Review: The Gnarly Whale (Strawberry)

One thing I discovered fairly quickly in searching for vegan lip balms is that if they are scented at all, it's usually a citrus scent -- orange, lemon, grapefruit. Sometimes it's a combination scent like orange+vanilla, but many of them use citrus extracts of some type as ingredients, so there you go.

My favorite lip balm flavor is strawberry. (Second is spearmint!) I think I acquired this great love via Bonne Bell products in high school. If not due to classic strawberry-flavored LipSmackers, then certainly Strawberry Sparkler lip gloss or other strawberry-flavored things that have been discontinued in years since. If it was strawberry+cream, so much the better! I seem to recall some kind of little pot of strawberry gloss that had an "and cream" sort of flavoring; I think it might have been a milkshake or malt flavor.

However, I've seen almost no vegan strawberry lip balm!

More commonly, I have seen a general "berry" flavor, as if that is the same thing. It's not. I don't go for raspberry at all.

I was given a tube of strawberry lip balm from The Gnarly Whale for my birthday; my best friend bought me a whole slew of different kinds of balms off of Etsy!

I had not considered buying lip balms off Etsy for a few reasons. Mostly, I just wanted to be able to pick lip balm up at the grocery store, or at least Ulta. But also, I want to be able to have a consistent go-to that I don't have to pay shipping fees for. I want to trust the product will be the same every time I buy it. I want to have faith that I'm not buying some wonky batch of wax from someone who isn't 100% transparent about their ingredients. No offense or disrespect to anyone, because I'm sure there are people out there on Etsy creating some lovely, consistent, 100% vegan products! I'm just extremely protective of my face at this point, and I don't want to endanger my recovery!

The Gnarly Whale has a lot of good feedback on Etsy, lots of products, a nice website, and a sincere stance on their desire to create vegan cruelty-free products. Mostly, so much five-star feedback swayed me it was okay to try this product. So did the fact that I could Google about the product and find reviews.

I'm so glad I did! Their strawberry balm is almost exactly what I've been missing since having to give up traditional beeswax balms.

The strawberry scent is lovely, fresh, and not sugary or fakey as many faux-fruit flavorings smell; it smells like strawberries. It's a nicely saturated scent.

It's not as slick a formulation as LipSmackers, but it's one of the longer-lasting vegan balms I've tried. When I put some on, I don't need to reapply it again five minutes later. It is a softer balm than Crazy Rumors. Crazy Rumors balms feel very firm against my lips and can take a few swipes to warm up and spread, whereas The Gnarly Whale's formulation feels more malleable and willing to transfer. (Am I just crazy? That's a rumor.)

As with many balms that use candelilla wax, sometimes in the tube, this can become gritty or bumpy, but I don't mind this (it softens if you keep it in your pocket for a bit, if this is some kind of dealbreaker) and the scent and flavoring and feel of the product to me makes it the best vegan balm I've tried.

YES. THIS IS THE BEST VEGAN BALM I'VE SO FAR TRIED. And it's not even citrus.

I bought myself a back-up tube and used the opportunity to order a couple more scents, which I'll also share my feelings on. At $3.50, they are priced pretty much around the same as most other vegan balms, but on their Etsy you can get a 3 for $9 bundle.

TL;DR: Perfect strawberry vegan balm that doesn't make me feel like I'm using a product that isn't on par scent-wise or performance-wise with beeswax balms. I recommend this balm highly. The Gnarly Whale is good stuff.

Review: Crazy Rumors Lip Balm (Pink Grapefruit Juice)

Since I liked the Hugo Naturals Grapefruit lip balm so much, I was eager to try the Pink Grapefruit Juice scent from Crazy Rumors. So eager, in fact, that I got three of them...

Crazy Rumors has a really wide selection of scents/flavors! In the world of vegan lip balm, scent and flavor can be hard to come by and very limited. I've mostly seen citrus and vanilla scents. To see that they produce so many varied and unique flavors is great. I do believe, with the small selection of flavors I've tried, this may mean they can be a little hit-and-miss, but we'll see.

I've used these Pink Grapefruit Juice balms for about six months -- lost a tube in the wash by leaving it in my pocket and everything! So I've really put these through the wringer. They seem to rank between Hugo and Bee Friendly in terms of scent/moisturization. The scent is very light and the taste is also very minimal, but both are present enough to be so much better than unscented/unflavored. These are not saturated with scent or flavor.

In the tube, the wax is very, very firm-feeling against the lips. It will transfer, but it feels very firm. Luckily, it is smooth. (As I've said, I don't really mind the "grainy" feeling some vegan balms can have when their wax crystalizes a bit in the tube, but if you do, this is something to keep in mind. To each his own!) It's also buildable, so you can achieve the amount of lightness or heaviness you might need or want. They feel good going on, and I like this flavor in a neutral manner.

But I do feel like the Hugo one lasts the longest and has the most saturated scent/flavor. It smells like a literal grapefruit, and if you held them both out to me and told me to pick one, I'd take the Hugo flavor. Crazy Rumors' Pink Grapefruit Juice is smoother than Hugo, but I still like Hugo the best, I think, in terms of scent, flavor, moisturization, and staying power.

But if you don't want an overpowering scent or flavor and like a lighter balm, these are worth a try!  At $3.50, they're the general price of most balms I've seen so far, and Crazy Rumors has such a wide selection.

TL;DR: A nice balm with a mild grapefruit scent/flavor. Worth trying, but I think there are better grapefruit balms in particular out there.

Review: Hugo Naturals Lip Balm (Grapefruit) and Bee Friendly Citrus Natural Lip Balm

I decided to lump these into one post because they were the only two beeswax-free lip balms I could find at my local Whole Foods. I really pined for scented balms and these were the only scented balms I could find that I didn't need to order off the internet. Therefore they were the first scented beeswax-free lip balms I tried.

(Like before, I bought these, but came home and Googled to make sure they were beeswax-free. The Bee Friendly says so right on the label, but you know!)

It's unfair to compare these two things; it's unfair to compare any two lip balms, I think, as everyone has their own preferences for how slick or thick they like 'em, what is unpleasant versus pleasant in a scent, et cetera. But these are my thoughts. One does the job, and one doesn't.

Bee Friendly Citrus smells lovely, lemony and fresh. It is not flavored. It's a very, very thin balm. Possibly the thinnest I've ever tried! It doesn't seem very buildable. To my dismay, this disappears off my lips in about two minutes, if that. I don't know where it goes so unbelievably fast, since I'm not licking my lips. Does it just evaporate?? What a mystery. This is something I won't repurchase. I keep it in my purse, along with one of the Blistex Simple and Sensitives and another balm that rotates around. I can use this until it's gone, but it does nothing for me except provide momentary relief. For me it comes down to whether I want something that will stick or if I don't mind an extremely temporary touch-up. I believe this was $3.

Hugo Naturals Lip Balm in Grapefruit is the balm that became my go-to in the first several months I was beeswax-free, and is one I still enjoy even though I have many others to choose from now. Its smell is very sharp -- very grapefruit! If you're like me and you're accustomed to the fakey (yet delicious) scents of Bonne Bell products, the scent of this might stun you at first or come across as sour. But if you like the smell of grapefruit, this pulls no punches and doesn't sugar that sour scent up at all. Now that I'm used to it, I love the strong, real grapefruit smell.

This is a balm that is thicker and more like what I'm accustomed to in a more ordinary lip balm. In the tube, it can sometimes be grainy (I've discovered this of many balms that use candelilla wax), but I find that I don't mind this and in fact would prefer it to a slick, smooth balm that doesn't last at all. This one lasts on me, and that matters. It's buildable, too. I've used it up almost entirely; I would have by now if I hadn't been actively seeking out more balms to try. At about $3.50, the price is comparable to most any other lip balm, so I would definitely repurchase it.

I would love it if Hugo's range had more flavors. The only other ones I see on the site are Pineapple & Coconut and Vanilla & Sweet Orange, and none of these are flavors that I like!

TL;DR: Bee Friendly Citrus evaporates shockingly quickly; it's not worth buying, in my opinion. Hugo Naturals Lip Balm in Grapefruit smells strong, but sticks around effectively. If you're like me and want to pick up a lip balm at the grocery store, this is one I would recommend.

Review: Blistex Simple and Sensitive

When I realized I was allergic to beeswax, Blistex Simple and Sensitive was the first - and only - beeswax-free type of balm I was able to find at my local grocery store. I remember standing in the aisle, forlorn, examining ingredients on packages of everything, trying to find something that used candelilla wax; I looked at familiar brands and unfamiliar no-brands, and this was literally the only item out of twenty-five or so options.

I used to frequently use Blistex's minty medicated balm, so even if there had been another option, I likely would have gone with this one anyway. Its list of ingredients is blessedly short.

Here's the deets:

Non-Irritating: 
With no flavors, fragrances, colors or unnecessary sensitizing ingredients, Simple and Sensitive's hypo-allergenic formula is rigorously tested and clinically proven to be gentle 
on lips.

Only Six Ingredients: 

• Cocoa Butter, a lush tropical extract with serious moisturizing properties.
• Sunflower Seed Oil, a nutrient-rich oil selected for its comforting qualities.
• Jojoba, a naturally derived emollient that helps smooth and soften lips.
• Vitamin E, a highly beneficial antioxidant.
• Microcrystalline Wax helps give the formula an appealing feel and form.
• Phenoxyethanol, a necessary preservative to maintain freshness.

Bingo, no beeswax! I bought it, but had to come home and Google Microcrystalline wax to make sure that wasn't just code for "beeswax; PUNKED YOU."

At the time, this was a godsend to me. I could get it at the grocery store (which was important to me), and it was 99 cents.

Flavorless and scentless, this is hypoallergenic, which is great. It's what I think of as usable. But this really made my soul cry out for the flavors I missed. Imagine a glue stick that isn't sticky any longer. It's moist, but not terribly. It feels a lot like rubbing a scentless, flavorless, un-sticky glue stick on your lips. When you lift the tube to your nose and smell it, it does have a vaguely plastic, nothingness wax crayon type of scent. On your lips, it doesn't smell of anything. I don't find it very moisturizing or pleasant to wear, but if your lips are chapped or you're like me and just really need lip balm, this will suffice, and the price is great.

I have two of these, one of which I carry in my purse. The other is stationed by my bed. I don't reach for it specifically, but I think it's nice to have them around.

TL;DR: This is okay and I use it sometimes, but I wouldn't say I like it, either.