Rachel Perry Lip Lover Banana-Coconut was a small-pot lip balm (0.21 oz) from the Rachel Perry natural-cosmetics line, sold with SPF 15 and a banana-coconut flavor. This page is an independent review of that named product: what it was, what the old user reports on this site actually said, and how to judge a replacement if you are still searching the name. The original Lip Lover Banana-Coconut pot is discontinued.

The short version: people who liked this balm liked the scent, the non-waxy texture, the hint of gloss, and the fact that it carried SPF 15 in a tiny tub that fit a pocket. The three reviews archived on this domain (2009–2010) all recommended it, at about $2 a pot. They also agreed the container was small. There is no clinical trial of this SKU. What follows is a formulation-and-use review, not a claim that a flavored balm is skincare science.

If you landed here from an old URL, you are in the right place. The 2004-era table-layout review page is being replaced by this article. For ingestible skin supplements (collagen, hyaluronic acid, astaxanthin), that is a different aisle; start with the skin care guide.

Is Rachel Perry Lip Lover Still Made?

Treat the original Lip Lover Banana-Coconut as discontinued. By 2010, people were already asking publicly where the line had gone. Independent retailers still list the 0.21 oz Banana-Coconut SKU years later as out of stock. A later company using the Rachel Perry name has sold other skincare; that is not the same as the original Lip Lover pots in banana-coconut, tangerine, mint, vanilla, and the rest of the flavor set. If you find a pot on a resale site, you are buying old stock, not a current-production item with a live quality program.

That matters for two practical reasons. First, lip balm with organic oils and a flavor system does not improve in a bathroom cabinet for a decade. Rancid oils smell off; throw them out. Second, the sunscreen filters in the original formula (octyl methoxycinnamate / octinoxate, and benzophenone-3 / oxybenzone) are not the filters most new "mineral" lip sunscreens use. A vintage pot is not a modern SPF product, even if the label still says 15.

What the Archived Reviews Said

Randomized controlled trial design for supplements

The legacy page collected three user reviews, not a lab test. Average listed price: $2. Star average on that page: about four out of five, from those three write-ups.

May 2010. A reviewer who had used Lip Lovers "way back" and restocked at Vitamin Shoppe, including Banana-Coconut after starting on Tangerine Dream. They described a strong scent and flavor, a slick rather than waxy texture, a little gloss without looking like a shiny coat, SPF 15 they actually remembered to use, and a small plastic pot with color-coded lids. They also used it on cuticles and, when congested, on a raw nose. Pros listed: smell, taste, several flavors, "very natural," SPF 15. Cons: none, in that write-up.

March 2009. Short review: moisturizes, tastes like banana and coconut, protects from the sun, not much product in the container. Pros: flavor, moisture, sun protection. Cons: they wrote "inexpensive" in the cons column (likely a layout mixup) and that the container was too small.

February 2009. Called it the tastiest lip balm they knew, mentioned shea butter and SPF 15, and said the flavor made them lick it off, which means more reapplication. Pros: taste, container design, SPF 15, inexpensive. Cons: reapply often because of the flavor; not much balm in the tub.

Read as a set, the reports agree on scent, texture, SPF-on-the-label, and a small pot. They do not agree on a measured wear time, they were not blinded, and they were written when the product was still easy to find at vitamin retailers. That is the ceiling of the anecdotal record on this site.

What Was In the Formula

Retail listings for the 0.21 oz Banana-Coconut pot described it as a moisturizing lip balm with SPF 15. Active ingredients listed: octyl methoxycinnamate (octinoxate) and benzophenone-3 (oxybenzone). Other ingredients listed on those same listings: a "Lilly White Gel" base, paraffin, beeswax, panthenol, aloe vera extract, tocopherol (vitamin E), shea butter, squalane/squalene from olive, and a mix of plant oils (copaiba, kukui, babassu, safflower, soy), plus flavor.

That is a 2000s natural-cosmetics balm, not a minimalist beeswax-and-oil tin. A few notes on what those ingredients are doing, without turning them into medical claims:

  • Occlusives (petrolatum-adjacent paraffin, beeswax, the gel base). These sit on the surface and slow water loss. That is how most effective lip balms work. "Natural" on a 2000s label did not mean wax-free, and the reviewers who said it was less waxy than a stick ChapStick were describing texture, not a different mechanism.
  • Shea butter, plant oils, squalane, vitamin E, panthenol, aloe. Common emollients and humectant-adjacent extras. They are widely used in lip products. They are not a substitute for evidence that this specific pot outperformed plain petrolatum in a trial, because that trial does not exist.
  • Flavor and scent. The thing people remembered. It is also why one reviewer licked it off. A flavored balm that you eat is a balm you reapply. That is a real use-pattern downside, not a moral failing of banana-coconut.
  • SPF 15 from octinoxate + oxybenzone. In the U.S., a lip product that claims SPF is an over-the-counter sunscreen, not a dietary supplement. SPF 15 is a modest labeled protection factor. It is better than a flavored balm with no filter if you are outdoors. It is not a beach-day sunscreen, and lips still need reapplication. Oxybenzone has since been restricted in some jurisdictions (Hawaii banned sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, with the ban taking effect in 2021) and remains under FDA review as a sunscreen active. That is context for anyone still holding old stock or hunting a "same as Rachel Perry" formula. It is not a reason to panic about a pot you used in 2009.
SPF 15
labeled sun protection on the original Lip Lover pots, from octinoxate and oxybenzone
Source: Historical retail ingredient listings for the 0.21 oz Banana-Coconut SKU
0.21 oz
pot size. All three archived reviews noticed how little product was in the tub
Source: Legacy thesupplementguide.org reviews, 2009–2010
~$2
average price on the archived review page. That figure is historical, not a current street price
Source: Legacy thesupplementguide.org product header, captured from the 524-A-1 review URL
What we can document about the original Banana-Coconut Lip Lover without inventing trial data. Texture and flavor reports are user anecdotes. SPF 15 and the filter pair come from period ingredient lists, not from a new lab assay of expired retail stock.

How It Compared to Ordinary Lip Balm

Practical takeaways for product selection

Against a stick petrolatum balm (the default drugstore ChapStick-style product), Lip Lover was a pot, scented, slightly glossy, and labeled SPF 15. Against a thick wax stick, reviewers said it felt slicker. Against a clear gloss, it was a balm that happened to shine a little. Against today's mineral lip sunscreens (zinc oxide sticks), it is a different filter system and a different era.

It was not a treatment for cold sores, eczema, or "lip filler from the inside." One archived reviewer mentioned using it on cuticles and a raw nose. That is a person using an occlusive balm on other dry skin, which people do with plain petrolatum too. It is not evidence of a unique medical use.

Best For

This review is for people still searching "Rachel Perry Lip Lover Banana-Coconut" because they remember the pot, not for someone building a 2026 lip-sunscreen routine from scratch. If you want a current product, skip the resale listings and use the checklist below for alternatives that match scent, texture, or SPF — not all three.

Best for, in practice:

  • People matching a memory of the banana-coconut scent and the small colored-lid pot, who need a plain account of what happened to it.
  • People comparing old "natural" flavored balms with SPF on the label to today's options, including mineral sticks.
  • Not ideal for anyone hoping to order a fresh, in-production Banana-Coconut Lip Lover from a vitamin chain. That channel is gone.

Cons & Considerations

  • The original product is discontinued. Hunting it on auction sites gets you age-unknown stock with oxidized oils and a sunscreen system that is no longer what many shoppers look for.
  • The flavor that made the reviews glowing is the same flavor that made at least one reviewer lick it off and reapply. If you want wear time, unscented occlusives win.
  • 0.21 oz is a sample-size amount of balm. The archived cons column was not wrong.
  • Oxybenzone and octinoxate are the original SPF actives. If you are avoiding those filters, this formula is the opposite of a match, and a zinc oxide lip sunscreen is the closer modern analogue for the SPF part (not for the banana-coconut part).
  • Plastic pot, not a stick: easy to pocket, easy to dip a finger into, less hygienic than a twist-up stick if you share it.
  • There is no randomized trial of this balm for chapped lips, UV protection in real use, or "natural" superiority. User reviews from 2009–2010 are the evidence ceiling on this page.

The product people are nostalgic for is a flavored, slightly glossy, SPF 15 pot that Vitamin Shoppe used to put by the register. It is not coming back in that form. A replacement has to pick which part you actually miss: the scent, the texture, or the SPF, because one new SKU will not recreate all three.

The Supplement Guide editorial team

How to Choose a Replacement

  1. Decide which trait you miss. Scent/flavor, slick texture, small pot, or SPF. Buying a random "tropical" balm and hoping it is Lip Lover usually fails on texture or on filters.
  2. If SPF is the point, look at a current lip sunscreen and read the active ingredients. Zinc oxide sticks are the usual mineral option. Chemical-filter lip SPFs still exist; check the actives if you have a filter you want to avoid.
  3. If texture is the point, you want an occlusive that is not a hard wax stick: petrolatum-heavy balms, some shea-forward pots, or lanolin products. Plain petrolatum remains the boring product that actually reduces water loss.
  4. If banana-coconut is the point, you are shopping a flavor, not a treatment. That is fine. Just do not pay supplement-aisle prices for flavor oil.
  5. Skip expired pots. If a resale listing cannot date the batch, assume it is too old. Lip balm is cheap; a rancid oil on broken skin is not a bargain.

Related Reading

Lip balm sits next to, but is not the same as, ingestible skin supplements. Collagen peptides, oral hyaluronic acid, and astaxanthin are covered in the skin care guide, with the usual caution that no capsule replaces sunscreen on the lips or anywhere else.

Editorial note: this article reviews a discontinued cosmetic lip balm and archived user reports. It is not medical advice. Lip products that claim SPF are regulated as sunscreens in the United States; dietary supplements are not. Do not use expired topical products on damaged skin. If you have persistent cracking, bleeding, or sores on the lips, that is a clinician visit, not a balm problem.