Tapioca Milk Tea: Melty Cream Lip by Mentholatum Review

As someone who can't resist the call of anything tea flavored (literally anytime I see a tea note in a perfume, I buy), so a milk tea follow up to the best matcha scent I've ever tried was a no brainer. 

If you'd like to check out my review on that Matcha lip balm, click here! 

This was released as a special Limited edition Item with another scent, mint chocolate chip, but I opted for the Tapioca Milk Tea instead. As bubble tea is making huge cultural waves in Japan right now (you can see shops all around trendy areas for younger people, like America Mura in Osaka and  Harajuku in Tokyo), it's not a surprise that a lot of different shops are getting on the same bandwagon. 

The packaging also boasts a super cute design and a picture of bubble tea on the front as well, with the same translucent window at the back for you to look at the lip balm more clearly.  

Official description: 

A moisturising lip cream with a new sensation. With a never-experienced-before soft, smooth application sensation that seems like the cream is actually melting. One application blends into the lips through the temperature of the body and protects moisture.

The "Melty Cream Lip" series is a moisturizing lip series that not only traps the moisture lost from the lips but also incorporates the "Moist Bank Technology" that keeps moisture in the air and exhaled air. This series is popular for its softness that makes it feel like a cream has melted.

My impression: 

Scent: With high hopes for this because of the great success I had with matcha - this is pretty much perfect. It has that lovely herbal, aromatic bitterness associated with a steep brew of black tea, like you can almost close your eyes and imagine sniffing black tea leaves too. Mixed in with a touch of sugary syrup and a dash of creamy milk, it's the perfect milk tea scent. As tapioca itself is pretty much just chewy balls of sugar, this scent literally nails the scent of milk tea, in a plastic topped cup and huge straws with its strong sweetness and creamy black tea - but I also catch occasional whiffs of a more elegant, aromatic high tea profile from its rich scent of brewed tea. It's delicious, and I wear this on my wrists like a perfume because I cannot get enough of this scent. 

Formula: As always, the actual formula lies on the softer side, it's smooth and pretty giving, creamy and soft. While it doesn't quite offer the same amount of moisture, it does a decent job at soothing the lips and as always, boasts a 25SPF rating. While I'm not sure I can see any evident difference with trapping moisture technology, it's certainly a comfortable and lightweight formula. 

It doesn't quite measure up to my holy grail (Lucas' Paw Paw Ointment), but personally the scent more than makes up for the performance. 

The packaging is standard, with a different color scheme and and the name printed on the cap of the tube. As always, it has a product weight of 2.4g. 

Unlike the Matcha lip balm, if you do go overboard with this lip balm, there's no colorant that will leave any sort of strange color on your lips, which is a bonus. I personally can't get enough of this, I absolutely love the scent of this and it really captures the rich and sweet aroma of milk tea and almost wish this could be bottled in a perfume to wear. It also has a product rating of 4.2 on Cosme, so it's well received! 

This was a limited edition release from July 2019, so make sure to pick it up before it sells out in Japan - or from any online retailer! There are no official ones, only resale sites (like these) so please buy with caution if you're ordering off eBay or other simliar sites.