Burt's Bee Tinted Lip Balm

OK, quick, before I get distracted.... here is another post!

I have been particularly interested in lip products of late, after what I call the Lipstick Disaster also known as the Japanese Honeysuckle debacle (click here). So on a recent trip to Wholefoods (I should start receiving commission how much I go on about Wholefoods) - a trip which lasted several hours I might add, maybe even as long as three, I know! THREE! - I picked up a little tube of Burt's Bee Tinted Lip Balm (that probably wasn't all I got...)

"Great!" I thought.

A lip balm with a healthy dab of colour. I chose Pink Blossom. It's a pretty fuschia pink, nothing too wild but not plain jane either. There are six colours in this range though, including red, darker plum, coral and nude. I simply must try them all! For I love this lip balm. LOVE!

The colour is perfect for my lips to look a little alive and a little effortlessly 'done'. And as it is a balm, you get properly moisturised, long-lasting smoothness. For real! I struggle with lip balms. I can get really dry lips and have the grossest habit of pickpickpicking when they get that way. Colour can only make dry skin more obvious. This is nothing short of amazing for how smooth it makes my lips feel and the slick of colour just makes them POP! 

Let me say it again. I LOVE this lip balm.

I tell you what I also love, the packaging. It comes in a cute little cardboard tube which has really brought out my geek side as I have kept what is a standard lip-balm-shaped lip balm inside it's very own little lip balm house to stop it getting all fluffy under the lid like they usually do in my possession. It does cost £5.99 which is about 2squid more than the others in the Burt's Bees line but for a cute lip balm carrier case I'll pay what you ask!

It's such a great formula, coconut oil, shea butter, lanolin and it smells délicieux like bubblegum, though I think that it might be jasmine and rosemary, looking at the ingredients... Yum!

So there. That wasn't so hard now was it!

Kiss kiss xoxo

Pucker Up with BellaPierre Lipstick

Lipstick. Valentines. It's all so predictable. Interestingly, I'm a bit contrary and seem to veer wildly away from things that I suspect I'm supposed to do. But just as I am contrary, you will also see I am inconsistent and so here you go - a Valentine's Day themed post. About smoochy-coochy lips. Pucker up folks... I'm coming to getya!!!!

I've always shied away from lipstick. Firstly, I prefer to emphasis my eyes. Secondly, traditionally lippies only dried out my lips. Which looks crap when you deliberately draw attention to them. And thirdly, if you need one, it's a bit... obvious for me... Trés cliché!

But recently, and as a bit of a surprise, I have started to enjoy sporting a red lip. (Love referring to the plural as singular. ) I do like red lips when I see other people wearing it. So I thought to hell with it. Me too! It's that Forties glamour and a Fifties flirtiness thing. Trés cool.

So to avoid ingesting a kilo of chemicals (have you any idea how much lipstick the average woman 'eats' in a lifetime? Anywhere up to 9lbs. Thats apparently 23 tubes. Or maybe like, half your arm or something, if you think about it. Or an ankle's worth. Or maybe a knee. Or two knees!? Anyway. It's horrific!) I was determined to find a decent natural lipstick to reduce my lifetime consumption to a few fingers worth. (Weirdo)

Looking for a decent natural lipstick was harder than I assumed. A lot of them are neutral shades for a more subtle look, lacking the impact I was after. Or they are stuffed full of glittering mineral pigments which look pearly (yuk!) or frosted (yuk again). If I wanted to channel Pat Butcher it would be just darling! But I don't. So they suck.

The first one I found that looked a proper, serious red was by natural cosmetics brand BellaPierre, called 'Ruby'. It's a beautiful, slightly blue - toned red which I prefer as it helps teeth look whiter and that's never a bad thing really.

So great colour and it's long-lasting! In fact I was quite surprised how long it did last considering it feels quite juicy. It goes on very smoothly but doesn't have too much shine to feel like your in a Robert Palmer video (glossy and red - so Eighties!) It's versatile too - you can dab it on lightly with a pinky for a pretty bitten look or you can layer it up thick with a brush for the full-on femme fatale. Or the Robert Palmer video. 

It does do that drying thing which I can't seem to get around. But I think that's my own issue and not really the lipstick's fault. 

However! Something terrible has just happened and I have been deliberating for days what to do about this. The ingredients aren't too bad but whilst having a look for this post I noticed there within lurks a rather naughty little preservative - Japanese honeysuckle or Lonicera Japonica, to use it's latin name as stated on the packaging. This is a natural preservative but guess what? It's identical to parabens. So if it acts like a paraben, be it from nature or not, should it be in there? And do I want to use it? 

This is a bit of an oversight on my part, annoyingly. As I might not have bought it if I had realised. In fact I know I wouldn't. And I really wasn't sure about whether to go ahead with this post or not.  But I've thought long and hard about this and I've decided I won't get mad, or get even. I'll just see it as a halfway house. It's better than most of your common or rubbish high street lipsticks so I'll continue to use it whilst struggling ever onward to find an improvement! Everything else in it is good, it's just very disappointing to realise you REALLY need to read the labels! Even at the revered House of Natural - Wholefoods Market, where I bought this.

So there you go - let that be a lesson to y'all! Kiss kiss.


P.S

Do share the love! What are your favourite natural lipsticks? I'd love to hear suggestions! And what do you think about Japanese honeysuckle - this so-called natural paraben - being used in cosmetics? Bothered?

P.P.S
I plan to do a bit of unearthing on this matter for another post so do watch this space!