wonder jelly that became the most iconic beauty product of them all

In terms of iconography, Vaseline is the Campbell’s soup tin, Coca-Cola can or Brillo pad box of beauty. even those who don’t own it could readily identify its blue-capped pot and list at least five uses for its contents.

robert Augustus Chesebrough, a 22-year-old British chemist, invented Vaseline by chance in 1859. He was visiting a Pennsylvania town where petroleum had been discovered and saw workers rubbing drill residue into their cuts and burns to heal them.

Inspired, he triple- distilled it (Vaseline is still the only petroleum jelly that goes through this process) and perfected the formula. He opened a factory in new York and sold his ‘Wonder Jelly’ to the public (mainly by burning himself with acid, then smearing the wound with it).

Petroleum jelly was taken by explorers on the first successful expedition to the north Pole (it doesn’t freeze), was standard issue for U.s. soldiers in World War I, coated healing gauze during the second World War and was stocked in hospitals.

Vaseline is sold every 39 seconds somewhere in the world. Poured into a tin, it becomes Vaseline Lip therapy. Whipped with glycerin, it’s Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion, the first port of call for many dry skin sufferers.

In beauty alone it has endless applications. It slicks down unruly brows, adds sheen to cheekbones, mixes with powder to become a gloss, removes glue from false lashes, diverts self-tan headed for dry spots and lines cuticles to prevent nail polish migration.

there’s an honesty here. What you see is what you get — a cheap jelly that moisturises, lubricates and seals. It’s unpretentious.

In my view, there are far better products for each one of its uses. But none do all of them at once, and certainly none is as truly iconic.