It all started with the re-introduction of Smith’s Rosebud Salve into my life. Its local distributor www.rosebudsalve.com.ph was kind enough to send Candy a few samples, and I quickly grew nostalgic over my previous love affair with this unassuming lip balm.

I remembered its pocket-sized blue tin package, and how once it melted and reformed upside down on a hot summer day in college. I remembered its vaguely Johnson’s Baby Lotion-esque smell that my cousin pointed out and subsequently made fun of. Most of all, I remembered how disappointed I was when I’d realized I’d run out of it before a trip to a cold destination– inconsolably glum at the prospect of some very chapped lips.

 I don’t consider myself particularly beauty-savvy, but I can pinpoint tiny periods throughout my life wherein I have become deeply obsessed with certain beauty products. More specifically cult beauty products. You know the ones. The hallowed open secrets of the beauty world that your blemish-free, radiant friend of a friend heard about so-and-so using in US Weekly.

 Other previous objects of my affection can be traced back through countless broken bottles of Benetint (why DO they keep breaking?), several lost and replaced Shu Uemura eyelash curlers, and a downed bottle or two of Mario Badescu Drying Lotion.

 Maybe someday when I’m more refined (see also: stinkin’ rich) I’ll move on to the  Crème de la Mers and YSL Touche Éclats… but for now I am perfectly fine applying Rosebud Salve on my lips while I watch Adventure Time in bed, as if I’ve just rekindled a great and unrequited love.