D & R Apothecary

Last winter, I saw that D & R Apothecary was closing down for a little while and they were having a huge sale on their lip balms. I purchased a couple and thought they were alright, but they kind of just got shoved in the back of my collection because I started purchasing lip balms like crazy. Well just recently, D & R Apothecary said they were getting rid of their bath and body line in order to pursue their continuously growing nail polish endeavor (now known as Hit Polish). This meant that all of their lip balms were $1 which is crazy cheap! I saw they had some flavors they didn't use to carry so I decided that now was the time to try them before they close up for good. There's still some time to stock up, if you're interested!

Company: D & R Apothecary 

Flavors: Lemon Drop, Cherry, Tropical Punch, Asian Pear, Blueberry, Strawberry Cheesecake, Pineapple Tangerine, Chocolate Orange, Fresh Peach, Cinnamon Roll, and Mango. Phew! That was a lot! Since it's such a long list of flavors, I'll bold the flavor I'm talking about so there's no confusion. The Lemon Drop is a perfect lemon lip balm. It's sweet, it's sour. It's classic lemon. Obviously I'd love it. The Cherry reminds me of cherry coke, it's cherry but with a little bit of spice? Does that make sense? It's not 100% cherry, it seems like there's something a little more in it. The Tropical Punch smells like a cardboard box, I'm not sure if it's because it's pushing 9 months old or what but mine does NOT smell like anything even remotely tropical. I don't remember it smelling totally awesome when I first got it either. The Asian Pear smells like a very crisp juicy pear but again with a little something extra in it. Not very much like an Asian Pear, more like an anjou pear. The Blueberry I was really looking forward to because I LOVE blueberries! The Blueberry smells a little like blueberries and I didn't know what to expect but for some reason, I just don't like it. It wasn't a sweet smelling blueberry, but I'm not entirely sure what's missing from it. The Strawberry Cheesecake smells just like the real thing! It's sweet strawberries with a little bit of creaminess from the cheesecake. It's very faint, but it's there. The Pineapple Tangerine smells like a perfect blend of tart pineapple and sweet, juicy tangerines. It's wonderful, but a little strong. The Chocolate Orange did not disappoint! It was an amazing combination of oranges and milk chocolate, exactly as expected! The Fresh Peach smells like ripe, juicy peaches. But like some of the balms there's a weird after scent when it is applied to your lips which kind of kills the scent of the balm. I did not know what to expect of the Cinnamon Roll since I don't usually buy balms that aren't fruity in any sense and it's pretty rare even for me to buy balms that are baked good/desert related. This balm was very, very cinnamon and brown sugary to me. I didn't really smell any of the sweet creaminess like you'd find in the icing and I don't know if it's a 100% perfect representation of a cinnamon roll, but it's not too bad. It's not really my cup of tea because I really only like fruity balms, but I thought I'd give this one a shot. The Mango one is probably the closest and best smelling mango balm I've ever come across! It smells just like mango jelly bellies which are my FAVORITE. Love!

Wear: It's strange, some of these balms go on SO crazy smooth and slick and some others go on okay but need a bit of coaxing. Also, some go on pretty well but some also go on a bit thin and I find myself going round and round my mouth. But hey, these balms are $1 so I can't really complain! They're all pretty smooth and most definitely not the stiffest balms in my collection. Some of them also have a strange scent after being applied that kinda kills the scent of the balm, but it only occurs with a few of them.

Packaging: These balms come in your average sized lip balm tube which is clear. The labels on the tubes are white with colored bands at the top and bottom which correspond with the identified flavor of the balm. The color bands are connected by a colored stripe that has the balms flavor on it. It's kind of annoying with some of the tubes that when you go to pull the cap off, the label slides off instead. The labels are just taped on and then the plastic shrink wrap is placed on top, so sometimes the shrink wrap isn't tight enough so the whole thing comes off. Otherwise, the balms have shrink wraps with T-bands so you can just rip off the cap portion and keep the bottom portion protecting the label from wear and tear. 

Price: I don't remember the original pricing of these balms I think they were around $2-$2.50, but they're just $1 now! 

Overall:

Pros: Tons of varieties of flavors, price, smooth application

Cons: Labels slipping off the tube

Rating: 3 out of 5 twists; these balms were pretty good, but they weren't anything really, truly spectacular (aside from the Mango and Lemon Drop...love!). They're definitely worth checking out, especially for this low, low, low price of $1.00. 

Ingredients: beeswax, coconut oil, sunflower oil, lanolin, glycerin, vitamin e, sweet almond oil, aloe extract, essential oil.

Have you tried D & R Apothecary's lip balms before? What did you think of them?