Orange Thyme

I apologize in advance if this entry is much longer than my usual ones. My love ended up ordering me 7 balms and then I bought 3 and then with each purchase there was 1 freebie so this review will be on 12 flavors of amazing lip balm. As I've been saying for a couple of weeks now, I'm obsessed with Etsy.com and especially now homemade/handmade lip balms. Handmade lip balms are so much better quality (from what I've experienced so far) than anything you can buy in stores, plus they come in a crazy amount of flavors that you wouldn't find anywhere else. Be prepared for tons of words and tons of pictures.

Look how cute they arrived, it was hard to
take pictures when all I wanted to do was
open those cute little bundles of lip balm.

Some of the balms listed in the review are missing because
 one was not sent with the others but I did receive it
 just two days later and with a freebie included.

Company: Orange Thyme

Flavors: Brace yourself. Toasted Coconut, Blueberry Lemon, Pomegranate Lemon, Lemon Creme (told you, I'm obsessed with Lemon right now!), Coconut Mango, Key Lime Pie, Lychee & Red Pear, Rhubarb Strawberry, Passion Fruit, Blood Orange (I'm kinda obsessed with this right now too) and the two freebies: Earl Grey Tea and Frozen Banana.

The Toasted Coconut came with a little tip on
top, still usable and still wonderful <3.

Toasted Coconut-It smells absolutely delicious, very light coconut but a lot toasty. Kind of reminds me of popcorn sometimes. I love this smell. It's absolutely delightful.
Blueberry Lemon-My first ever blueberry lip balm and I love it. It smells just like blueberry lemonade or a blueberry lemonade martini (the reason behind why I wanted to try this is because I had one a few weeks ago and LOVED it, yum!). It's not too much blueberry or too much lemon, a nice harmony between the two. Love.
Pomegranate Lemon-I was expecting a very bitter pomegranate like the few other pomegranate balms I have but I thought the lemon would be a nice complement to it. Boy, was I right! It smells like candy and summer time, very sweet and uplifting. It makes me instantly happy whenever I smell it.

The Lemon Creme came a little disfigured, but
I love it nonetheless =).

Lemon Creme-Very light lemony scent, but can definitely sense a light hint of vanilla or something to give it that creamy aroma. It's light and refreshing. Another fave!
Coconut Mango-I was really excited for a tropical balm, I LOVE mango and am always trying to find a perfect mango balm. I feel that the mango was overpowered in this balm by the coconut. There's a strong scent similar to the one found in the toasted coconut. It is a very decadent balm that's for sure. Occasionally I catch a light whiff of sweet mango which is very pleasant!
Key Lime Pie-I LOVE key lime pie and am always feeling a little daring when I come across one because I always want to buy it, hoping that it will be like my favorite dessert. I always find that the balms are too limey though and not enough creaminess that I find when I dig into a slice of Key Lime Pie. This balm was also very limey =(. Not as limey as the others but still more lime than I was hoping for. Still a delightful balm.
Lychee & Red Pear-I was really excited for this one, I LOVE lychee and never come across it anywhere, especially not in a balm. I didn't know what to expect since Lychee has such a light scent to it. This balm has a sweet, light, perfume-like scent to it. Not quite sure if it really captures lychee essence or not. I think I'm smelling more red pear in it. Either way it is a very light, delicate balm that I'll be wearing on the days I'm feeling a bit more girlish.
Rhubarb Strawberry-I did not know what to expect from this. My boyfriend really wanted me to get it because it was different and he said he liked Rhubarb Strawberry Pie. I didn't even know what Rhubarb was until I googled it, then I REALLY didn't know what to expect. This balm has a sweet, tart smell to it. I can definitely tell there's some strawberry in there and a hint of something extra (which I'm assuming is the rhubarb, but then again I've never had it before). It's wonderful! I was pleasantly surprised.
Passion Fruit-Companies always are a hit or miss with passion fruit I feel like. Sometimes I really love it, sometimes I really wish I hadn't purchased it. This one is somewhere in the middle. It is definitely a delicate, very fruity scent. It's a crisp scent. Very pleasant.

This was the balm that wasn't included with the rest initially,
blood orange, and the frozen banana was the freebie included.
The seller is so amazing with communication and sent it out
right away.

Blood Orange-Compared to the other blood orange I purchased from Firebird Bath & Body (found in my previous review), this one is much more typical orange than the characteristic scent of blood orange. Regardless it is a strong, citrus-y scent and I adore it! If you love citrus, you will love this! Very sweet!
Earl Grey Tea-Although I am a tea fanatic, I've never had Earl Grey Tea. I don't know why but I just never have. My boyfriend says he loves it so he's really happy I got it as a freebie (I'm assuming it may get stolen from my collection, so I'm on guard). But it smells just like a cup of tea, I was surprised that I loved the scent. It's light but definitely there. I'm not curious as to how the tea is because of how good this balm smells.
Frozen Banana-Smells fabulous! Dead on for banana, not too over powering and not too light. It's just right, I love it! In mine it smells like there is a light undertone of nuts, reminds me a little of a banana split sundae. Fabulous.

Wear: I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW AWESOME IT GOES ON! It is THE smoothest balm by far I've ever put on. A great amount of product goes on with just ONE swipe, it may even be too much! I love, love, love the way this feels when I put it on. It feels so smooth and moisturizing. I feel like my lips are really nourished when I put it on. My lips look great after I put on the balm. The balms last about 2 hours each, longer if I could just stop drinking water in between! But I love putting it on so much that I secretly hope it wears off, just so I can put it on again. Yes, it is THAT good.

Packaging Very cute labels! The labels on the tubes are color coded to the flavors, each label is different in color. The flavor is ascribed on the label in a font that looks like it was hand written. It's very unique and delightful to look at. It is your average size tube of lip balm. Wonderful.

Price: $3.25 plus shipping. It is totally worth it for this natural, handmade balm. It is such a high quality product; I'm so happy I purchased!

Overall:
Pros:FLAVORS, SCENTS, PACKAGING, PRICE, WEAR!
Cons:Absolutely nothing

Rating: 5 out of 5, you should definitely think about investing in at least a couple of these just to try out the plethora of flavors she carries.

Maybelline Baby Lips

Thank you Emily for requesting this review! As per request I'll be reviewing Maybelline's Baby Lips. I love Maybelline products and I love lip balm and occasionally some lip tint so I figured why not buy some of these to encompass three things that I love? It's a little harder to categorize these balms the usual way I categorize them (i.e. flavors, wear, etc) because of the color component but I'll try my best!

Company: Maybelline

Flavors: Pink Punch, Peach Kiss, and Cherry Me. My favorite out of the three is Cherry Me, it smells just like a cherry sweet tart, those candies I ate when I was a child. It smells like a sweet candy and provides a light shade of red. The next would be Peach Kiss, it smells like a subtle hint of peach, but more like the really fake kind of peach and is a light peachy, sheer color. It's like a shimmery nude color. It adds a faint color on lips. The Pink Punch doesn't have too much of a scent at all, it's very very light. The color is supposed to be I'm assuming a brighter pink, surely more so than the Peach Kiss but to me it's just a light pink.

This is to demonstrate what the colors look like on my skin.
From  left  to right: Cherry Me, Peach Kiss, and Pink Punch.
These were done with two applications of the balms on my skin.

Wear They all go on very smooth so there isn't really any hassle with the application. For the Cherry flavor, the red color is somewhat buildable, you can create more red color just by applying more. I like it because it's not too outstanding of a red that I could wear on a regular basis. The peach is just a sheer color on the lips, it gives a subtle hint of nude/peach color but nothing tremendous. It gives a somewhat gold shimmer. I wear it just to give my lips a little something extra for more casual days. The Fruit Punch hardly shows up for me, it may be because I've got a darker complexion so a light pink won't show up but I didn't find any difference upon wearing this one. The fruit punch was more of an impulse buy than the other two. I believe they advertise 8 hours of protection but I don't really remember any of them lasting a substantial amount of time, perhaps an hour or so. Also, they aren't as shiny as shown in the picture. Lighting effects and the way colors show up on different computer screens affect the way the colors appear, this is just to give you somewhat of an idea as to what to expect.

Packaging: The packaging is cute, seems very child-like to me though. It's about the size of a tube of Nivea lip balm and has bases that are different colors for each flavor. Each tube has a clear cap that covers the whole tube with the words "Baby Lips" all over it. I'm not too impressed by the packaging but it does stand out in my lip color drawer. I'm not sure what audience they were trying to target.

Price: About $3 if you buy it at Walmart. Not a terrible price at all for a lip color/lip balm. It's much cheaper than a lip stick and about the same price as other lip balm that doubles as lip color.

Overall:
Pros: Price, application, variety of colors, packaging
Cons: Little difference using lip color

Rating: 3.5 out of 5. It's worth a shot if you've been curious about it, I'm sure the darker shades will show up the best out of all the flavors and if you have a lighter complexion I'm sure you'll have better results with the lighter shades. I'm also hoping to try Peppermint and Quenched which are more just balms than lip color.

Reviews to look forward to this week

I thought I'd give you all a sneak peak to what's coming up within the next week:

orangethyme

Maybelline Baby Lips

Possibly a few others if they arrive in the mail this week and if I have time to write up some reviews on other balms I've got hangin' out in my collection.

Let me know if there are any brands you would like me to review!

--The Chapstick Wrangler

Hugo Naturals

As you've probably read before in some of my posts, I have a good friend who often surprises me with lip balm on random occasions. About a month and a half ago she kept telling me she picked up some lip balms she wanted me to try. Today, I'll review one of the brands from that day. I also went out and purchased the other flavors to give a comparison on flavor and wear.

I know it's so surprising for me to post during the week versus at the end of the week, but I figured I've got an influx of new lip balms coming my way so I better start reviewing!

Company: Hugo Naturals

Flavors: Grapefruit, Vanilla and Sweet Orange, and Pineapple & Coconut. The flavor my friend picked up for me was grapefruit. It has a very, very, very subtle scent which is not surprising since grapefruits are such delicate fruits. It's not a plain balm but definitely not a strong scented balm. The Pineapple & Coconut balm didn't have a scent at all like Pineapple or Coconut, I was really disappointed in this. I love Pineapple and Coconut and was really hoping that this balm would be awesome. The best flavor out of these three was definitely Vanilla and Sweet Orange, you can definitely tell there's a scent of orange in there and a light hint of vanilla. Neither scent is over bearing or stronger than the other, it was a perfect blend.

Wear: Each balm had a different consistency and application which I was also disappointed in and confused about because I figured the balms would all go on in the same manner. The grapefruit one was stiff at first and then went on with only minimal difficulty, it softened up just a little during application. This balm however lasted OVER THREE HOURS, it even lasted through a shower! I was AMAZED. That is the longest I've ever had a balm last before, which is why I had to absolutely purchase the other flavors. Unfortunately, the pineapple & coconut continued to disappoint me. It was absolutely the stiffest balm I've ever tried to use. The balm never softened up and it just felt like I was trying to force a balm on lips, my lips were dragging with it! It felt uncomfortable on my lips and I just had to rub it off. I don't know what was wrong with this particular balm I picked up but it was just dreadful, other tubes may be better I don't know if I just had bad luck with this one or not. The Vanilla and Sweet Orange went on so smooth! It was just a little stiff in the beginning and very quickly softened up. It went on great and lasted very close to 3 hours, my unfortunate habit of eating constantly tends to interrupt how long a balm lasts. I'm really confused as to why three different flavors of balm made by the same company could all be so different when it comes to application and consistency, I had hoped that each product would maintain at least some sort of consistency.

Packaging: I love the packaging on these balms! They look so sophisticated, they're your average size tube of balm but clear with a brown label with a colored band that matches the flavor. You definitely get a natural feel from this balm. I really enjoy the packaging.

Price: About $3.39. A pretty good price, I wished there had been more consistency in the quality of the product however.

Overall:
Pros: Packaging, price, variety of flavors, natural, lasts FOREVER
Cons: Lack of consistency, one balm was awful in comparison to the rest

Rating: 3.5 out of 5, if I was rating just the Vanilla and Sweet Orange I'd say 4.25 out of 5. If you were to go out and buy this balm I'd most definitely recommend the Vanilla and Sweet Orange flavor.

Long Winter Farm Soap Co.

The other packages I received this week, in addition to my Firebird Bath & Body package I mentioned in my previous post, were from another company I found on Etsy.com. I had actually found a picture of their balms on Pinterest.com and what quickly caught my interest was the flavor of the lip balm, "Unicorn Farts". I thought, how unusual! And how cool! I have a secret, well it's not a secret to those who know me personally, but yes a secret...I love Unicorns. I don't know why but I've always just loved Unicorns! So I figured I had to look into other balms this company made, in addition to purchasing "Unicorn Farts" which to me seemed like a perfect combination of two things I'm obsessed with (definitely more obsessed with lip balm though.)

Company: Long Winter Soap Co.

Flavors: Vanilla Pear, Chocolate Orange, Unicorn Farts, Yetti Breath, and Neon Narwhal. It should be known when buying this lip balm that each balm has an underlying scent of cocoa because of the cocoa butter used in the balm. The maker states that but boy did I underestimate it! It is really pleasant but kind of overpowers most of the scents of the balms, but I still find myself applying it over and over because it's just so wonderful. The Vanilla Pear definitely has hints of vanilla and a clear scent of pear that can be detected over the cocoa scent. It's a really great and unique scent, pear is such an underrated flavor of lip balm. The Chocolate Orange hits the scent dead on. The cocoa scent just brings out the chocolate scent in the balm and there is that characteristic scent of a sweet orange. It's absolutely delicious and perfect in every way. Unicorn Farts is intended to smell like cotton candy and spearmint and if you're patient you can smell the cotton candy over the cocoa. You can definitely tell there is something minty in the balm and something sugary like the long time carnival treat. This is definitely a combination I've never encountered before, it's unique and surprising. Yetti Breath is supposed to be a combination of lemon and coconut, two scents that I love more than any other so I was really excited to receive this balm. But the scent of cocoa really overpowered this balm and I haven't quite noticed a lemony or coconutty scent. When I first opened the tube I smelled a slight scent of coconut but since then I haven't noticed it. I'm hoping as I work down the tube it will be more noticeable (which at the rate I'm going may be within the next week!). Neon Narwhal is intended to smell like berries and coconut; I was expecting a very unique scent since I've never come across berries mixed with coconut in a balm. I can only smell a slight scent of berries over the cocoa. Nevertheless, I adore the cocoa scent. I don't usually like chocolate or cocoa or anything like that but I really do enjoy this balm.

Wear: It goes on incredibly smooth! And I feel like the cocoa base makes my lips feel all warm and soothed. I feel like it just melts into my lips. I love the way it feels going on. It lasts about an hour or so which is great.

Packaging: It's the same weight as your average lip balm, but in an oval tube! I love these oval tubes. To me they appear smaller than the usual tubes even though they're the same weight. I love the idea that I'm putting on a little, mini lip balm. Each one has a unique label, that gives you a sense that there's a touch of handmade. The balms are also filled over the usual spot that you'd expect the balm to stop so that's different and if you're like me and get annoyed when the cap scrapes the balm then you'll just have to be careful when taking on and off the cap till you've used it. Also when the balm arrives it's in a plastic shrink wrap that seems like you only need to pull off the part on the cap but then when analyzing the bottom near the wheel you use to twist the balm up, you see that the plastic covers that part as well. That being said it appears that the entire wrapping needs to come off but without it the label looks like it will wear down very fast. For this reason, I've kept some of the wrapping on three of the tubes and took the plastic off on the other two tubes. I like the way the plastic looks on the label.

Price: $3.50 plus shipping. Classic price for a handmade, natural balm.

Overall:
Pros: Oval tube, price, application, long lasting, variety of flavors, uniqueness of flavors, natural
Cons: Label without plastic feels like it'll fade, cocoa in some balms is a little overwhelming,

Rating: 4 out of 5 twists, I would definitely purchase again. I've never felt a balm go on to my lips like this one does, it truly feels like it's melting into my lips.

Firebird Bath & Body: Blood Orange, Asian Pear, Lemon Sugar

As I've been telling you all, I've been addicted to going on Etsy.com and looking at all different kinds of handmade balms. It was very hard to limit my purchasing to just a few brands because I can tell you right now, I've got about 30 items in my cart that I'm dying to purchase. My boyfriend even went beyond his promised 11 balms to 13! Apparently there was a glitch in our text messages and he was really going to buy me only 5 so I was happy with 11 but he surprised me by letting me get two more, I'm such a lucky girl =). Anyhow, this particular brand I've been wanting to try for months now and finally got around to purchasing a few balms during a pre-order sale. My only regret was not ordering more!

Company: Firebird Bath & Body, formerly Flourish Bath & Body

Flavors: Blood Orange, Asian Pear, Lemon Sugar. I've been very addicted to lemon lip balms lately, just can't get enough of them! This Lemon Sugar balm however was a very subtle lemon scent. I was expecting my usual smack-in-the-face lemon scent. But it was still very pleasant. I was also looking forward to the Asian Pear flavor since I've previously mentioned my bad luck with the only other Asian pear flavor I own. This scent was also very light, at first I couldn't smell it at all. But once I used it two or three times I was able to detect a light, pleasant scent of a crisp Asian pear. Now the Blood Orange was a HUGE surprise for me. Even when purchasing it, I thought that the scent would be very light but boy was I wrong! The scent is definitely there and very characteristic of a blood orange. It is stronger than the other two and so sweet. I absolutely LOVE This flavor. I cannot stop putting it on! I always hope it will wear off so I can put more on but as you'll soon see, I have to wait a while!

Wear: These balms are in no way the smoothest balms I own. They are a little stiff when first being applied and don't appear to warm up a crazy amount. But in this case, I don't really see that as a problem. It goes on with great application without needing to be crazy slick and provides excellent coverage, just a few swipes and you're done. It goes on thicker than other balms and seems just slightly sticky at first but goes away. I actually love the way this balm applies which is what I was also really surprised about because I usually love really soft balms. This balm feels great going on, the thicker consistency feels moisturizing and it lasts FOREVER, at least 2.5 hours! I love these balms!

Packaging: I really love these labels, they are so cute and colorful and match their indicated flavor. They're gorgeous in color, very bright and make me just smile when I see it. The fonts are gorgeous as well, not your usual fonts that you see on a label. These balms look very classy and sophisticated while still maintaining a handmade touch to them. You can really by the look of these balms that someone cared to put enough effort into the product as well as the presentation of the product.

Price: $3.50 plus shipping. Great price for a natural, handmade balm.

Overall:
Pros:Flavors, application, crazy long lasting, natural, packaging, price
Cons: The only con I see is that I don't have more of these balms, does that count?

Rating: 5 out of 5 twists, this is also a MUST have in any lip balm collection.

Dr. Bronner's: Peppermint and Lemon Lime

While doing an errand in nearby Indiana a month ago or so, my boyfriend and I stopped at a Target to do our usual "hunt for items that fulfill our obsessions" which of course meant I got to look for new balms. I picked up a balm that I'd never heard of before and when I first applied it I couldn't help but exlaim, "WOW! It's so smooth!" This of course made me want to find another one of these balms and, as mentioned in one of my previous entries, I picked up some balms at a Whole Foods near by which included another flavor by this company!

Company: Dr. Bronner's Magic "All-One!"

Flavors: The first one I picked up was Peppermint and the second one I picked up was Lemon Lime. The Peppermint has that characteristic minty smell of any peppermint balm but it is a lighter smell, very pleasant. It didn't knock me on my butt with an overload of peppermint which was great. The Lemon Lime doesn't really have a very lemon limey smell to it and actually doesn't have too much of a smell at all which I don't think I really mind. There's something there but it's very light. I like the flavors of both of these balms. They also carry two other balms: Naked (a plain balm) and Orange Ginger.

Wear: As I've previously stated, these balms went on SO SMOOTH. Right from the start it was just perfection. Probably one of the smoothest applications I've ever had. They also last about 1.5-2 hours at a minimum (I realize I always end up eating or drinking sometime after applying the balm which is why each duration of an application of balm is a little different).

Packaging: They're your average sized lip balm tube color coded to the flavor from head to toe. The Peppermint is all Blue and the Lemon Lime is all Green. Easy enough to identify and keep track of. It's a pretty low-key lip balm tube design wise, but has all of the information about the balm straightforward on the front of the tube. Simple. Easy.

Price: Around $3, perfect price! Did I also mention it's a USDA Organic balm? Great price for this product.

Overall:
Pros: Flavors, application, long lasting, packaging, price
Cons:Nothing, it's a great balm! Perhaps more flavors, but I don't think they really need to do that (I just love having tons of different flavors on hand).

Rating: 5 out of 5 twists, definitely pick this up and try it!