Carmex - Learn More

Carmex is a topical lip balm which claims to reduce cold sores and dry chapped lips, supplied in a characteristic yellow container.

Carmex is manufactured by Carma Laboratories in Franklin, Wisconsin. Its active ingredients include menthol, camphor, alum, and salicylic acid.

Many users find the menthol and camphor produce a cool, soothing sensation when applied. Some maintain the product is addictive, but this is disputed.


Carmex containerCarmex was created by Alfred Woelbing. Woelbing was working as a buyer of drugs and toiletries for a department store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin when the Great Depression hit the United States.

Woelbing lost his job at the department store and began producing and selling Lyptone, a protective lip balm he concocted in his home. Lyptone was sold for 25 cents until 1935 when Woelbing sold the formula and product name to a company in New Jersey for $2,500.

After developing and selling a homemade silver polish "Shynebright" for 2 years, Woelbing began working on a new lip protection product to cure his own chapped lips and cold sores. The resulting product was Carmex. Woelbing and his wife continued production of Carmex from their home and Woelbing sold the product himself from the trunk of his car.

Woelbing relied on word-of-mouth advertising to increase interest in his product. As demand increased, the company moved first to a small rented manufacturing facility in 1957, and then to a large-scale production facility in 1976. After Alfred Woelbing retired, Carma Labs was operated by his son and grandsons. Alfred died in 2001 at the age of 100