Try #EpicBlend For Happy Lips

epicblend

Ever heard of Epic Blend lip balm? I hadn’t heard of the Canada-based lip balm company until they contacted me, but I’m a lip balm freak and I liked the name Epic Blend, so I thought why not. They make lip balm in 3 recipes. Hemp lip balm contains nourishing hemp seed oil, their More Moisture lip balm contains several moisturizers like cocoa butter and shea butter, and their vegan lip balm is exactly that – lip balm sans beeswax. The vegan lip balm uses food-grade Candelilla wax instead.

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I have had a chance to try out all of the lip balms in this epic kit that Epic Blend sent me:

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I actually ended up giving one of the vegan balms to a vegan friend of mine, but to be honest I kind of which I hadn’t (sorry Laura!). The reason for that is I like the vegan balm better than the others, hahaha. I guess it’s just a preference but apparently the candelilla wax feels nicest to me. ;) Let me be clear though: all of the balms are awesome! They are all deeply moisturizing (and don’t just sit on top of your lips but actually absorb). All three recipes are made with top shelf ingredients, organic flavoring with no sweeteners, and are non-GMO, gluten-free, petroleum free, and not tested on animals.

If you have a keen eye, you’ll notice there is an unflavored option. I’m personally of the “flavor ALL THE THINGS!” school, but not all people are. For you not-even-vanilla folks out there, unflavored is for you! These balms aren’t terribly shiny either, so they are man-friendly. If you’re really into flavors, personally I think the More Moisture balms have the best flavors. I LOVE the Green Apple and Grape flavors!!!

There are currently 2 limited edition lip balm flavors available that I would just looooove to get my paws on. They’re both of the hemp lip balm recipe, and they are Chocolate Rum and Banana. BANANA! I love Banana anything.

Epic Balms have a very reasonable price tag of just $3.49 apiece. They’re also available in 4-packs for $12. Those prices are in Canadian dollars, by the way.

If Epic Blend sounds awesome to you, you gotta go get it online. According to their website there are currently no US retailers. Maybe that will change soon though. ;) I’d love to see this line in Ulta. Or heck, Whole Foods? At least they have free shipping on $20+ orders ($15+ in Canada).

Epic Blend is available from www.epicblend.com.

Avon Product of the Week: Halloween Lip Balms!

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For as long as I can remember, Avon has released its seasonal scented lip balm collections. This year is no different, and it’s time for Halloween lip balms!! I’ve had these since mid September and it’s been so hard waiting to blog about them until it got closer to the holiday, haha…

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Summer Must-Have: eos Fruit Basket

eosfruitbasket

Now here’s a fruit basket I can get behind…

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Favorite Natural Beauty Products

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And so you have this Earth, kay…

It’s Earth Day! So even though eco-friendly/natural beauty isn’t the primary focus of this blog, I couldn’t let Earth Day just go by without talking about it. Thus, my favorite natural beauty products…ready, go!

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1. LUSH Lemony Flutter – How could I do a post about natural beauty products and not mention LUSH? Lemony Flutter is a faaaaabulous cuticle cream with an herbal-lemon fragrance. It just plain works wonders on cuticles. It’s also great for super dry skin like maybe on your elbows or heels. A little bit goes a long way, and the packaging is recyclable! ($16.95, LUSH)

2. LUSH Honey Trap – I walked into my local LUSH and pretty much said “I have super duper dry lips. HELP!” and the sweeties in there suggested Honey Trap. They said any of their lip balms are great, but that this one is the best. It’s compact (again, recyclable packaging), a great texture/consistency, smells nice, and most of all it moisturizes like a dream! It works well as an overnight treatment if you slather it on, too. I’ve had my little tin for ages and it doesn’t really show signs of getting used up OR turning bad any time soon, but when it does I will definitely replace it. ($7.25, LUSH)

3. Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush – I have a lot of beloved products from Tarte but this one was my top pick. The Amazonian Clay Blushes are touted as a 12-hour blush. I rarely need to make my makeup last 12 hours but this blush definitely lasts all day. I love the texture of them (not too powdery, not too hard), the packaging, and all the fun shades! I have about half a dozen of these, but Exposed is my favorite. It’s a rosy nude shade that I think every pale girl needs in her arsenal. ($26, Tarte)

4. Korres Cherry Oil Full Color Lip Gloss – I actually don’t own any of these anymore, because my mom loves them so much I gave mine to her. ;) But they are really lovely lip glosses that smell good enough to eat thanks to the cherry oil. The formula is extremely non-sticky and lightweight with a nice amount of both shine and color. If you don’t think you’re a lip gloss person, try these. Mom did and was hooked! ($17, Sephora)

5. LUSH Bubblegum Lip Scrub – This post isn’t sponsored by LUSH I swear, haha. But it’s a delicious flavored, PINK colored sugar you exfoliate your lips with. It’s yummy (cmon, it’s SUGAR), so this is one of those products where not only can you eat it, you’ll actually want to. But save some for your lips please…! ($9.95, LUSH)

6. Macadamia Natural Oil Deep Repair Masque – Somewhere, Krissy from Addicted To All Things Pretty is reading this and nodding going “I TOLD YOU”, because she’s the one responsible for me trying this product. This mask smells amazing, and makes my hair feel like buttah. That’s because it has both macadamia and argan oils in it. I use it about once a week or so to keep my hair looking and feeling great. I have the small size pictured because that’s what I have, but I’ll definitely be getting a larger size once this is gone. ;) ($16, Macadamia)

7. Koh Gen Do Cleansing Spa Water – This stuff just rocks, simply said. It’s a luxurious, effective cleansing water that is extremely gentle. Its main ingredients (besides water!) are plant extracts. It really is a spa water and will leave you feeling pretty pampered. The herbs and minerals are highly soothing. Try it once and you’ll definitely want to come back for more. ($39, Sephora)

The Best Products For Prepping Your Lips

DILO Sep 07 - Lipstick
Auntie P / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

I see a lot of talk about the very best ways to prep your eyes or prep your face for makeup, but not a whole lot about prep for lips. So LET’S TALK ABOUT IT MKAY!  [Read more…]

Wish of the Week: Maybelline Color Whispers

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A new series of posts in which I blather on about something that has caught my eye… ;) [Read more…]

Face of the Day: Sundressed

This is what I wore on my face today. Well, you won’t be reading it the day I wore it, but this is what I wore to work on 11/26. :) I work in a chic business casual office and just wanted enough color to perk up my face and look polished. Read on to see what I used…

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LOVE: CherryCulture Lip Balm

For those of you who don’t know (and seriously, are you new?) Cherry Culture is a site that sells a lot of brands of makeup, mostly inexpensive (like NYX, Styli-Style, Milani, and tons of others). They usually have some kind of freebie, which used to be a cheap lip gloss by I think Arissa that smelled like chocolate. It came with every order. Then they switched to a cherry-scented rollerball lip gloss that I found sticky (and occasionally leaky!) – and smelled like jr high.

Most recently, however, they have switched to the Cherry Culture Lip Balm as their freebie. I made a small haul several months back and since hey it’s free I went ahead and added the Cherry Culture Lip Balm in lime. I love lime scented/flavored things and I don’t often see a lime scented lip balm. Turns out I friggin love this thing. And it retails for $1.99 (on sale for 99 cents right now) or occasionally comes free with your order.

Down side? There isn’t one.

As shown in the picture, it comes in a bunch of scents. There’s actually even more than in that picture. The total lineup is:

  • Lime
  • Chocolate
  • Coffee
  • Banana
  • Peach
  • Raspberry
  • Watermelon
  • Strawberry
  • Grape
  • Bubble Gum

Formula-wise this is nothing groundbreaking or earth-shattering. The ingredients are nothing special. But I love this lip balm. It smells nice and makes my lips feel awesome. What’s not to love? I keep it at my desk at home and apply it while I’m working, and makes me very happy. ;)

If you’re thinking you want to get in on this Cherry Culture action, I have some great news for you! They are having a 20% off sale sitewide in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The code for this sale is PINK20.

 

 

Note: I paid for the products in the haul that got me this lip balm for free, but this post does contain affiliate links.

July Favorites

Seeing as how it’s a week into August, and I’m now a week into being unemployed I’m taking the time to do an actual favorites post. I can’t even laughingly call these monthly anymore because they’re so…not monthly. But I feel like now that I have the time I might as well do a favorites post. Will they start being monthly? Nobody knows.  [Read more…]

Influenster Spring Beauty VoxBox Update

A couple weeks ago I posted all about all the goodies that arrived in my Influenster Spring Beauty VoxBox! Here is an update on the products I’ve been able to form an opinion on so far…

Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Body Wash
I’m not really a Randy Jackson fan, but I love to quote Randyisms. This one falls under “it was just okay for me, dog”. It has a light, pleasant smell, it… washes… my body? But other than that I’m not seeing anything special here. It didn’t make me break out in hives or burst into flames or anything, but the moisturizing effect wasn’t all that apparent either. It was just kind of there. See why I don’t like writing reviews of products that are just “whatever”? They’re boring, because what can I say about it? Whatever!

ChapStick Lip Shield 365
Now with this product, it’s weird. First off, it has a very strong lemon scent. I couldn’t find this indicated anywhere on the packaging so if you are sensitive to fragrances, take note. I like the lemon scent a lot actually, but I think it’s crummy they don’t indicate it on the package! Going on, it feels very moisturizing, but it absorbs really fast and then disappears. By really fast, I mean I apply it in the car at 8:15, and by 8:30 I can feel it’s mostly absorbed/gone. If you’re a person who likes to be able to “feel” her lip balm on, it’s disconcerting. If you’re someone who is putting it on more for sun protection and doesn’t give a hoot about feeling it, you’ll like it. It does moisturize, it’s just weird. Sorry I can’t be more helpful other than “weird”.  This chapstick also strikes me as very man-friendly because any shine goes away quickly.

Sheer Cover Concealer Duo in Light/Medium
Yeah, I can’t use this at all. It’s comically too dark for me. Not even close to a shade I can use. The texture is creamy, but almost too creamy. And it’s, well… orange. When I held up my hand with these swatches on it to my boyfriend, the first words out of his mouth were “it’s orange!” and then softly “…you are not orange.” lol… very good, Mr. Boyfriend.

If you’re quite a bit darker than I am (which wouldn’t be too hard) and want something more orangey to counteract blue-toned dark circles, you might actually like this and let me know, because I’ll gladly give it to you. But for me it just was a good laugh.

 Those are all my Influenster updates so far. I’ll have more to share later as I keep trying new stuff!