Those bygone premiums do help to emphasize just how long Rosebud Salve has been around — since when people wanted phonographs and BB guns so badly they'd go door to door selling salves. How, then, has Rosebud Salve stood the test of time? It is a simple preparation, cotton seed oil in a base of petrolatum with the signature soft, sweet rose aroma from which it gets its name. It is hydrating. It is smoothing. It smells nice, of course. It is good for all sorts of things: protecting chapped lips , soothing minor skin irritations, moisturizing dry cuticles, taking some of the sting out of an agonizingly itchy bug bite when you don't have anything to actually treat it because who are you, your dad?