Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer and Super Shiny Lipgloss Review

Hello lovelies :) Hope you're all managing to stay warm! Sorry for bringing you yet another review - I'd love to do some FOTD posts but to be honest, I look rank at the moment. Flu face is not what you want to be posting for the whole world to see, so you'll just have to hang on tight.

Today I'm reviewing you a couple of Burts Bees Lip bits. Although I've tried their normal lip balm before, I've never tried a Burts Bees coloured lip product, so I was excited to give these bits a try! Toda start with I'll show you the swatches - the gloss is on the left and the shimmer is on the right:

If you're wondering what the white bits are in the gloss swatch, just keep reading (although to be honest the answer is just "I have no idea")


Lip Shimmer in Caramel

Burt's Bees describe this as "A kiss of colour and pearlised shine" added to their normal lipbalm and I'd completely agree. this adds a lovely nude shimmer to the lips and, due to the peppermint oil, provides you with a slight plumping effect. I quite like it under a gloss for an extra dimension, or you could maybe get a bit cheeky and try it over a lipstick for extra shimmer and softness (or just on its own - it's pretty enough!). The only downside is that the peppermint effect is a little too over powering on really cold days and can sometimes make my lips a bit sore!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ and a half out of 5

Would I buy this again: Possibly - I'd definitely like to have a look at some of the other colours too!

£5.99 from Burt's Bees

Super Shiny Lip Gloss in Pucker Berry

Another nude colour - a little darker than I'd normally chose myself but a really beautiful colour. There's lots that I like about this gloss - it's not sticky, it has a fresh fruity smell, the colour is fab however.... it's errr, gritty. Well, not gritty exactly. It's just that there's these weird white balls in it. Look:

See the top of my lips? Those white bits that look like I've been eating a sugary doughnut ... well it's those. And I'm not the only one - Modesty Brown had this exact same experience :/ Saying that though, I've just had a look at a few other reviews and most of those don't seem to mention this so I'm wondering if it's maybe just a batch problem. Other than the gritty bits, it's a lovely product :)

♥ ♥ out of 5 

Would I buy it again? Maybe... it depends on if the gritty thing is meant to be there or not.

£7.99 from Burt's Bees

What do you think ladies? Have you tried these products before? What do you think of Burt's Bees stuff in general? Any ideas what on earth the white bits are?!

*Disclaimer* I was sent these products for review purposes.

Favourite Lipbalms

As the days are getting colder, and the wind getting more blustery, I'm finding myself reaching more and more for lipbalm. I seem to have them everywhere - in bags, in random pockets, on my desk. Especially as I cycle, I find that I need to use them more than I ever have before at the moment. Anyway, I thought I'd bring you a little round up of my current favourites, and any other things that I'm treating my lips to in the ongoing battle against chapped lips.

Burt's Bee's Rejuvinating Lip Balm *

Love this - it has a lovely fresh, slightly zingy flavour but isn't overpowering. Love the fact that it contains zero mineral oils but instead lots of lovely omega packed oils that will actually do something instead of sitting there doing nothing. Apparently, the Acai berries are packed with a squillion antioxidents and vitamins, but I wouldn't really recommend trying to use it as one of your five a day. 

£3.49 from Burts Bees

Burt's Bees Nourishing Lip Balm *

Another fruity treat from Burt's Bees, but this time with Mango. I find this one slightly thicker and more errrr Nourishing (they clearly didn't name it that for nothing!) than the Acai one. Again, it's slightly fruity but not over powering. Both of these lip balms have a fairly soft texture - you can definitely tell you've got them on, but they don't clog up your lips (if that makes any sense). Oddly, whilst on the subject of Burt's Bees, I'd say that these are both much better than the Original lipbalm, which I can't stand to be honest.

£3.49 from Burts Bees

Dr Organic 100% Organic Pomegranate Lip Balm

I've used this for ages after picking up in Holland and Barrett one day.  I was in town and my lips were drying out, need a lipbalm but didn't really fancy grabbing a Lush one - I wanted a stick that I could shove in my pocket and preferably apply whilst still cycling. I stumbled across this beauty and haven't looked back. Taste wise, it's slightly pomegrantey and slightly nothingy. But it does the job. really soothes, hydrates and nourishes. Texture wise, it's perfect. Why? Because it's fairly dry. It's not slippery or slimey (I'm looking at you Body Shop Lip Butters) and it creates a wonderful smooth base for lip colour. Perfect.

£2.99 from Holland and Barrett

Lush Mint Julips Lip Scrub

I'll be honest, if it wasn't for the fact that last year I had a Lush voucher to use, I probably wouldn't have gone for this. You could very easily make it yourself - just a bit of sugar, oil and maybe a touch of peppermint oil (or if you're really cheap, toothpaste probably wouldn't kill you). But, it is useful and I do appreciate the fact that it's edible - I can scrub my lips in the morning before I cleanse/tone etc and lip of the debris. It's also much more convenient than a homemade lip scrub and much drier - I know that I'd end up getting overly happy with the oil content and end up with an oil slick on my face. There's a new one out for Christmas that's all lemon sherberty if that's more your style. If not, you can go for the revolting smelling Bubblegum or Chocolate ones instead of this nice After Eight one if you like....

£4.50 from Lush

What's keeping your lips happy this winter time?

Disclaimer - products marked with a * were sent to me for review purposes. Still doesn't change the fact that I'll always be honest with you about them :)

Burt's Bees Reviews

So I've been using the things in my Citrus Shower Set this week and feel I've got to know them well enough to review them.

Citrus and Ginger Root Shower Gel

In the bottle this smells gorgeous, however in the shower it all goes wrong. In the shower, it smells identical to our bathroom cleaner. At first, I thought maybe it was because I'd been cleaning and had the smell on my hands,but actually, that's just the way it smells :( It also doesn't lather at all as it contains no Sodium Laurel/Laureth Sulfate -I've used shower gels like this before so I didn't mind,but it means you can't really use a shower puff and end up using quite a lot of product.
♥ ♥ ♥ out of 5
Would I buy it again? Probably not...I got this free and I'm really glad. I would have been quite disappointed if I'd spent money on this.

Orange Essence Facial Cleanser:

I had reservations about this from the outset as I know my skin generally doesn't like cleansers which need to be washed off, however this is 100% natural I thought I'd give it a go.My skin doesn't like this much at all. Iyt left my skin feeling really dry and flakey and didn't really do much to brighten it. I used my normal cleanser on it after (as its quite soothing)and my normal toner and they both removed quite a bit of dirt so I don't even think it cleansed that well. Might work better on a oilier/combination skin I suppose.
♥ ♥ out of 5
Would I buy this again?:No.

Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey and Orange Wax Body Lotion:

I tried to love this, I really did... I just couldn't. The smell is nice I guess.... it's not too sweet which is a frequent complaint of mine when things have honey in. It's left my a bit softer as well.So what do I hate??2 things... 1)Worst bit of packaging design ever- you need to squeeze the bottle to get it out but the bottle is made of very thick unaqueezable plastic*sigh* 2)I've never been left so sticky after putting on moisturiser.Not tacky or greasy feeling but genuinely sticky ... like I'd just rubbed in honey. Freaked me out and takes ages (over an hour) for the stickiness to go away.
♥ out of 5

Honey Lipbalm:

This is ok I guess ....makes my lips softer etc. Not massively keen on the taste and don't think it does as good a job as my Dr Organic Pomegranate Lip Balm.Not awful but nothing to write home about.
♥ ♥ ♥ out of 5
Would I buy it again?Maybe, but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Overall, I've been really disappointed with this set which is a shame as I've always loved the sound of Burt's Bees products and love that they're bunny friendly and pretty natural.I know that lots of people love them, and I'd definitely be willing to give other stuff a try,but sadly my experience with this set has been more thana little disappointing.

Have you tried Burt's Bees products?What do you think?

*Disclaimer* I was sent these free as a gift with a magazine subscription. My reviews purely reflect the way the products react with my own skin.

So much excitement!

This has just arrived in the post:

I got it free with a subscription to Marie Claire ... think I paid about £6 for a 6 month subscription or something. Anyway, it was one of those "This offer is only available for the first 300 subscribers" things, and I  as I subscribed ages ago, I figured I'd missed out, but apparently not!!

The gift set includes full sized products of:
♥ Citrus and Ginger Root Body Wash
♥ Orange Essence Facial
♥ Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey and Orange Wax Body Lotion
♥ Burt's Bees Honey Lip Balm

All the products are incredibly natural (the ones I have range from 97.90-100% natural) and bunny friendly! I've been wanting to try Burt's Bees stuff for ages, so I'm really very excited! A big review post will come on these at some point :)

Also, I can't believe that I've just reached 40 followers. How exciting! I never thought that anyone would pay that much attention to me and my silly waffling so thank you! xx