Lip lovely set - lip balm by Bella Il Fiore - review by Hot 'N Sexy TexasMama

This set consists of two products for your lips. The lip scrub is designed to be used first to scrub your lips and exfoliate them of dead skin, etc. The leading ingredient is sucrose, which makes this a sugar scrub and it is somewhat sweet to the taste although it definitely has an artificial strawberry flavor.

The lip balm finished up the set and it is a moisturizer that goes over your lips to moisturize them after you've scrubbed and whenever you need a touch up. It took is supposed to be strawberry scented but it has a very strong imitation strawberry scent and smell. It feels like Vaseline when you put it on your lips because it is fairly "heavy" feeling.

Since it is made of sugar, the scrub has a grainy texture that exfoliates your lips. It is very easy to reach into the jar and take out a tiny bit on the tip of your finger and place it on your lips and then rub it around.

The balm has a very "heavy" feeling to it and it is thick like vaseline. While I am sure that it will keep my lips from chapping, I do not care for the heavy feeling on my lips. For some strange reason, it makes me think of what it must feel like to stir molasses or something because it is just so thick and heavy and doesn't smell all that great.

For the tags below, I listed "beads" for the scrub and "thick and greasy" for the lip balm.

The aroma and taste of the scrub did not bother me and at first it tasted good when I tasted a tiny sample. Then the artificial strawberry flavoring kicked in and I had to drink some water.

The aroma of the lip balm is sort of ok. It does not smell as much of strawberries as I thought it should. I really don't care for this product at all.

The "smells good" tag below is for the scrub.

The scrub lasted for several hours. I would love to say that the lip balm lasted for several hours too and it probably would have but I found myself scrubbing it off after less than half an hour because it was just too irritating on my lips.

I think that my disappointment with this product started when I saw the package. Somehow, in all of my readings of the reviews and product information, I never caught on that these were 1 ounce jars. That's right - 1 ounce! A "travel-friendly" jar according to federal regulations for flying can be up to two ounces! I'm attaching some pictures so you can see what I mean.

Notice the size of the package next to a package of Eden Fantasys wipes:


Now notice it closer to the wipes:


The two jars out of the box next to the wipes:


Finally - the two jars next to a travel size jar from a kit for carry-on luggage:

While I like to educate folks about products and my research in this area - I'm simply going to link you to another reviewer's comments because she did such a good job with this. Please - I encourage you to read Sheltz31's review of this same set where she talks about the ingredients. It is far better than any research I did.

I want to explain my personal rating system to you here because you may be surprised to see that sometimes I love the smell and the product works well - but it only gets three stars. It has to do more than smell good - it has to be a good value.

First of all, if a product smells good (no chemical smell or bad after smell) and does what it should - I will automatically give it three stars.

If the product is priced reasonably well to the point that I'd give it as a gift at that price or be willing to ask for it from my husband as a gift - then I will give it four stars. If I wouldn't normally ask for it unless it was on sale or would buy it on sale but not at normal price - I'll give it four stars.

But for a product to be five stars - it better smell good, perform well AND be priced at something my budget can allow without me wanting to grimace every time I use it because of the cost.

I love bath and shower (and body) products and they are one of my major weaknesses. However, I have learned over the years of experimenting that expensive doesn't always equal better quality. Mind you - I'm not someone who is overly worried about parabens so I don't judge quality by whether something is paraben free - I judge it by how it makes me feel.

With the vast array of products that are on the market, there is a wide selection for me to choose from and still be happy without spending an arm and a leg.

So I try to do my reviews from the perspective of someone who is budget-mindful and may have kids and a house payment and is saving points for those one or two things she dreams about but can't quite afford.

I hope this helps you understand how I do my bath and body product reviews.