Woman allegedly applies what she thinks is lip balm at a Halloween event. Then sees her reflection: ‘Never leaving the house again’

A mother’s Halloween outing seemingly took an unexpectedly embarrassing turn after she mistook a tube of sunscreen for lip balm and spent the rest of the party walking around with white residue covering her lips. The funniest part? She was so impressed with the product that she went back and asked for a second one.

Natalie Drue, a content creator known as @nataliemeansnice, shared the mishap in a TikTok video. Drue claimed that she had taken her daughter, Frankie, to a Halloween event called “Trunk or Treat.” While they were there, a local medical group, Methodist Mansfield, reportedly gave small tubes containing both sunscreen and lip balm instead of handing out candies. However, Drue apparently didn’t realize the product had two separate compartments.

She initially assumed that it was just a “badass lip balm. She applied some while Frankie played in the event’s sensory bins and was immediately impressed by its smell and feel. “Smells so nice, it feels so hydrating,” she recalled thinking at the time. In fact, she liked the product so much that she apparently approached the medical group’s table before leaving and asked for another tube. The woman managing the table reportedly agreed, leaving Drue with two products she believed were lip balms.

It was a mistake

It wasn’t until she returned to her car and looked in the mirror that she discovered what had happened. Drue then turned the camera toward her mouth, revealing that her lips were completely covered in white residue.

After taking a closer look at the packaging, she apparently realized that the product was actually a “sunblock and lip balm” and she had accidentally applied the sunblock. The lip balm was stored in a separate compartment at the other end of the tube. Drue compared her appearance to the familiar “Paint Grandpa” meme, which features an old man who accidentally ate paint, before demonstrating how the unusual packaging worked.

“It’s a cool product, um, but yeah, that’s not the lip balm,” she concluded. The creator also admitted that she had allegedly spoken to dozens of people at the Halloween event without realizing anything was wrong. “I literally talked to DOZENS of people. So confidently. BRB, never leaving the house again,” she wrote in the caption.

The white residue on Drue’s lips may be a common characteristic of mineral sunscreens. Products containing zinc oxide or titanium dioxide can leave a visible white cast because these mineral ingredients sit on the skin’s surface and protect it by interacting with ultraviolet radiation, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. The FDA also specifically lists the lips as an area people often forget to protect when going outdoors and recommends using an SPF lip balm at least 15 minutes before stepping out.