Organic lip balm - lip balm discontinued by Evolution of Smooth - review by Audrey Grace

This is a good, everyday lip balm. Toss it in your purse, leave one on your dresser, or whatever you need. As advertised, it's 95% organic and 100% natural. It's free of parabens and petrolatum, so if you have skin sensitivities or allergies to those products, this would be a good product for you.

The ingredients (in layman's terms) are: Olive oil, Beeswax, Coconut oil, Jojoba seed oil, Natural flavor, Shea butter, Stevia Rebaudiana Leaf/Stem Extract, Tocopherol (non-organic), Sunflower seed oil, Blueberry Extract, Strawberry Extract, Peach Extract, Linalool (component of natural flavor).

All but the Tocopherol, Natural Flavor, and Linalool are organic.

Those with food allergies to stevia, sunflower seeds, peaches, strawberries, or blueberries should steer clear of this product, as the fruit extract is organic and thus WOULD cause a reaction!

The texture of this product was...interesting. I actually like a bit of petrolatum in my lip products just for smoothness, and even some cottonseed oil for added softness. The combination of beeswax and sunflower seed oil was a little gritty for me. It made my lips feel flaky and not dry, but...lacking? It's hard to describe and isn't visible in photos. (I tried, I really did. Sorry all, but it seems I'm not a photographer, and definitely not a self-portrait photographer!) I felt like I had to reapply, and reapply, and reapply...

I think it had to do with the natural fruit extract. Fruit extract, especially blueberry (and to a lesser extent, strawberry and peach) is usually acidic, so perhaps to a very minimal degree, this caused it to act a little like a lip peel. So, yes, my lips were soft, but it wasn't a comfortable soft; I could always tell I was wearing lip balm. It never absorbed into my lips, just sat on top. I like my lip balm to absorb into my lips and moisturize, rather than merely coat my skin.

I probably would have been better off ordering sweet mint as far as taste goes, because the taste of this one (Summer Fruit) was strange. I think it would have tasted better with banana, mango, or pineapple in combination with the strawberry and blueberry rather than peach. Peach just isn't a fruit I would combine with either berry. I couldn't place the taste of the lip balm until I read the fruit extracts listed on the container, at which point it was like a lightbulb went off. "Ohhhh... Peach!! That's what I couldn't figure out!" That was the most prominent taste to me, so it was weird. It doesn't taste bad, but it also doesn't taste great.

I can also taste a bit of the beeswax, sunflower oil, jojoba oil, etc. I'm not too fond of those ingredients in combination with fuits. Maybe it's just me, as I'm kind of picky about taste and texture anyway. Stevia plant extract is also an ingredient, and that's used as a sweetener substitute for sugar or MSG. I don't usually like artificial sweeteners, so it just added to the foreign taste to me.

The product didn't last long at all. I felt like I had to reapply constantly, and after about 10 minutes, it felt like it was completely rubbed off. I was left with a flaky, peeled feeling in my lips and was constantly biting and pulling at them.

The product was packaged like most lip balms or ChapSticks - in a small plastic container with a paper backing on which the product info was printed. The packaging is very discreet and is actually sold in drugstores as well (though not with the flavor variety that Eden has available).

The directions were adorable: "Twist top off. Pucker up. Smooth on. Smile." Because of the spherical shape of the balm, that really is all you need to do! I did really like that about this product. You could pucker up and smooth it on in one swipe, rather than back and forth, back and forth across you lips. It was an interesting twist, and kind of cool, but because of its rounded shape, it's tough to put into pockets without looking like you have a stray testicle hanging around...Yikes!