The Bottom Line: The only reason I'm giving this two stars instead of one is that there must be someone out there on whom bright orange is an attractive color.
jdhauer's Full Review: Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer Nutmeg
I have a definite love/hate relationship with Burt's Bees products. I really enjoy writing about them and relating my experiences with them to others. This makes me very happy and gives me a pleasant feeling. On the other hand, there is absolutely nothing pleasant about actually using any of the products nor the aftereffects of using the products. They tend to make me look funny or they ruin my hair or they burn terribly or just plain smell bad. That's hard to balance with the absolute joy I have in writing reviews of these same products.
So, when a dear friend of mine gave me a Burt's Bees Nutmeg Lip Shimmer the first words out of my mouth were: "You hate me, don't you?" Her response was "If I hated you, why would I give you a present?" I shot back with "If you liked me, you wouldn't even dream of inflicting this present on me."
After a little back and forth, my friend confided in me that she was giving me a *used* Burt's Bees Nutmeg Lip Shimmer. She softly whispered that it looked a little orange on her and maybe it would look better on me. Now she's a gorgeous creature with olive skin and hazel eyes who ought to be able to wear this shade. It's advertised as a "golden bronze".
So, the adventurous guinea pig that I am, I was willing to try the product despite a disastrous experience with a sister product, Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm.
Burt's Bees Lip Shimmers come packaged in a non-retractable thin tube. The colors available are Champagne, Raisin, Coffee, Rhubarb, Merlot, Nutmeg and Watermelon. Be forewarned that the color of the packaging does not match the color of the product, nor what the product looks like when applied. They smell faintly of mint and strongly of wax.
So, I took the plunge and applied the product to my lips. There was a tingle from the mint but not a painful one. I figured it was simply a tinted lip balm so I didn't bother looking in a mirror until after application. That was a mistake because you need to be as careful applying this as you would a lipstick.
There wasn't a lot of "shimmer" to the product and it simply looked matte. Matte and bright orange. Not day-glo but definitely orange. With all the pink in my complexion, orange just isn't a good color for me. Particularly when it's an unattractive shade of orange that had a drying effect on my lips. I can't say how long lasting the product is because I was unwilling to test anything that color outside of my own home and I needed to leave the house after about 15 minutes. So, I can say that the color lasted at least that long.
Seriously, if you are looking for a nice lip balm with a tint to it, give Alba Botanica's Terra Tints line a try. They are made of all natural ingredients, have SPF18 and come in a flattering range of colors for most skin types. You certainly won't have to worry about looking like Joan Crawford performing "Two Faced Woman" in the movie "Torch Song"!
Ingredients:
sunflower oil, castor oil, beeswax, candelilla wax, lanolin, cocoa butter, tocopheryl acetate and tocopherol (vitamin E), peppermint oil, carnauba wax, comfrey root extract, rosemary extract May contain: iron oxide, mica, carmine or titanium dioxide
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