Tilvee: Pomegranate Lip Conditioner

This brand was a lucky find! In addition to being a lip balm addict, I'm also a soap junkie. I found Tilvee while I was browsing online for soaps, to my delight, they also make lip balms!

Look/First Impressions: All Tilvee products are wonderfully photographed, and accompanied by fruit. The site is clean, and just makes me want to buy up the whole line, BUT they are expensive! This tube was six bucks. You can't really tell from the photo, but this is a fat stick (.25 oz).

Smell/Taste: Amazing! Smells like raspberry chocolate, and tastes like it too. Makes me want to try all the flavors.

Feel: I'm finding that I'm extremely partial to balms containing cocoa butter. They apply easily, don't feel greasy, and are the perfect consistency.

Overall: I've been carrying this with me since it arrived, and don't plan on rotating it out of my purse stash for a while. I'll definitely buy another when it runs out. 4.9 out of 5 stars! (website)

Eco Lips Beta Balm: Bee Free Pomegranate

I discovered Eco Lips back in the fall. My usual health food spots don't carry this brand, so I ended up placing a large order online, and have almost all their products. You can also get a free sample if you send them two dollars for the shipping. Details here.

Look/First Impressions: This balm isn't much to look at, but there's a reason for that. This is a Beta Balm, which just means the product hasn't become part of their full-time inventory, but is available for consumers to test. So, no effort was put into giving it a fancy label. This is also one of their Vegan Friendly "Bee Free" products, meaning no bees wax was used in the formula. The base contains Candelilla Wax and Cocoa Butter.

Smell/Taste: The smell is light and citrus-y. This smells the most like a pomegranate of all the lip balms I'm reviewing this month. The balm itself is left uncolored, and unflavored.

Feel: This balm is very soft, and easy to over apply. Goes on smooth, but quickly gets too melty while its on my lips and starts feeling greasy. I noticed the skin under my lips was becoming oily, and I even started breaking out. Bad news, indeed! I tried it as a cuticle moisturizer too, and it seems to perform better once its rubbed into the skin.

Overall: Meh, I don't feel strongly about this product either way. It was fun to try, but doubtful I will buy it again. 3 out of 5 Stars. (website)

W.S. Badger: Cocoa Butter Lip Balm

There's a little health food shop called Rebecca's Natural Foods a few miles from where I live. They stock all sorts of natural and organic products, and have a huge lip balm selection. I've used a few Badger Balms with good results, and figured I'd give their lip balm a try. The flavor I picked was Creamy Cocoa.

Look/First Impressions: The first thing I noticed about this lip balm was the size of the tube. Its a big fat one! (.25 oz) I'm unlikely to misplace something so large, and its easy to tell apart by feel from other tubes when I'm digging in my abyss of a bag. A closer look at the label reveals that the ingredients are Fair Trade and USDA Certified Organic. Now, who can complain about food quality ingredients in their lip balm? With only seven (pronounceable) ingredients, there's nothing suspicious about it, and I feel good buying this one. Also, there is a magical, smiling badger on the front waving a rainbow of little berries out of his wand!

Smell/Taste: The Creamy Cocoa has a subtle smell of chocolate, and a little bit of flavor too.

Feel: Application is smooth and easy. I like to swipe twice for a complete coat. Its not too thick or too thin, and feels great when I press my lips together. I could rub this on my lips all day long, but a good coat in the morning will last me until lunchtime. I'd advise against keeping this one in your pocket though, it can get a little melty.

Rating: Overall, this is the best lip balm I've ever used. 5 out of 5 stars! (website)