Sasparilla Lip Smacker
The Sasparilla Lip Proofer was a biggy smacker made by Jess Bell in 1976 that was based on sarsaparilla, a soft drink staple in old western movies and today a popular drink in many other countries.
If you’ve never had it, sarsaparilla is in the root-beer family but it has its own unique set of flavors such as licorice, vanilla, and mint.
This smacker (or rather, lip proofer) was actually made to appeal to the boy demographic. It has a solid brown but uniquely textured (faux wood grain?) tube that you can see in the pictures – it’s also shorter than the standard biggies at 0.56 oz instead of 0.60 oz. It uses a twist-on cap like many of the early Lip Smackers.
This biggy still retains a strong smell and I think it is reminiscent of a spicy root beer with a hint of mint 🙂 It’s a really cool piece of Bonne Bell history. I wonder how it did with boys? It’s also curious that they went with the phonetic spelling of sarsaparilla when they named the balm.