Tom Jack's

So I've been trying to branch out to new and different lip balm companies, this is one of the first ones that caught my eye. I've had them for a while now and I'm so excited to tell you about them!

Company: Tom Jack's

Flavors: Citrus, Cocoa Mint, and Birch Beer. The Citrus smells like a bright combination of lemon and lime in my opinion. I thought it would be more like orange, but I actually like this combination of scents! It has a sweet, slightly sour scent and it's just wonderful! The first scent I get when I smell the Cocoa Mint is cool, tingly peppermint; it's so refreshing! Then there's a lovely scent of milk chocolate. It's a pretty refreshing take on a mint chocolate balm since the mint is the first thing I smell. I've never tried a Birch Beer balm before (or birch beer for that matter), but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It reminds me of when I was in band and the lubricant we used on some of our instruments (I played clarinet). I actually liked the scent of that so this is wonderful! Rob thinks this smells like winter/spearmint. I can't say if this smells like real birch beer or not, but this does smell good!

Wear: The Citrus and Cocoa Mint come in tins and I feel like I have to dip into the tin multiple times to get enough product onto my lips, so the consistency may be a little thin out of the tin. The Birch Beer came in a tube and it goes on smooth and even, the consistency is a little thin, but I don't feel like I need to put more on.

Packaging: Like I said, two of these come in tins and one came in a tube. The design is kind of upscale, but rustic at the same time...if that makes sense. I like that it looks like something you'd find in an apothecary of sorts.

Price: The tins are $3.50 and the tubes are $2.25, both prices are definitely reasonable!

Overall
Pros: Flavors, Wear, Packaging, Price
Cons:

Rating: 4 out of 5 twists. These balms were pretty good! I keep one tin in my makeup bag at all times to wear under lipstick. I was glad I was able to try balms from a shop I've never tried before!

Ingredients:
Cocoa Mint-Cocoa Butter, Beeswax, Coconut Oil, Chocolate, Essential Oil
Citrus and Birch Beer-Beeswax, Almond Oil, Coconut Oil, Essential Oil

Have you tried Tom Jack's balms before? What did you think of them?

ChapStick: Spring 2014 Flavors!

Hi everyone! Who's ready for a real review? I'm sorry I've been slacking yet again this week. I've been meaning to blog each day, but Rob's working on a super awesome game right now and he's pretty much had the computer all day, every day. My computer is still out of commission, so right now we're just sharing the one. Anyway...ChapStick® sent me these balms about two weeks ago and I've been dying to tell you about them! I've been using them on a daily basis!

Company: ChapStick®

Flavors: Citrus Jelly Bean and Pomegranate Gumdrop. The Citrus Jelly Bean smells of bright, sweet oranges. It most definitely reminds me of an orange jelly bean! If you're a citrus fan, this is one I'd definitely recommend. The Pomegranate Gumdrop smells of tart, yet sweet pomegranate candy. I really do feel like I'm taking a whiff of a chewy, gumdrop candy. I don't know how they do it, but each scent smells exactly like you think it would! Even down to what the consistency of the candy would smell like, do you know what I mean?

Wear: These go on nice and smooth, like your usual ChapStick® balms. They have a pretty great consistency, just enough goes on that you don't feel like your mouth is slathered in product, but at the same time doesn't leave you with the need to put more on (unless you want to of course!). They hold up pretty well through eating and drinking, I usually can get a good 1-2 hours out of one application.

Packaging: These come in your average sized lip balm tubes with labels that are colored to match the flavor of the balm (pink for Pomegranate Gumdrop and orange for Citrus Jelly Bean).

Price: These range in price depending on where you pick your's up at, anywhere between $0.99 and $2.18 which is a steal either way!

Overall
Pros: Flavors, Wear, Packaging, Price
Cons:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 twists, these balms are absolutely wonderful! I've always been a ChapStick® fan and I probably always will be. I always get super excited to find new flavors from an old favorite, and these ones definitely didn't disappoint!

Have you tried these new flavors from ChapStick yet? What did you think of them?
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The ChapStick® product and information have been provided by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. These samples were provided complimentary to me by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, however, all opinions are strictly my own. Thank you ChapStick® and Pfizer Consumer Healthcare for the opportunity!

Balms of the Week 3.2.14

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you've all been having a lovely week! I'm so sorry for being so MIA the last two weeks, work has been super hectic so I've had to stay overtime almost every day. After working 10-12 hours a day, I'm usually too tired to do much of anything after work other than eat dinner and go to sleep. Some days I'm too tired to even make my lunch for the next day! Don't worry though, I'm not letting this blog die! Anyway, I want to share with you guys the balms I've been using lately!

Epically Epic's Orange Mango

Softlips' Mint

Tom Jack's Citrus

Tom Jack's Cocoa Mint

Tom Jack's Birch Beer

What balms have you been using this week? Anything new you'd recommend?

Have a wonderful day!

[My] Eco Lips

Hi everyone! I've finally got a lip balm review for you guys! I know it's been a while, but I have had barely any new lip balms to tell you guys about or review. I'm trying to listen to what you guys were asking for, like reviews on new shops and not the same ones so I'm trying to space out reviews on new shops and reviews on old favorites. Anyway, I've had this balm on me since about October/November, so I figured it was about time that I shared it with you guys!

Company: Eco Lips

Flavor: Since this was a [My] Eco Lips concoction, I was able to pick everything that went into the formula as well as the flavor, flavor strength, and whether it was sweetened or unsweetened. I chose Mango Lime as my flavor. It is definitely heavy on the lime! I love it! It has a slight undertone of tropical mango, but not much. When you give this balm a whiff you can definitely tell it's a combination of something with lime. I think the next time I make a [My] Eco Lips concoction I will make it just mango to see how that is!

Wear: This goes on so creamy, yet firm and also slightly glossy. My lips definitely feel hydrated and protected when I wear this. I honestly can't think of a balm this reminds me of, consistency wise.

Packaging: I was also able to customize the packaging, since they offer this to so many people, obviously the customization will be limited in some regards. For example, the label designs are very simple, nothing flashy you'd see on a mass produced lip balm or handmade lip balm since each tube (unless more are ordered of one flavor) is made to order. That being said, I was still able to pick the tube color, cap color, label color, text color, and the text for the tube. Pretty customizable!

Price: One custom balm will cost $6.99 which isn't too bad for a totally custom balm, the more you order of your one balm the lower the cost is. For example, 2-5 balms will cost you $5.99 each, 6-10 tubes is $4.99 per tube, 11-20 tubes is $3.99 per tube, 21+ tubes makes each tube $2.99. These would be great for an event or as party favors! I should note that these are the prices if you don't add any super premium extra ingredients to your balm.

Overall
Pros: Flavor, Wear, Packaging, Price
Cons:

Rating: 5 out of 5 twists. I've definitely never tried making my own lip balms, but this was certainly close! I was really excited to choose everything in my balm and had such a good experience doing it! The process is super simple and straightforward. I'd definitely recommend trying out [My] Eco Lips for yourself!

Ingredients: Here is the link to my exact [My] Eco Lips balm, you can see the ingredients as well as order a tube of it yourself if you'd like to give it a try!

Have you tried making your own balms with [My] Eco Lips before? How did your's turn out?

Birchbox: January 2014

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you're all having a lovely (long) weekend! Rob just bought a new MacBook Pro so hopefully I'll be able to get more posts up for you from a reliable computer! (If we're not fighting over who gets to use it next haha). Anyway, I've had my January Birchbox for just about forever and wanted to really use the products enough to give you my opinion on them.

Products in this month's Birchbox: Whish Three Whishes Body Butter in Pomegranate, Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk, 100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Mascara in Black Tea, Paula's Choice RESIST C15 Super Booster, and Ahmad Teas Assorted Teas.

Whish Three Whishes Body Butter in Pomegranate: I really love these little lotion samples I keep getting in my boxes. They're a great size for my purse. This one has a sweet, fruity scent and makes my hands feel wonderful! The body butter really sinks into my hands and really moisturizes my fingers. A full size bottle of this costs $24 which is a bit out of my price range for a body butter/lotion.

Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk: This stuff is super easy to use and doesn't have too much of a chemical smell. I feel like it soaks up some oil from my second day hair, but I usually don't think it's enough to leave my hair down so I often just tie up my hair after. It still works pretty well, but I don't really need a dry shampoo in my lineup of products at this time. This is a product I may toss into my gym bag or travel bag. A full size of this costs $19.50, I'm not sure what competitor's prices of similar products are for this since I don't use dry shampoos so I don't really know if that's a good price or not.

100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Mascara in Black Tea: I really like using this stuff! It gives my lashes length that looks natural and it's super lightweight. This is definitely an every day mascara for me, I'd use something bolder like Benefit's They're Real! for a night out. I really love the way it makes my lashes look and the brush works really well. I also like that it's pigmented with natural stuff, this one is pigmented with Black Tea. This product is all natural and organic! A full size of this is $18 and I definitely plan on buying a tube of this once I run out of my current stash of mascara.

Paula's Choice RESIST C15 Super Booster: I had never used a product like this before, totally unchartered territory for me. I wanted to make sure I used this for a few weeks before I gave my verdict. I've been using it 1-2 times a day every day and I don't know if I see much of a difference because I don't have fine lines and I didn't notice a huge change in my acne marks. I still continue to use it though, I like the way it makes my skin feels! This isn't supposed to have a scent, and for the first few uses it didn't, but then I started to notice a tiny scent that kind of made me feel nauseas. I try to avoid putting it anywhere near my nose now because it just didn't sit well with me. All in all, I am considering purchasing a full size of this product although it's definitely something out of my price range. A full size of this is $45. But, I think it would last me a while.

Ahmad Assorted Teas: These teas came at a super perfect time, I've been drinking tea 2-4 times a day. So much so that we went out and bought a few more mugs because I was going through them so quickly. These have super wonderful scents which made me really excited to taste them, after they cooled down of course. The flavors of the tea were a little bit of a let down after smelling the amazing aroma coming off of them, I thought the teas would be more flavorful, but alas they are still just tea so the flavor isn't super strong. These teas were pretty good, but I currently have a cabinet full of tea so I won't be purchasing these (at least not until I run out of my supply, then maybe I'll consider purchasing them).

Overall this box was pretty good, I wasn't as excited about it as previous boxes, but I did use all of them and plan on purchasing some of them in the future. I don't know if this one was worth the $10 I paid for it, but not all boxes are going to be winners!

Are you a Birchbox subscriber? What did you think of your January box? If you're not a subscriber, but would like to be, please use my referral link here.

Balms of the Week 2.15.14

Happy belated Valentine's Day everyone! I'm SO sorry for my absence this week. I started my new job on Monday and I've been crazy busy and trying to adjust to my work schedule. I haven't been able to do anything fun this week except go to Target one night because Rob broke his belt. Yes...the highlight of my week was going to Target for 30 minutes. Anyway, I think I've just about figured out my work schedule and how to fit in other things besides coming home eating and then getting ready for bed. I'm going to try to start making most of the week's posts on the weekends so that I don't have to work on them too much during the week when my time is limited. Anyway, woohoo on my first big girl job, boo on neglecting you guys and this blog. I know I usually post this on Sunday's, but I figured I'd do it now since I've got a little bit of time before I finally get to a yoga class this week! Here are the balms I've been using this week:

ForGoodnessGrape's Pomegrante Orange

Ecolips' Roseberry

Epically Epic's Orange Mango

Kiehl's Mango

What balms have you been using this week? How has your week been going?

Have a wonderful Saturday!