When I read this, of course I had to go smell my Bite lip pencils. I discovered that a couple of them have a strange smell (almost crayon-like, but not...it's not the "your lipstick has gone bad" smell, but it's a little odd), but not all of them smelled like that. I only noticed it on two of the seven I have. It's not my two oldest ones either (and I don't think even my oldest ones are more than a year old yet), so I definitely don't think it's that they've gone bad. Wish I knew why some smelled funny and others didn't though! I should probably also say that I had to put the pencils right up to my nose to notice the smell on those two. Never noticed it when I've put them on. You must have a superhuman sense of smell! I'm sorry you're not entirely pleased with it