Ripe Shop Part V

Hi all! I'm so sorry that there wasn't a post yesterday. Rob and I spent the majority of Sunday trying to plan out our move and everything we need to do for it, it took us over 3 hours just to figure out flights. Then we spent the rest of the day doing laundry and trying to get him packed up for this week (he flew into Seattle yesterday morning), and I just ran out of time and energy to get a post up. I wanted to make sure I had a post for you guys today even if it was a little bit later than usual. I hope you'll enjoy!

Company: Ripe Shop

Flavors: Chocolate Orange, Chocolate Raspberry, Kiwi Passion Fruit, Boysenberry Jam, and Mandarin Rose. The Chocolate Orange smells incredible! It's rich chocolate combined with sweet orange, it reminds me of those chocolate balls my Dad would bring home. You know the kind that were shaped like oranges and you knocked them on something to have them fall apart? It smells just like that! The Chocolate Raspberry is also incredible. Instead of sweet orange, you've got ripe raspberry combined with rich chocolate; this one is Rob's favorite. The Kiwi Passion Fruit is definitely a flavor I've never tried before. It smells of sweet, ripe kiwis blended with the tropical and exotic scent of passion fruit. It's very light and sweet. The Boysenberry Jam smells just like you think it would, of sweet ripe berries. This one is definitely a balm that reminds me of summer, I mean come on, summer isn't summer without some delicious berries! The Mandarin Rose was one I was definitely surprised I liked, especially because I typically don't like anything floral. This one has the sweet citrus scent of mandarin combined with the scent of sweet rose. It's really wonderful!

Wear: These balms glide on super smooth and melt right into your lips. You really need to be careful though on your first uses of a tube, these balms are super delicate and if I push with the same force I do as my other balms, I usually end up with this balm in chunks on my lips and in my mouth (Unfortunately, these don't taste as good as they smell!). So be a little more gentle with these balms.

Packaging: These come in oval tubes with black and white labels. The flavor of the balm is stated right on front which makes it easy to distinguish each balm from one another. These labels are very clean, simple, and made a little elegant by the design that is now in the background of the label.

Price: $4 per tube, or 2 for $7, or 3 for $10.50 which is definitely a steal for one of these balms!

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

Rating: 5 out of 5 twists. I really love Ripe Shop balms and I'd definitely recommend that you try one (or more)!

Ingredients: Sweet Almond Oil, Coconut Oil, Beeswax, Avocado Oil, Cocoa & Shea Butters, Vitamin E, Flavor

Have you tried these Ripe Shop balms before? What did you think of them?

**Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the new MixStix from ChapStick!**

Balms of the Week 8.11.13

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you've been having a wonderful, relaxing weekend! Rob and I have a lot to do between today and next Sunday, so I'm definitely glad we didn't do too much yesterday. It's official, we are moving to Seattle for at least the next two months, so we need to work out a LOT of things because we JUST moved into this apartment (and they were going to move us to a second apartment next month so right now the leasing office doesn't know what to do for us, ugh). Rob leaves tomorrow morning and won't be back until late Friday night and then we're going to fly with the cats on Sunday to Seattle. So we've kinda got a short time frame in which to do everything we need to since Rob won't be here during the week. ANYWAY, just wanted to update you guys in case I'm a little M.I.A. in the near future. Here are the amazing balms I've been using this week!

Orange Thyme's Cherry Lemoande

Orange Thyme's Sugared Grapefruit

Ripe Shop's Sweet Mango Tea

Aqua Blossom's Mango Spice

What balms have you been using this week? Have you found a new favorite?

Happy Sunday!

**Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the new MixStix from ChapStick!**

Balms I've Got My Eye On 8.9.13

Happy Friday, everyone! Did I seriously finally get through a whole week without skipping a post? Hallelujah life is kind of getting back to a more manageable state, although in the next couple of weeks there will probably be some hiccups in my posts if we have to move. Also, in about a month I'm taking the MCAT so the week before then I may not have as many posts as usual, just a heads up! Anyway, I kind of want to treat myself for being as productive as I could be this week (if I wasn't studying for the MCAT, I was at the gym, eating, cleaning, or sleeping), so maybe some of these balms will be finding their way to me soon:

ForGoodnessGrape's Blueberry Pomegranate Lemonade

(via)

Orange Thyme's Vanilla Plum

(via)

Firebird Bath & Body's Honeysuckle Nectarine

(via)

What balms have you been admiring this week?

Have a wonderful Friday!

**Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the new MixStix from ChapStick!**

ForGoodnessGrape Part IX

It's been a little while since my last ForGoodnessGrape review, so I hope you guys are excited for today's post! I know my ForGoodnessGrape posts are pretty much always the longest posts because I always end up buying seven or more balms at a time. And yes, there are still flavors in Lisa's shop that I don't have that I have my eye on! (P.S. Have you guys seen how cute Lisa's new layout on her website is?)

Company: ForGoodnessGrape

Flavors: Raspberry Mojito, Orange Hibiscus, Lime Phosphate, Banana Marshmallow, Dirty Diva, Grapefruit Lime, White Chocolate Mint, Pineapple Key Lime, Pineapple Papaya, Island Orange and Vanilla Lemon Lip Melts. Alright, brace yourself for these! The Raspberry Mojito has such a bright, lovely scent that's full of ripe raspberry, tart lime, and a little bit of mint. It smells just like a mojito! The Orange Hibiscus is one of my absolute favorite balms ever. If you've never tried a balm with hibiscus, you're missing out! This balm has the sweet, citrusy scent of orange combined with a candy-like scent added from the hibiscus. This is a super sweet and fruity balm! The Lime Phosphate smells just like lime soda, it has a bright lime scent that almost tickles my nose like the bubbles you get when you drink a freshly poured pop. The Banana Marshmallow has a candy-like banana scent combined with the subtle scent of ooey-gooey marshmallow. I'm pretty sure I have almost every single banana balm Lisa makes. The Dirty Diva has the sweet scent of ripe strawberries combined with a more mellow orange scent. The Grapefruit Lime is another one of my absolute favorites from FGG! It has the refreshing citrus scent of grapefruit combined with the tart and slightly sour scent of fresh lime, if you like citrus balms, you need to try this balm! The White Chocolate Mint smells absolutely amazing! This balm has the rich scent of white chocolate combined with cool, tingly mint...seriously what else could you ask for? The Pineapple Key Lime is such a unique and wonderful scent. This balm has the tropical scent of pineapple combined with creamy key lime. The Pineapple Papaya is another wonderful tropical balm. This balm is like a tropical paradise in a tube, combining the scents of fresh pineapple and tropical papaya. The Island Orange smells of warm tropical coconut and sweet orange, yet another balm that reminds me of a tropical getaway (which I could SO use right now). The Lemon Vanilla Lip Melts has a wonderful creamy and lemony scent. You know I'm a sucker for anything lemon and this definitely didn't disappoint!

Wear: Everything goes on super smooth and they all make my lips feel nice and soft. The Lemon Vanilla Lip Melts has an amazing consistency. It's a whipped butter that is just heavenly! It's so light and fluffy and goes on my lips like a dream.

Packaging: Each tube of FGG balm has a bright and colorful label that has colors that coordinate with the flavor of the balm. It really helps distinguish my FGG balms from one another, when you have as many as I do, anything to help differentiate tubes helps! The Lip Melts comes in a cute little jar that has a very plain and simple label that reminds me of products you'd find in a spa or anywhere else you'd buy high end bath & body products.

Price: Balms $3.75 to $4.25 and Lip Melts are $8.50. The balms are totally within my price range and more than worth the price. I know the Lip Melts are more expensive, which is why it took me so long to finally get around to buying one, but you get 0.5oz of product (a normal lip balm tube has .15oz) so you're getting 3 times the product which makes $8.50 not seem so expensive! Also, Lisa has tons of sales pretty frequently which is super great, so you can definitely use that to your advantage if you think her prices are too high.

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

Rating: 5 out of 5 twists. I love all of the lip product lines that Lisa comes up with, if you couldn't tell by now, I think she makes some pretty amazing balms! Seriously, go try one or five, you won't regret it.

Ingredients: 
Balms-Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Mango Butter, Sweet Almond Oil, Beeswax, Jojoba Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, Vitamin E, Fragrance
Lip Melts-(all organic ingredients)butyrospermum parkii (Shea Butter) fruit, theobroma cacao (Cocoa) seed butter, helianthus annuus (Sunflower) seed oil, cucurbita pepo (Pumpkin) seed oil, olea europaea (Olive) Oil, rosa canina (Rosehip) fruit oil, ricinus communis (Castor) seed oil , oenothera biennis (Evening Primrose) oil, euphorbia cerifera (Candelilla) wax, tocopherol (natural Vitamin E), essential oils. 

Have you tried any of these balms before? What did you think of them? Which FGG balms are your favorites?

**Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the new MixStix from ChapStick!**

Haul of the Week 8.7.13

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful week so far! We've had even more stress put onto us this week because Rob's company wants him to move to Seattle for two months starting on Monday. This kinda just got dropped on us, so now we're trying to figure out what to do. Ugh! When will these extra stressors we don't need stop?! Anyway, I don't have a huge haul this week, but boy are these balms and perfume oils pretty amazing!

Firebird Bath & Body

I had to take advantage of the sale Firebird Bath & Body had going on last week, it's been too long since the last time I ordered from there! I've been really obsessed with perfume oils lately, I put them on all day at random times, but usually when I shouldn't (like right before I fall asleep).

Puur Body

There was a mix up with my lip balm subscription, Brandi thought it was a 6 month subscription and had stopped sending me them a few months ago. She quickly fixed it though and sent me a ton of balms to make up for it! They're so scrumptious!

There you have it! What have you received this week? Anything super yummy?

Have a wonderful day!

**Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the new MixStix from ChapStick!**

ChapStick MixStix + Giveaway

Hi all! I've been waiting for just the right time to write up this review and host the giveaway, but with all the stuff that's been happening the last few weeks, it kind of got pushed to the side. Now that I'm getting back into the swing of things, why don't we have a giveaway? Stay tuned for after the review! I feel so lucky to be part of the ChapStick® blogger program. ChapStick® was generous enough to send me three tubes of their new MixStix as well as three tubes to give to one lucky winner! Not only did they send me these tubes of MixStix, but they also sent me an iTunes gift card, an insulated tumbler, and some headphones! Thank you, ChapStick®  This lovely package has definitely made my summer much better! I can't wait to tell you all about these new products from ChapStick®!

Company: ChapStick®

Flavors: Green Apple Caramel, Lemon Berry Sorbet, and Strawberry Banana Smoothie. First, let me tell you about these super innovative lip balms; they're dual sided! That's right, you have a flavor on each side for you to wear solo or combined! Now that we've got that out of the way, the Green Apple Caramel smells exactly like an ooey-gooey, stick, sweet caramel apple when combined. The rich caramel scent combined with the candy sweet scent of green apple makes me wish it was fall so I could be eating some delicious caramel apples. The Lemon Berry Sorbet has one side made that smells of light, slightly sweet lemon and the other side smells of a wonderful combination of mixed berries. This is such a unique and lovely scent. The Strawberry Banana Smoothie has one side that smells of sweet, ripe banana and the other side has an amazing, ripe strawberry scent that is different from ChapStick®'s Strawberry balm.

Wear: These balms go on very smooth and cover my lips wonderfully. I love being able to wear one flavor alone or both combined. They're great worn both ways.

Packaging: These balms come in tubes that are slightly longer than your usual lip balm tube since there is a different scented balm in each side. These tubes are so awesome! I've never seen or had a balm that had two separate flavors on either side of the tube. The labels and caps are brightly colored and coordinate with the flavor of the balms.

Price: I think I saw these in stores for about $4 which I thought was pretty reasonable for these balms!

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

Rating: 5 out of 5 twists. These balms are pretty wonderful and I'd highly recommend trying at least one of them!

And now for the giveaway! It is open to U.S. residents only and will run for two weeks. The winning entry will be verified. Good luck, everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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The ChapStick® product, information and gift have been provided by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. Thank you, ChapStick®, for giving me this wonderful opportunity!