Review: Burt's Bees Nourishing Lip Balm With Mango Butter

This £2.99 tube of wonder featured in my February Favourites post with good reason. Everybody needs a good quality lip balm on hand in the cold and winter months and this one from Burts Bees has been my 'go to' for dry lips recently. And not even necessarily when my lips are dry; it smells so good I just want to keep applying it all day long and enjoy the fresh and fruity fragrance of mango - Mmm! It applies smoothly, releasing it's tropical scent, and leaves the lips soft and nourished with a tiny hint of gloss but zero tackiness or stickiness.

This is a 100% natural balm so it's all good for you, and it 'soothes, moisturises and protects' which is a pretty standard claim from a lip balm really. The difference with this one is that since it is all natural ingredients it contains no petroleum jelly; just oils, butters and the likes of lanolin - you know, all the good stuff that means it doesn't just 'sit' on the surface of the lips, instead it sinks in and it gives your lips some real benefits. Plus, the mango butter is a super ingredient as it is rich in vitamins and antioxidants so is just that little bit extra nourishing for the lips. Not to mention smells (and tastes) amazing!

This mango balm is from their 'nourishing' range, but it looks like you can also get acai berry to 'rejuventate' and pomegranate oil to 'replenish'. You can see a couple of their other amazing products on the Burt's Bees site here: (link), but I ordered mine from Feel Unique for just £2.99 (link) and with free delivery too you'll regret not trying this out!

Monthly Favourites | December

 

Hello lovely ladies.

I always feel like I'm jumping in early when I do 'monthly favourites' but if I don't get it done now then I never will, and I like to highlight which products have stood out to me over the past few weeks and give them the praise that they deserve. This month contains 7 items and there appears to be a bit of a theme of 'mini' products or just generally small things (with the exception of the Clynol conditioning spray). It's a bit of mixed bag this one, varying from lips balms and hair oils, to an advent calendar! Read on to find out what I've been loving and why...

 

 

Ciate Mini Mani Month Advent Calendar

This advent calendar by Ciate was a birthday gift from my mum and has been one of the most exciting gifts I have ever received (it's the little things). This advent calendar has one mini bottle of Ciate nail varnish behind each of its 24 doors and has brightened up each of my mornings ever since the first day of December! If you follow me on Instagram (hannahripley1) you will see that I've posted a daily picture of the nail varnish which is behind each door, and it ranges from bright pinks to muted nudes, to bottles of caviar pearls, all the way to exclusive glitter shades. A nail varnish lovers dream!

 

 

Clynol Moisture Dream Conditioning Spray

Again, a present from my mum (she buys me great things!), but this one was a Christmas present last year and was unfortunately lost and forgotten about amongst the vast collection of hair products that I own and was sadly neglected. I came across this again when I was packing up for uni in September and it has been my go-to product while I'm away there ever since! It does basically what it says on the bottle and infuses a penetrative moisturising and nourishing solution into the hair in a handy 'spray-in' application to bring back a healthy bounce and shine. I apply this to wet hair and leave to dry naturally and I am left with soft, tangle free and frizz free locks.

 

 

L'Occitance Hand Cream

This was a freebie from Marie Claire magazine back in October and although I thought that the scent 'date bouquet' wouldn't be to my preference (it was the last one available), I actually really love it. The product is shea butter based and I already know that I will buy a bigger tube of this soon because it is not just 'one of the best', it is 'the best' hand cream that I have ever used. I can't get enough of it. It normally only needs to be applied once a day because it's just so intense and leaves not even a trace of residue on the skin after application. I know it's pricey, but it's worth every penny and I love it.

 

 

Weleda Wild Rose Smoothing Night Cream

A sample sized product that I received in a She Said Beauty Box and has not left my bedside table ever since! I put this on every night before I go to sleep; it absorbs quick and the faint scent of rose is very calming. The cream is quite thick but it is very nourishing and I am starting to notice an overall improvement to the quality of my skin and this will be one of the products to thank for that! When I wake up my skin is a lot fresher, less dull and looks smooth and hydrated so I would highly consider purchasing the full size of this product once my sample has run out.

 

 

Clinique 'All About Eyes' Eye Cream

 I received this small pot of eye cream as part of the Clinique Bonus Time offer back in October, and although it's only a 7ml pot a little goes a long way and this is going to last me forever! It's really thick and nourishing and I apply this both night and day to help reduce puffiness and dark circles and it is one of the best eye creams that I have ever used. It instantly hydrates my under eye area and calms any puffiness of the skin and helps to fade away the purple tinge of the dark circles. It absorbs into the skin pretty quickly which makes it easy to apply concealor to the area soon after.

 

 

Macadamia Natural Healing Oil Treatment 

Being only a tiny 10ml bottle I expected this to disappear pretty quick, but it's still going strong and I'm only about 1/4 of the way through the bottle after 5 weeks of regular use. This is a lovely hair oil to use, it's quite light so I have to use a generous amount of my thick and frizz-prone hair, but it doesn't weigh it down or leave any residue, it just makes it smooth, sleek and shiny. I use it in all sorts of ways; pre-washing as a treatment, when damp and leaving to air dry, before blow drying, and a finishing product to smooth the hair after styling and it always leaves my hair in amazing condition with minimal flyaways and high shine without the grease.

 

 

Blistex Lip Massage Balm

This is something that is totally unique to me and I've never seen anything like it, and to be honest I didn't mean to pick it up, I just wanted the cheapest lip balm that was in Asda and this was only £1.19. I've not had it for long but I really enjoy using it as an alternative to regular lip balm that you just apply onto your lips, this you instead rub over your lips and the ridges on the rubber applicator massage it into your lips for extra absorption instead of it just sitting on the surface of the skin. As with all Blistex products it is really nourishing and moisturising, I just especially like this because it's something a little bit different.

 

 

So, that's what little old me has been loving this December.

 

Busy few days coming up, as is expected with the festive season, and I have a night out with the girls planned for tonight and also for tomorrow night, and then I have an anniversary night away with the boyfriend booked for the night after that, and then before we know what's hit us, it's Christmas Eve!

 

I've got one more post that I'd like to slip in before Christmas but if I end up being too busy to squeeze it in then I'll take this chance to wish you all the happiest of Christmases and hope you all enjoy yourselves and spend time with your loved ones!

 

Merry Christmas!

♥ 



Beauty Essential #2: Blistex

Blistex Relief Cream 5g £2.25

 

Blistex and Vaseline are two lip products that have been in my life forever. Like, literally, forever. Since I've been old enough to get dry lips and apply lip balm I've been using Blistex and Vaseline. Naively, I used think that Vaseline was sent by the Gods and was the best lip balm in the world.. but have you ever noticed that the relief when using Vaseline is only temporary and your dry or chapped lips will normally return, often within the hour? Well, Vaseline is made up of petroleum jelly, a substance that will sit on the surface of the lip to provide the illusion of softer and smoother skin until it is worn away; it will not penetrate the lip and provide any internal benefits to help out your dry lips.

 

Blistex is different though. Formerly 'Blisteze' this used to sit on the top shelf of our bathroom cabinet, the one that as a little girl I couldn't reach, because this wasn't just any lip treatment; this was the ultimate lip treatment. The one you'd need if you had a cold sore creeping in or lips so dry and chapped that they would crack and bleed when you smiled.. all it took was a dab of 'Blisteze' and all your troubles would be gone. That might be a little bit of an exaggerated anecdote but that is how I remember this product from when I was a child!

 

Blistex is a cheap and cheerful but incredibly effective lip balm/treatment/relief cream that is widely available in Supermarkets, Superdrug, Boots, etc and is 'medicated relief for occasional cold sores, cracked, chapped and sore lips'. Luckily, I'm not one to suffer badly with dry lips or coldsores at all, although the weather's getting bitterly cold outside and it's taking it's toll on my skin just like everyone else's and a little bit of nourishment and moisturising never hurt anybody. There's a big long list of scientific ingredients listed on the front of this packaging and I won't pretend I'm an expert on them, but the two main ingredients: ammonia and phenol help to kill germs and relieve pain, and the cream aids with moisturising and soothing the skin. This isn't just your every day lip balm, this is a real heavy duty nourishing treat for dry lips (if you're not using it to treat coldsores), and for such an amazingly cheap price it really, really works for getting rid of any chapped or dry skin on the lips. A must-have item for every house hold!

 

See yesterday's post on Beauty Essential #1: Sudocrem here - link

♥