Burt's Bees Rejuvenating Lip Balm With Acai Berry Review

Remember that one time I went on a loony shopping spree at Burt's Bees last year? Well, this is a loooong overdue review of Burt's Bees Rejuvenating Lip Balm with Acai Berry. 

Packaging: The lip balm is packaged in a cardboard box. The tube itself is a standard tube of 0.15 oz lip balm with a pull off cap and a twister at the bottom. The ingredients are printed both on the back of the box and also on the tube.

Ingredients: Heliantus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, cera alba (beeswax, cire d'abeille), aroma (flavour)*, ricinus communis (castor) seed oil, lanolin, euterpe oleracea fruit oil**, ammonium glycyrrhizinate, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, tocopherol, glycine soja (soybean) oil, canola oil (huile de colza), anise alcohol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl cinnamate cirral, farnesol, limonene, linalool. *natural flavour, **acai berry  

Texture: The lip balm has a very texture and applies smoothly on the lips. It does not leave the lips too shiny but it does moisturize very well. I did notice that my lips got a little bit dry after the product had worn off after an hour or so.

Smell: This lip balm has a very strong beery-ish scent which came across as a little bit too strong to my liking. It kind of felt a little bit on the pungent side to me. Maybe because I am hooked on those minty or mildly scented balms. 

Swatch: 

My Verdict: Although the lip balm have very good moisturizing properties, I am still put off by the strong scent of  it. For those who does not mind the scent, I think this would be a good buy since Acai Berry is supposed to have a lot of good healing attributes. Would I repurchase? Nope!

I bought my tube of this lip balm at Burt's Bees outlet at The Curve.

Yes To Carrots C Me Smile Lip Butter Review

No matter what the season is, lip balm is still my favourite thing to use. I have like tons of lip balms stashed in my drawer and all around the house. Some of them had never been opened yet! For my latest conquest, I had bought Yes To Carrots C Me Smile Lip Butter in three flavours which are Mint, Berry and Carrot. 

Packaging: The lip balms comes in the usual .15 oz tube with a pull off cap and a twister at the bottom. Each tube cap is coloured accordingly to the scent i.e. green for Mint, red for Berry and orange for Carrot. An unopened tube has an untempered plastic covering the cap. The list of ingredients is printed on the back of the tube.

 My three choice of lip balms.

 An untempered plastic covering the cap.

Ingredients: (for the Mint tube) Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Cera Alba (Beeswax), Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Oil, Helianthus Annuss (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Limonene, Flavour, Tocopehrol, Linalool, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (OrangePeel Extract), Cucumis Melo Cantalupensus (Melon) Seed Extract, Cucurbita Pepo (Pumpkin) Seed Extract, Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Root Extract. (*All of the ingredients are organic except the flavour).

List of ingredients printed on the back of the tube. 

Texture: The lip balm has an opaque hue to it and neither too hard nor too soft texture. The lip balm has a very nice smooth glide when applied on the lips. It is not overly shiny so I think guys would not mind using them. 

The three tubes of lip balms opened.

A newly opened tube of one of the lip balms.

The Mint: It has a minty tingle (which I like!) and glides very smoothly over the lips. There is no taste but I don't really mind since the mintyness and smoothness overshadows the fact that the balm is not sweetened. The balm hydrates really well and is not overly shiny on the lips.

The Berry: Just like the Mint balm, Berry glides smoothly too. It really smelled like yummy strawberries, but there is no minty tingle in this version of Yes To Carot's lip balm. The hydation effect is also the same as the Mint version.

The Carrot: This one has a subtle carroty fragrant which I find really pleasant. I was expecting to not like this one but surprisingly I found it really likeable. The texture and glide is also the same the other two lip balms.

The lip balm swatched on the back of my hand.

My Verdict: I love them! If these lip balm is easily available in Malaysia I would definitely repurchase them (even if they are not I think I would still find ways and means to repurchase the Mint one!).

You can check out Yes To Carrot's products at their official website.
I bought my Yes To Carrot C Me Smile Lip Butter via Ryan from sgDrugstore.

Bloom Colour Card For Lips (Natural Delight) Review

Hi peeps! I am back! Finally I have some time to sit in front on my laptop and catch up with long overdue reviews and boy I do have a lot of them! I have been on a lippie kick for some time now and I cannot seem to shake the craze yet. It has been digging a hole in my pocket! Huhu.. Anyways, let get on with a review on Bloom Colour Card for lips which I purchased sometime end of last year. 

Bloom Colour Card For Lips comes boxed in a pretty cardboard box with a window. The palette itself is credit card-sized and it contains six universally wearable shades. It is said to be lightly flavoured with vanilla and mandarin essential oils. The palette is very slim and easy to carry around in handbags/purses. It opens by sliding the top lid upwards. There is no mirror attached to the palette but there is a lip brush supplied to use as an applicator.

 The lip palette unboxed.

 The slim credit card sized palette.

Ingredients: ethylhexyl palmitate, beeswax (cera alba), euphorbia cerifera (Candelilla) wax (Candelilla cera), copernicia cerifera (carnauba) wax (cera carnauba), lanolin, caprylic/capric tryglyceride, simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil, tocopheryl acetate, shea butter glycerides, fragrance (parfum), limonene, sodium methylparaben, sodium proplparaben, [may contain +/-:, Red 6 Lake (CI 15850), Red 7 Lake (CI 15850), Blue I Lake (CI 42090), Yellow 5 Lake (CI 19140), Mica (CI 77019), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77801)].

Texture: The texture of the lippies in the palette are not too soft nor too hard. They are just somewhere in between lipstick and gloss. They are very pigmented except the pink shimmery one which goes on a bit clear. Each of the shade felt kind of sticky on the lips. The lippies does not glide smoothly when applied, but once it has settled and adjusted to body temperature, the lip colour felt a little bit more moisturizing and less sticky. Over time, I almost feel like wearing a lip gloss. In terms of scent, despite being described to smell like vanilla and mandarin essential oils, I wasn't able to detect any of vanilla scent at all but there is slight hint of orange scent.

The shades are a bit warmer in real life compared to the swatches below:

 

Verdict: Overall, this lip palette is just so-so in my opinion and they felt like most lippies out there. The shades are very nice but they are a bit too pigmented for my liking. In the swatches they looked mostly neutral and pinkish but on the lips they are much more pigmented and warmer. I guess I am not going to repurchase this.

I purchased this lip palette for RM45 at a Shins outlet @ Mines Shopping Fair.

Coco Zen Chocolate-Lips-To-Go Review

I had never heard of Coco-Zen before but I got very interested in trying out their lip balm after I had read a great review about their balm. Coco-Zen is actually a chocolate company that produces chocolate treats for consumption as well as treats for the body as well. They also promotes the usage of fair trade cocoa in their products and recyclable packaging materials as a way of promoting fair trade and saving the planet which is really a great concept.

From my initial intention to just try their lip balm, I got stuck at their Lips-To-Go page because it is so much more economical (me trying to convince myself at that time!) to just buy a set of both the lip scrub and the lip balm. After battling with myself, I decided to just go with my guts to get the Lips-To-Go set with the choice of Chocolate Brown Sugar for the Edible Lip Scrub and Chocolate Mint Bliss for the balm. The Chocolate-Lips-To-Go comes in a small green jute pouch. The lip balm is in a sliding tin and the lip scrub is in a round tin tub.

Edible Lip Scrub in Chocolate Brown Sugar 

Product description: This edible lip scrub exfoliate and moisturizes lips. It is made from organic brown sugar, organic oils, organic honey and vitamin E and comes in a delicious chocolate taste.

The chocolate lip scrub comes in a round tin jar with a with a screw on lid weighing .50 oz (15 ml). It may seem like a small container but it is really is quite heavy and compact. I really like the vintage look of the label which is a brown recycled paper printed with the product's logo and name. The bottom of the tin jar is pasted with the same vintage brown paper printed with a list of ingredients.

Ingredients: Organic Fair Trade Raw Sugar Cane, Organic Fair Trade Brown Sugar, Organic Sweet Almond Oil, Organic Sunflower Oil, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Olive Oil, Vitamin E, Organic Chocolate Flavour Oil.

The lip scrub looked very moist when I first opened the jar and I can actually see that the bits of scrubbing particles are but it felt a bit dry when I scooped it out. It has coarse sugar granules and bits of some black seeds (I assume they are bits of crushed cocoa beans). I find that rubbing the lip scrub is better done over a sink as the sugar bits tend to fall off from my fingers and lips. After a few minutes into the scrubbing action, the lip scrub melted a bit which made it easier to scrub the coarse bits on my lips.

 A freshly opened tub of lip scrub.

 Moist looking chocolatey sugar granules.

A finger scoop of lip scrub.

Very coarse sugar granules.

The lip scrub smelled like chocolate. It tasted really sweet but not too chocolatey, just sugarish. My lips felt soft and smooth after scrubbing but felt a little bit raw from the coarse sugar granules. Overall, I am satisfied with the result as it does what it is supposed to do - which is to scrub the lips.

Chocolate Mint Bliss Lip Balm

Product Description: The chocolate lip balms are flavored with real organic and Fair Trade chocolate and sweetened with a touch of Stevia. While your nose and taste buds dance in chocolate ecstasy, your lips will bathe in moisturizing organic coconut creme and extra virgin olive oil. Scrub your lips with our chocolate edible lip scrub daily and then apply the lip balm for chocolatey, kissable lips.

The lip balm comes in a sliding tin weighing .25 oz (7 g). It has the same brown recycled paper pasted on the lid and the list of ingredients is pasted on the bottom of the tin. The lid slides open smoothly and closes with a click.

The tin of lip balm.

The sliding lid opened.

Ingredients: Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Creme, Organic Beeswax, Organic Fair Trade Certified™ Chocolate, Vitamin E, Organic Castor Oil, Cocoa Absolute, Organic Flavor Oils, Stevia.

The lip balm has a soft and buttery texture and is very easy to pick up once it has adjusted to skin temperature. Initially it did not apply smoothly but when the balm had adjusted to body temperature, it applies on smoothly over my lips and leaves a hint of minty tingle. The balm practically melted into my lips leaving them feeling smooth and soft. The minty tingle lasted only for a few seconds though. It smells exactly like chocolate and it tastes almost like the insides of those Smarties candies, not too sweet but plain chocolatey taste. It goes on a bit chocolatey at first but turns sheer after it has melted and sinks in the lips.

The lip balm swatched on the back of my hand.

My verdict: I love both the lip scrub and the balm. The lip scrub really scrubs off dead skin cells off my lips and the smooth feeling of the balm on the lips after a vigorous scrubbing is just nice. Since these are hard to come by in Malaysia and quite pricey including the shipping cost, I don't think I would be able purchase them again.

You can check out the Coco Zen products at their official website.
Priced at $16.50.

NYX Round Lipstick Review

My sister and I got hooked on NYX's round lipsticks after she tried a couple of tubes. So, when CherryCulture had a sale on NYX's cosmetics, we jumped on board and bought quite a few of their lippies. Choosing the shades that catches our eyes requires quite a long time since NYX has one of the most extensive array of lipstick shades. But still, the process of picking and contemplating on which to purchase is fun nonetheless. ( ^_^ )

NYX Round Lipstick stash from my sister and me. Hehe..

Packaging: NYX's lipsticks are packaged in black, shiny plastic tubes. NYX's logo is printed on the body of the tube. The whole packaging is sturdy and looks very chic. The bottom of the tube is translucent making it easier to identify the choice of lipstick color inside. The cap closes with a click. The lipsticks twist in and out of the tube very smoothly. The ingredients are printed on the body of the cap. A whole tube weighs 4g (014oz).

 A tube of NYX's Round Lipstick. Very chic looking.

 The translucent bottom of the tube with colour indicator.

List of ingredients printed on the side of the cap.

Twisting the lipstick out. NYX's Round Lipstick sports the standard bottom-twist mechanism.

Texture: NYX's lipsticks have a very nice and creamy texture. They glide on very smoothly. They do not have that usual sticky or heavy feeling when applied like most lipsticks do and I really like it. You can almost say that they feel really light on the lips. NYX's lipsticks are also not drying. They have a nice subtle fragrance. The colours are opaque and very pigmented on the lips. I only need a light layer to get a good coverage.

Here are the swatches from my sister's stash and my stash combined together:

 

 

Heredes, Milan and Fig.

1. Heredes - deep terracotta red
2. Milan - pinkish mauve
3. Fig - very pink

 

Thalia, Frosted Beige and Saturn.

1. Thalia - deep pink brown,
2. Frosted Beige - frosty peach with shimmers
3. Saturn - gorgeous flushed red with slight shimmer

 

 

Goddess, Georgia and Tea Rose.

1. Goddess - warm coperry brown with orange undertone, frosty
2. Georgia - frosty warm pink
3. Tea Rose - deep coral pink/dusty rose

 

 

B52, Perfect, Summer Love and Frappucino.

1. B52 - deep red brown
2. Perfect - medium plum brown
3. Summer Love - frosty beige (made me look pale)
4. Frappucino - deep rose mauve

 

 

Indian Pink, Peach and Femme.

1. Indian Pink - frosty pinky peach (looks orange on me)
2. Peach - shimmery deep red (dunno why the name is Peach when the shade is in the red group)
3. Femme - striking red

My verdict: I adore these lippies. They are definitely a great buy considering the price for a tube is very cheap. I will purchase NYX's lippies again in future.

Price: Retails at $4 but we bought them at a sale price for $2.50 each tube (approximately RM10)

We bought our NYX lipstick stash from CherryCulture with the help from Ryan of LowyatForum.