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Cherry lips
Bright red and shaped like a pair of lips, cherry lips are a traditional pick and mix sweet with a firm bite and a perfumed flavour. Here is what goes into them, how the old style differs from newer jelly lips, and the diet points worth knowing.
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Cherry lips are small, bright red sweets shaped like a pair of lips, with a cherry flavour. The traditional kind is firmer than an ordinary jelly sweet, and the UK retailer Sweets and Candy describes it as the traditional harder cherry lip, with a scented floral flavour.
What is in them
Cherry Lips, as listed by Sweets and Candy. Modified potato starch, glucose syrup, sugar, beef gelatine, lactic acid, carmine as the colour, flavourings, sunflower oil and carnauba wax as a glaze.
Starch comes first in the list, ahead of the sugar. Starch can set a sweet on its own or alongside gelatine: see starch jelly sweets explained
Despite the name, the recipe lists no cherry. The flavour comes from flavourings.
Old style and new style
Softer jelly lips are sold too. Kingsway's Juicy Red Lips, as listed by The Candy King, are cherry flavoured jelly lips made with glucose syrup, sugar, water, pork gelatine, maltodextrin, citric acid, flavouring, black carrot concentrate for colour, coconut oil and carnauba wax. The retailer describes them as made with no artificial colours or flavours, and as gluten and dairy free.
So two lip sweets can be quite different: one firm and coloured with carmine, the other soft and coloured with black carrot.
Diet points
- Gelatine. The traditional recipe uses beef gelatine and the jelly version pork gelatine, so neither is suitable for vegetarians or vegans, and the pork version is not halal: see gelatine in sweets explained
- Carmine. The traditional recipe's red comes from carmine, made from insects: see what is carmine?
- Other allergens. Sweets and Candy says its sweets are packed where wheat, gluten, soya, milk, peanuts and nuts are handled: see pick and mix and allergies
For other retro sweets, see what are retro sweets?
In our pick and mix
We sell 
Cherry Lips by the 100 g. Recipes differ between makers, so the card opens up to show the full ingredients and allergens for the cherry lips we actually stock.
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For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
What are cherry lips made of?
One UK retailer lists modified potato starch, glucose syrup, sugar, beef gelatine, lactic acid, carmine as the colour, flavourings, sunflower oil and carnauba wax as a glaze.
Why do cherry lips taste perfumed?
Their flavour comes from flavourings, and one UK retailer describes the traditional kind as having a scented, floral flavour. The recipe here lists no cherry at all.
Are cherry lips vegetarian?
Not the recipes here. The traditional recipe contains beef gelatine and carmine, which is made from insects, and a softer jelly version contains pork gelatine.
Are cherry lips halal?
Neither listing here says so. One uses beef gelatine without saying it is halal, and the other uses pork gelatine, which is never halal.
Sources
- Cherry lips 60g, product listing, Sweets and Candy
- Juicy red lips, Kingsway, product listing, The Candy King
- Carmine, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- Diet, allergens and labelsGelatine in sweets explainedGelatine gives gummies and marshmallows their texture, and it melts below body temperature, which shapes how they feel in the mouth. Who avoids it.
- Questions people askWhat is carmine?Carmine, E120, is a deep red colour made from cochineal insects that live on cactus. It colours sweets, drinks and lipstick. Why vegans avoid it.
- Diet, allergens and labelsStarch jelly sweets explainedStarch can set a jelly sweet without gelatine, as in Turkish delight, and trays of starch shape gummies. What that means for vegans, and why they firm up.
- Questions people askWhat are retro sweets?Retro sweets are the sweets of past childhoods: Black Jacks, Sherbet Fountains, Parma Violets, Love Hearts, flying saucers and Wham bars. Here are their dates.
- Where to buyWhere to buy retro sweets in the UKBuy retro sweets online at sweeties.net by the 100 g, from pear drops to flying saucers, with delivery at £3.99 up to 2 kg. And what to check first.
- Sweet by sweetJelly teethJelly teeth are novelty jelly and foam sweets shaped like teeth, often sold with jelly lips. What is in them, why many contain gelatine, and what to check.