Burt's Bees has been around for a while and seems to uphold a pretty solid reputation for making for products with natural ingredients. The 100% natural label on the beeswax lip balm attracted me to it. Ingredients (listed on the box): beeswax, coconut oil, sunflower seed oil, peppermint oil, lanolin, tocopherol, rosemary leaf extract, soybean oil, canola oil, limonene.
There are two questionable ingredients on this list: lanolin and limonene. I didn't discover this until after I had purchased the BB beeswax lip balm and used it for a while. I was definitely surprised to see that the Skin Deep site rates them as moderate hazards, with lanolin being 4 and limonene being 6 (on a scale of 0 to 10). This just goes to show that natural is not necessarily better. I usually prefer my ingredients to be no higher than a 2.
Despite the ingredients of concern, I'll continue to use the BB beeswax lip balm until I finish and then I'll find a better alternative. The balm feels light on my lips, applies smoothly and stays on well. It goes on clear and doesn't appear shiny/glossy, so it would be fine for guys. The peppermint oil gives the balm a tingly, cooling feeling I like. Other lip care products that have the same effect often use menthol which can be drying. The smell of the lip balm is also of peppermint.
I'm prone to chapped lips in a major way and I find the BB beeswax lip balm to be sufficiently moisturizing but it doesn't feel like it has healing properties where your lips are more moisturized afterward, even when you're not wearing it.
Pros: Moisturizing, lightweight wear, and relatively matte finish.
Cons: Not a perfect ingredient list-- contains two questionable ingredients even though they are natural. Does not seem to have long term moisturizing effects (in my case at least).
Recently after we finished up our jar of processed Kraft peanut butter (with sugar and hydrogenated oils) I wanted something healthier. I saw MaraNatha Roasted Almond Butter at Costco and decided to give it a try.
There's only one ingredient: roasted almonds. Almonds have vitamins, and healthy fats. As they say, 'eat fat to burn fat'. This is the first time I've tried almond butter so I didn't know what to expect. I read some reviews of almond butter in general-- some people love it, some people hate it, some are in-between. I found it to be quite bland so I drizzled honey on top and that made it taste much better. The almond flavor is rather subtle and the consistency smooth but thinner compared to peanut butter. Sometimes you have to stir it since the almond butter kind of separates.
Overall I'd say that I wouldn't buy almond butter so much for the taste but because it's healthy. If I had kids, I'd feed it to them. I'll continue to eat it with honey, as I don't find it as tolerable without it. For the record though I've heard the taste, texture and consistency of almond butter varies amongst different brands.
Pros: Healthy, tastes pretty good with honey.
Cons: Bland without honey, have to stir it sometimes because it can separate, can be a bit expensive.
You might be wondering, given the million blogs that already exist, why start another one? What will make this blog any different from all the other green blogs out there? Well, after years of browsing green product review blogs, I noticed that a large number of them, if not most, are not very discerning: they perpetuate green washing, often because they're unaware of the phenomenon and they're not meticulous in their assessments of the products. If you're unfamiliar with the term 'green washing', it is when a company deceptively promotes a product as 'natural', 'green' and/or 'organic' when it only has a few ingredients that could be classified under those categories and the rest of the ingredients are chemicals, some of which have found to be toxic or potentially toxic (government legislation is not as stringent as you might think). Even Whole Foods carries green washed products.
How do you know if a product is green washed? The key is to analyze the ingredients list (I use the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database as a reference). Yes, this can get tedious very quickly, but those who know me well are aware that I'm a wee bit neurotic, a touch obsessive compulsive compulsive, and somewhat of a perfectionist. I've found that those traits to be beneficial and a driving force in the search of quality products with innocuous ingredients. I've emphasized the word quality because the second type of green blogs I've run into features products that would likely be considered as truly green/natural (the products are sometimes safe or close to being safe enough to be eaten, though they're not made for consumption and it is most certainly not suggested). However, when I've bought or sampled these products with a pretty pure ingredients list, the quality turned out to be horrible, nothing like the praises they received in their reviews! I get that people experience products differently, but it baffles me how huge those differences can be! On the other hand, I seem to have higher standards than the average person (those who know me would agree) and it causes to me extra picky, which I believe lends itself to effective reviewing. Thus there's a niche in the green blog world to be filled: green blogs that have discriminating tastes when it comes to both ingredients and quality.
Why should you care about opting for products with safer ingredients? With regards to personal care products, your skin is the largest organ of your body. The products that come into contact with your skin gets absorbed into your blood stream. Fumes (particularly from household cleaners) and fine particles (like talc) can be inhaled. Ever notice how a lot of cleaners have skull and explosion icons under the warnings? Yeah. And the exposure to these substances will accumulate over the years. The significance of ingredients never occurs to many people; I never even gave it a second thought until a few years ago and it hit me hard, motivating me to research it all in depth. So this is an issue I'm definitely passionate about, calling attention to products with potentially hazardous ingredients, and finding better alternatives. I don't mean to be alarmist or incite hysteria-- there is no need for that. Don't forget, we do have livers and kidneys to filter out toxins, thank goodness. I'm no puritan myself when it comes to all the products I use. I'm in the process of trying to swap them out one by one. Take waterproof mascara for example, I have not been able to find a green/natural match for that. I'll be discussing a lot of products that pertain predominantly to women (what with me being a woman and all), but there'll be talk of products that everyone uses and consume as well, such as household cleaners, cell phones, drinks, water bottles, etc.
Here is a great video that illustrates my point:
P.S. For the record I am not affiliated with any manufacturer. Everything I review will most likely to have been purchased myself, unless otherwise stated. I am not afraid to be painfully honest when reviewing, but please remember that the reviews are merely my own personal opinions. The nature of blogging is inherently subjective; this is not a scientific journal and I am not a chemist. I try to get as close to the facts (of ingredients) as I can to the best of my ability. Also, as I mentioned above, how a person experiences a product can greatly vary. I acknowledge that natural is not always better, as natural ingredients can be irritants too (e.g. poison ivy).
