Apivita Lip Care Blackcurrant: Tinted Lipbalm Never Was This Good

I'm quite prone to dry lips from time to time, a legacy of ye olde days a few years back when I was taking medication to alleviate my chronic acne. Anyway, this means that I'm always on the search for my perfect lip balm. And my perfect lip balm would be moisturizing and feel good on the lips without being too waxy, and better still if it has a hint of colour to it too. And it should be in stick or tube form - I hate digging my fingers into a pot.

The Apivita Lip Care with Blackcurrant just happens to fit the bill nicely. Apivita is a natural skincare brand from Greece, and their product offerings are pretty impressive. Apivita is a brand that focuses on natural products, and while I tend to be rather skeptical about companies that that brand themselves as "natural" too liberally, I do feel like Apivita is one of the more genuinely natural brands around, based on the products I've tried so far.

The first thing I like about the Apivita Lip Care is the packaging - it's in a sturdy stick form that makes it easy to carry around (I've had it in my bag for a few weeks and no mishaps yet). And the tube colour matches the colour of the lipbalm inside! How cute is that?



Also, for a makeup junkie like me, the colour is important too. The Apivita Lip Care looks really dark in the tube, but because the colour is so sheer, you get the barest hint of colour. So don't worry if the colour doesn't look like your cup of tea at first glance - pigmentation is qutie light, so even the colour-shy can wear this, as you can see in the swatch below.



Okay, great. So the packaging is great and sturdy, and the colour is very wearable. Now of course, comes the most important part - the actual performance of the lipbalm on my lips. Its got a bunch of plant oils, including castor seed oil, cocoa butter, and olive oil, so although there are some waxes in there, it feels great on my lips too. Not too waxy or anything. The oils in the Apivita Lip Care also give the product a good slip, so you don't get any feelings of stickiness either. Here's a swatch of the Apivita Lip Care on my lips - you can see the colour translates into just the barest hint of colour and shine on my lips. Very natural looking.



All in all, I really like the Apivita Lip Care, and it's now a staple in my bag. It helps to alleviate dry lips, and is cosmetically very elegant too. If you're looking for a natural lip balm that is emollient and effective, with just a hint of colour, this is a good bet. Apivita is available at the Apivita website.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Hello Kitty Lipbalms Haul: Never too Old for Cute!

As some of you may know, I travelled to Japan recently for work. Unfortunately, since it was for work, there wasn't much time or desire to haul (so unlike the last time I went to Japan, I don't have any funny photos to show you), but when I was at the airport, I had some extra Yen coins to get rid of, so on impulse I bought these two adorable Hello Kitty Lipbalms!

The first one is a Hello Kitty Rosette Treatment Lip, which is basically just a plain uncoloured lipbalm/lipgloss. Awww, you just gotta love the packaging! The apple drawiwng on the packaging is meant to indicate the smell (it's touted as having a sweet apple scent).



The Hello Kitty Rosette Treatment Lip is just like plain ol' lipgloss to me. It doesn't treat lips as much as it claims to do, but it's decent - perhaps not too much different from Vaseline, only that it feels a lot less sticky on. But obviously when I bought this, I wasn't thinking of how effective it was. I just wanted the Kitty!



The Hello Kitty Rosette lipbalm does have a very strong sweet apple smell, although the smell dissipates very very fast upon application. I find that a pity - although I know the scent is artificial, I really like it, because it reminds me of those Yupi Burger candies I used to eat. Anyone ever tried those?

(Image source)

If Yupi Burger isn't your thing, the other thing I thought it also smelled a lot like was those Haribou sweets. Yup, here's another excuse for me to shamelessly put up another photo of childhood candy!

(Image source)

The other thing I bought was a Shiseido Water in Lip Lipbalm, which is basically a drugstore range of lipbalms Shiseido put out. Nothing special, except that this one has Limited Edition Hello Kitty Packaging! (Yes that's what it says on the packaging, anyway). So I just had to get it. The lipbalms come in a few flavours. The one I have is raspberry. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't comment on what it is like, unfortunately.



I gotta admit it - I really bought these just because they were so cute! (Don't look at me like that - I'm pretty sure I'm not alone!) Fortunately, lipbalm is one of those things that you can never have enough of, so I'm pretty glad I bought these.

Lip Ice Sheer Colour Lip Moisturizer: Review and LOTDs

Colour changing lip glosses and lipbalms have been around since goodness knows when. They aren't anything new, so when I saw the new Lip Ice Sheer Colour Lip Moisturizers, I literally rolled my eyes and was like, "Oh yeah, THAT again." Lip Ice is one of the sub-brands under Metholatum, a Japan-based company that owns other consumer healthcare brands as well. This time round, they have released not just one, but three lipbalms with that "colour changing" trick. Two of them are shown below.

The difference between the two is that one has shimmer, the Shimmer Lip Colour, while the other one has no shimmer, but has a very pleasant strawberry scent, and is the Strawberry Lip Colour. Both feature the same colour changing property, though.

You know what I first thought of when I saw the the Lip Ice Sheer Colour Moisturizers? Well, first I thought of this:

(Image from Nordstrom website)

That's the Dior Addict Lip Glow Reviver Balm, which looks exactly like the Lip Ice version, sans price tag and upscale packaging. It also promises to turn to your customized shade of pink.

I also thought of this the Smashbox O Glow Lipgloss, which is similar but in gloss form, instead of stick balm form. Once again, it also claims to turn into your unique shade of pink.

Well, we know that isn't really true, in my experience these turn into some generic shade of super-bright pink. But it doesn't stop me from wanting to try them! Here's a look at the lipbalms in their little, slim, pink, plastic tubes. The Shimmer one looks a little more pink in the tube than the Strawberry one, which looks completely white.



Here are swatches of the lipbalms on my skin. On my skin, these change to a very subtle shade of pink, and the shimmer isn't too discernable. It's there, but it doesn't make that huge of a change to the colour. It's pretty much the same shade of pink, just with some shimmer. I think the shimmer shade looks really pretty. The Strawberry shade smells very sweetly of strawberries. Yum.



I know you're curious about how these look on the lips, so here you go, swatches of these on my lips! First up is the Strawberry shade:



As you can see from the swatches, although on my arm these turned into just a slight, subtle shade of pink, on my lips, it was like WOWZA BRIGHT PINK! This is pretty much in line with my experiences with other colour-changing lipglosses too - although they all claim to change to some unique shade of pink, the shade of pink they change to seems to be a pretty universal bright pink on me. Still, it's a pretty shade, and fun to wear.

Now, here's the shimmer shade:



As you can see, the shade is a lot brighter than on my arm, and the shimmer is more visible as well. I actually quite like the shimmer in this shade, I feel like it adds a little zing to the gloss.

And here are the lipbalms swatched on a piece of paper, just to show you the actual shade of pink they change to on your lips. I don't know why all the colour changing lipbalms and lipglosses change to this shade - perhaps they're all using the same technology?



Although the colour-changing pink shade isn't anything new, and pretty bright, I quite like these lipbalms. The lipbalms are moisturizing, and wear relatively well on my lips. If you're planning on getting these, I advise sparing application, since if you apply these too heavily, you might end up with really bright pink magenta lips, and that wouldn't quite be the subtle pink you're looking for! Lip Ice is also running some photo-submission contest with their Sheer Colour Lip Moisturizer range on their Facebook page, so feel free to check it out here.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Liz Earle Sheer Pink Lip Shimmer: Moisturize with a Hint of Shine

Liz Earle is a UK-based brand that is pretty popular within the UK for its brand of quality skincare emphasizing natural, plant-based ingredients. The brand's focus has remained squarely on skincare, and thus they sadly doesn't produce makeup, but being a makeup junkie, I got my hands on the most makeup-like item in their entire range - their Sheer Pink Lip Shimmer.

Liz Earle's Sheer Pink Lip Shimmer is marketed as a lip salve with a sheer hint of shimmer, so it's still a skincare product, as opposed to, say, a lipstick with moisturizing properties. But it's very pretty. The Lip Shimmer comes in a simple, tiny little pink tub that matches the pink colour of the lip shimmer. You get a decent 5g (0.17oz) of product, which is about the same size as most lip balms on the market. I have to admit that I don't really like lip products in tubs - it just seems more fussy to apply and more unhygenic - but I guess given the texture of the product, it would have trouble keeping its shape in stick form, and would be too solid for a squeeze tube.



The ingredients list is pretty impressive - unlike other lip balms that start with mineral oil and petrolatum, you can clearly see that Liz Earle made an effort to consciously use better quality ingredients. The first three ingredients are hazelnut oil, shea butter, and rosehip seed oil. Here's a close up shot of the balm.



Although the Lip Shimmer looks flat and hard on the surface because the oils in the product are in solid form, once you touch your finger to the product, it quickly becomes a shiny, emollient, very soft balm. Despite the pink shade in the tub, the product doesn't actually have much colour once it's applied, as the swatch below shows.



On the lips, the Lip Shimmer feels very emollient, without feeling waxy. Because of the high amount of plant oils in the Lip Shimmer, it feels a little more liquid in feel than your average lip balm in stick form. And although it doesn't have much colour on the lips, it does impart some sort of shine.



All in all, I rather like this product. The ingredients are those of quality, it's emollient without being waxy, and it's moisturizing on the lips. However, this functions as a lip balm, and imparts barely any colour, so if you're looking for a tinted balm with more colour, you'll be disappointed by the lack of colour in the Liz Earle Lip Shimmer. I'd recommend this if you want a lip balm and don't care about the colour, and if you don't mind the fact that it comes in a tub.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Burt's Bees Lip Balm: New Acai Berry and Mango Butter Flavours!

I'm a huge fan of Burt's Bees. I used their Radiance Eye Creme, and I'm a huge, huge, huge (and did I say huge?) fan of their Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream. So of course when I got wind that they were launching two new yummy flavours of lipbalm in early September, I just had to check it out!

The two new flavous are the Nourishing Lip Balm with Mango Butter, and the Rejuvenating Lip Balm with Acai Berry. The difference between the two is that the Mango Butter lip balm is supposed to be more emollient and moisturizing, and the Acai Berry one is supposed to leave lips feeling soft and rejuvenated.



These come in the usual Burt's Bees packaging - you get the usual 4.25g of product in each tube. The Mango Butter lipbalm has a yellow cap, while the Acai Berry one has a purple cap. Part of the reason why I really like these is because of the simple but effective packaging - they come with a hygienic seal, the caps are sturdy enough that they don't come off the tubes in your bag, and the swivel up tube makes it handy for application on the go without getting your fingers dirty. Much better than potted balms, or those skinny tubes with tiny lids that crack easily or fall off.

The balms themselves are clear and colourless. They go on transparent, and don't leave a weird white film on your lips like some balms do. These also have a REALLY nice smell! I love the fruity scent - the mango one has a tropical mango smell, and the acai berry one has a sweet berry scent. The scent of the mango one is a bit less strong and sweet, so for people who have issues with scent and are deciding between the two, the mango one might be better. Both of these are definitely scented though, and you can still smell them after the initial application, but not after some time has elapsed. But I actually like the fruity scent, and it didn't irritate either my nose or my sensitive lips.



Okay, so the Burt's Bees balms score on packaging, and scent. How about actual performance? I'm glad to say I wasn't disappointed. I have sensitive lips, and many balms I've tried before I disliked. Some balms, like the Korres lip butters, had a weird plastic-like feel and just sat on top of my lips without actually moisturizing them. Others just felt waxy, but not moisturizing. And some of them, like Carmex, had this weird minty tingling feel that made my lips feel like they were burning!

Fortunately the Burt's Bees version is none of this thing. No weird menthol-stinging sensation, and no weird plastic-feel that just sits on top of the lips. There is a slight waxy residue, but I'm glad to say that it's quite minimal, and most of the balm actually seems to sink into my lips as opposed to sitting on top of them. The top three ingredients for both the Acai Berry and the Mango Butter version are sunflower seed oil, coconut oil, and then beeswax in that order, so that wasn't a surprise.

These come out in early September, so if you are like me and feel like most lipbalms just sit on top of your lips instead of penetrating them, then these are worth looking out for, especially given the cheap price of £3.49. For the price, this is probably one of the better lipbalms you could buy, and I could definitely think of a lot of pricier balms that don't work as well.

(This product was provided to me for review. I am not affiliated with or compensated by the company. This review is my complete and honest opinion.)