Susannah (pictured right) started her own lip balm business when she was just in first grade. Her family starting keeping bees in hives in the backyard and she decided to do something cool with all of the beeswax that they were creating. The first iteration of her brand was called “First Grade Flavors” and offered some super awesome flavors like (Fizzy Pop) and some not so awesome ones (like Pizza!) As her label evolved and she put the less popular flavors on the shelf, she launched Ivy League Lip Balm: Avoiding College Loans One Tube at a Time. Susannah sold her wares on Etsy and also in the community of State College, at Penn State tailgates, and at craft shows throughout the Midwest.

Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic, when school was asynchronous and life slowed waaaaaay down. Susannah and her younger sister Maddy (pictured left) decided to combine forces to revitalize the business yet again. An avid consumer of all things politics, Susannah wanted to add some levity to the headlines surrounding the pandemic and the 2020 election so they launched Politisticks with flavor names like Mask Breath Mint and Make America Grape Again. This fall, Susannah headed off to Oberlin College leaving Maddy to take the lead on the lip balm business for a very exciting upgrade!

The Balm Shop is Maddy’s passion project. She is motivated to eliminate single use plastic (hence the move to cardboard tubes) and, as an artist, is adding color and interest to our labels through her graphic design. The Balm Shop will incorporate many of your favorite flavors from our past, but will give Maddy room to keep growing and expanding our product line to include all kinds of new things! Maddy is excited to experiment with different types of products — not just lip balm. Keep following us here and on our social media to find out what’s new at The Balm Shop!

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us! We are happy that you are a part of our story!