Moisturizing lip balm - lip balm discontinued by Bella Il Fiore - review by oldman

This is a follow up product for keeping your lips smooth, soft and kissably sweet. I refer to it as a follow up product because I gave the Mrs. the Lip Lovely treatment duo, also by Belle II Fiore. The lip balm comes in a small 1 ounce jar. The lip balm is half of the treatment duo and the Mrs. likes it so much she asked me to order a 2nd jar in case EF runs out of stock. Actually, she leaves one jar on her night table and one jar is in her purse--it goes where she goes.

In the cold, dry winter weather that we have in the mid-west, chapped lips are a way of life. You need to frequently apply some type of moisturizer to your lips. This is much better than the lipstick type moisturizers. I have found them to be clumply and not very pleasant tasting.

This is an item for everyone. Men would probably prefer the peppermint over the strawberries and cream flavor but the container is rather feminine making it uncomfortable to pull out in public. I would not hesitate to apply this to children's lips, however, with children it is important to test for allergies as they are much more susceptible to a reaction than adults.

The lip balm is very smooth so you need to apply pressure when swiping your finger across it to coat your lips. It is very easy and I am sure most of you have used a similar product at some point. It will not pour or leak. If I had to guess, it would melt at very high temperatures, but I can not imagine why it would come in contact with fire (unless Toy Time Tim uses this stuff...). If it is left in a closed car during the summer heat it may melt. I'm not trying either of these scenarios out. Sorry. Tim...?

The single jar that we purchased is the strawberries and cream. It looks, feels and applies exactly like the peppermint, which comes in the treatment duo. In the duo, the lip balm has a light peppermint scent. When you first put it on your lips there is a faint peppermint taste, but it quickly fades. The strawberries and cream smells more like cotton candy and when applied has a slightly sweet, non-specific taste which also fades very fast.

The ingredients are listed on the back of the jar but truthfully neither the Mrs. or I can make out much--the printing is very, very tiny. I can make out Vitamin E (moisturizes and heals) and a red dye (#6 I think).

When we both started using the lip treatment duo (about a week now) our lips were dry. Mine were cracking and were very painful. I used the lip scrub from the duo once and since then I have been using the peppermint lip balm. The Mrs. likes when I go over to her side so it is OK! I have asked her to pull out the strawberry when we are out and about. We find the lip balm very effective in both healing the cracks and preventing their return. It may seem expensive to spend $9.99 for something you can pick up a similar product at the drug store for $3.29, but this does work better for us. It gets cold and windy here and they are talking about a big snow storm next week so our lips are ready!

The lip balm comes in a small, pink, white and black plastic jar with a black screw on cap. The plastic is very firm and quite thick. It will endure drops, kicks and sitting on it. I wouldn't turn it on it's side and ask a football player (pick a guy from the SuperBowl...who do you think will win anyhow?) to stomp on it but it will hold up to most rough handling.

The only negative comment we have is that there is no sunscreen in the lip balm. There is so much education about the connection between sun exposure and skin cancer that sunscreen is now in most skin care products. If you spend alot of time outdoors (sports, work, just hanging around) sunscreen is something we all need to use. Rather than have to use 2 products I would opt for a single product containing sunscreen. It is the lack of sunscreen that prevents this from receiving 5/5 stars.