care and my previous Mentholatum lip balm (not the SPF one) was ok for me too. So, for future purchases, I might repurchase the Mentholatum lip balm, just need to make sure I buy the correct one. Not going to try any Sierra Bees products for the near future.

In Japan, Nivea Creme is big, google "*ニベア青缶" will give many results and in the Naver Matome, they are even people who listed down 10 uses for Nivea Creme. Totally unrelated to this topic, I always find it interesting that in Japanese "青" is blue, while in Chinese "青" is green. Hahaha!

Anyway, I listed down some of the uses of Nivea Creme from some Japanese websites, here, here and here.
1. Moisturising Cream for Face フェイスケア保湿クリーム 
2. Shiny Face Prevention テカり防止
3. Body Cream ボディクリーム 
4. Hand Cream ハンドクリーム 
5. Foot Cream フットクリーム 
6. Lip Cream リップケア 
7. Nivea Pack (Something like Mask) ニベアパック 
8. Hair Cream ヘアケア 
9. Massage Creamマッサージクリーム 
10. Nails Care Cream 爪ケア 

Other than that, in Japan, some even recommended to mix Nivea Creme with other skin care or cosmetic for  more benefits. (My Japanese is not good, I translated using google translate and some of my basic understanding of Japanese.)

1. Nivea × BB cream + baby powder ニベア × BBクリーム ＋ ベビーパウダー 
When Nivea Creme mixed with BB cream, the burden on the face is lesser and the make up is easier to clean.

2. Nivea × Liquid Foundation ニベア × リキッドファンデーション
If the liquid foundation dried up, just mixed it with Nivea Creme on the palms. It will help to make the make up lasts longer.

3. Nivea + Pearl Barley Toner ニベア ＋ ハトムギ化粧水
Nivea Creme and Pearl Barley Toner makes a very affordable moisturising combination.

There is even a Matome page that listed out what to do with the tin of Nivea Creme and in Japan, there's even a limited edition Decoration Nivea Creme Pack. Other than that, it can be used to elongate eye lashes, polished wood furniture and stop nose bleeding (I am very amazed at the nose bleeding part). I must say Japanese is quite obsessed with Nivea Creme. Other than Japan, **妮维雅蓝罐 is very famous in Taiwan too. A lot of praises for the Nivea Creme in the reviews.

I think I will keep one tin of Nivea Creme with me even if I stopped using the cream on my face, it's so versatile! Hahaha!

* ニベア青缶 is Nivea Creme in Japanese
** 妮维雅蓝罐 is Nivea Creme in Chinese