The Bees! OMG, The Bees! – Burt’s Bees Lip Gloss in #233 Rosy Dawn and Tinted Lip Balm in Hibiscus

Greetings from the scene of an accidental beehive disturbance, fellow rogues!

You know, when you spend a lot of your time in forsaken crypts and forgotten ruins, fending off eldritch horros from beyond time and space (and gelatinous cubes), you can forget the simple, everyday dangers. Like bees. And dry lips.

Susie the Bard managed to trip over a beehive the other day, and all of my worries about chapped lips from rooftop chases were temporarily superseded by the desire to run very fast in the opposite direction. As we were escaping from the buzzing mob, I did manage to snag some loot from an unexpected hoard: Burt’s Bees Lip Gloss in Rosy Dawn, and a Tinted Lip Balm in Hibiscus.

 

Burt’s Bees Lip Gloss in Rosy Dawn, being assessed as fortification material by some skeletal necromancers. They’re very MacGyver-y like that.

 

Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Hibiscus, also being investigated as a defensive structure. This one might work better, actually, because of the ridiculously large (here partly opened) cardboard tube the lip balm comes packed in.

 

I’d never tried Burt’s Bees before, because (as lip balm type stuff goes) it’s very expensive here. Ooly swears by it, though, so when I spotted a GWP happening at Smith and Caugheys, I decided to take the plunge. The total haul also included a cute bag and a hand cream (which I will be reviewing separately when I’ve had more time to see if it works!).

Let’s start with the lip balm, actually. It’s a nice smoothing, creamy lip balm, with a sort of melony orange tint to it. On the lips, this translates to a nice coral effect, but the tint is manageable, so you can apply it without a mirror or worrying about looking uneven. It kept my lips nicely hydrated for a few hours, and didn’t have a strong smell or taste (just slightly ‘natural’. It doesn’t smell strongly of honey or anything). Below are the ingredients, for your perusal:

 

The ingredients list for the tinted lip balm in Hibiscus.

 

As you can see from the photos, the packaging of the actual lip balm is just your standard Chapstick type packaging. It works perfectly well and has a nice smooth twisting mechanism, so nothing to complain about there. The cardboard tube it comes packed in, however, puzzles me a bit. It’s a very nice, sturdy tube, attractively designed, and provides space for the ingredient list. However, it is rather wastefully large, in a way, and there’s certainly a bit of an anticlimax when you open it up and a tiny little lip balm tube rolls out :-P.

Right! Onto the Lip Gloss!

 

The doe foot applicator. As you can see, it doesn’t exactly come out loaded with product, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your point of view. The skelemancers seem to be arguing about it as well.

 

I chose the shade Rosy Dawn, because it was such a pretty, sparkling medium pink in the tube. There are several other colours, and they all look lovely and have dreamy, day/night/seasonal related names. Applied, the lip gloss is relatively sheer, but provides a pretty hint of colour and a nice layer of soft gloss with tiny shimmers. The overall effect is not ‘shimmery’ unless you view it close in direct sunlight, but it’s a perfectly respectable sheer-pink ‘MLBB’ lipgloss, and I’m happy with the shade I chose. Partly, I chose it because I wanted to make sure (for $20 and no returns in this country) that it would be fairly easy to make it work. I’m quite keen to get my hands on one of the ruby red toned ones, as they look glorious – I would have gone for one of those initially, but sometimes darker/brighter colours can be streaky or difficult, so I wanted to play it safe!

The ingredients:

 

Ingredients for the Lip Gloss in Rosy Dawn. The risen dead appear to be a bit confused, but they don’t have lips, so worrying if the ingredients are skin/ingestion safe is probably a bit pointless for them…

 

My favourite part about this gloss is that it is beautifully hydrating. While I have it on my lips, aside from the slight tack that develops right toward the end of wear, I don’t really notice that I’m wearing anything (feel-wise). No dryness around the edgess, no sliminess or stickiness. Just soft, glossy, hydrated lips. The gloss doesn’t really have a strong scent or flavour – if anything it smells a bit like what I would call ‘natural wax’. Once you have it on your lips, though, you don’t really notice anything. I would say, however, that if you’re looking for GLOSS! or SPARKLE!, this isn’t really it. It’s more like a slightly glossy balm-in-liquid-form with very fine sparkles for me. Since I like that, I’m happy, but your mileage may vary.

The only quibbles I have with it come on the packaging front. The tube is sturdy and secure, that’s totally fine. It won’t leak in your bag or anything. The doe foot applicator is also totally functional in and of itself. The main issue I have is that the doe foot applicator comes out with almost no product on it – maybe enough for one lip on a good pull. It’s hardly difficult to dip back in for more, but I feel that although there isn’t a strong ‘pull’ to get the applicator out, somehow there’s very little product on it. The other issue that I have is that very quickly, the printing on the tube started to wear/scratch off. This is also not really a huge deal, but I get twitchy about stuff that looks battered even when I’ve taken care of it 😛

Finally, some swatches:

 

Left: Rosy Dawn lip gloss. Right: Hibiscus tinted lip balm. You can see the very fine shimmer in the lipgloss quite well in this photo.

 

And a lip swatch comparison! *Gasp* Since I believe that lip balms and sheer lipglosses should work when you’re wearing no other makeup, you get my rather mottled facial skin into the bargain! Lucky you 😉

 

Swatches of both products on my lips, with my bare lips for comparison in the centre. As you can see, the lip gloss doesn’t come across as overtly ‘shimmery’ on the lips, so if you’re worried about shimmer or frost, fear not!

 

Just as a quick note: this was the adorable little bag I got the gift in (I bought the lip gloss for $20, and received the bag, full-size hand cream and lip balm for free!). It’s canvas, lined and has a sturdy zip. Love!

 

The little canvas bag from the GWP. Cute and cheerful, just what you need in a dungeon.

 

Have you tried any of the Burts Bees line? Stay tuned for my review of the handcream, coming to an adventure board near you soon!

The Verdict: The lip balm is lovely and hydrating, with a nice, even tint. I’m not sure I’d pay full price for it on a regular basis, considering how much lip balm I go through, but that’s partly NZ prices. It’s definitely well worth your time if you’re looking for a nice coral-tinted lip balm, however, and there are several other shades in the range! The lip gloss is a winner for me: soft, hydrating and smooth with a hint of glossy shimmer. The Rosy Dawn colour really is a lovely medium pink, MLBB colour, and I’m very happy with my purchase. I’m keen to try some other shades in the range!

The Practicalities: Burts Bees Lip Glosses cost NZD 20.00 / USD 8.99 each for 0.2 fl. oz / 6 mL, and may be acquired from chemists/drugstores, Farmers, department stores and similar, as well as www.burtsbees.co.nz (Yes! They actually have a dedicated NZ website that you can buy from!) or sixteen other countries’ Burts Bees websites, including the US and UK. The Tinted Lip Balms are NZD 18.00 / USD 6.99 each for 0.15 oz / 4.25 g.

 

Until next time, fellow adventurers, don’t forget to check for traps!

Syl

I am an adventuring rogue, not a mercenary for hire, and as such, all opinions expressed here are my own, based on a genuine fondness for/interest in this product. If you have any queries or suggestions, please do not hesitate to pin your parchment to the board (contact me) at thepaintedrogue [at] gmail [dot] com., or use the contact form provided! All images on this blog, are the property of the author of this blog (unless otherwise stated) and may not be reproduced without permission. If you do, I’ll send minotaurs after you. Crazed ones.