Ya, as mentioned, it's the arginine that does it. I don't take anything with arginine in it. Also as mentioned, L-lysine can be found in any drug store, or anywhere that sells vitamins basically. When I feel a cold sore coming on I take like 1g instantly, and then space out 500mg throughout the day at maybe 1.5g a day.
I'm interested in non-arginine products as well. Most every "NO2 booster" has arginine. You could try out stuff like RPM from AppNut.