The shrewd eyes of the watchful public caught Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong applying coats of lip balm in between his answers at the parliamentary hearing held Tuesday.

Although Lee discreetly covered his mouth every time, the online public quickly identified the lip balm stick to be the US brand Softlips, priced at $1.99. 

Softlips is yet to export its goods to Korea. The lip balms are only available for purchase directly from the US.

Vitatra, an online shopping mall that provides shipping from the US to Korea, now features the Softlips lip balm on its front page as “The lip balm used by the chaebol we all know.”

Anonymous online users have dubbed the Softlips products “Lee Jae-yong lip balm” and are commenting, “If a chaebol’s using it and it's that cheap, I’m getting my hands on some, too.”

The first round of parliamentary hearings on Tuesday summoned nine of the nation’s business tycoons who have allegedly provided bribes to the president’s influence-peddling confidante Choi Soon-sil.

Lee was questioned for Samsung Electronics’ donation of roughly $1.4 million to a sports foundation controlled by Choi, and for providing a horse worth around $1.5 million to Choi’s daughter Chung Yoo-ra, who is a professional equestrian.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)