Guest Post: Chapstick® All Natural

Today's poster is Rachel, aka rayfreester, blogger and lip balmer extraordinaire. But we'll let her tell you about herself, as well as give you a review.

I'm rayfreester, of are you awake? (it's fairly new and not really about anything yet) and I have been a Burt's Bees user for maybe five or six years- I'm only in my mid-teens. Only this year have I really tried to branch out to other lip balms occasionally. This development happened to coincide with Walgreens expanding its lip balm selection and putting it into its own section. The geography of my Walgreens aside, the new shiny lip balm area had many balms that they didn't carry before like Aveeno, the entire Chapstick line, Chicken Poop and many others. But what caught my eye was Chapstick All Natural, since Chapstick® isn't famous for it's great ingredients.

Price: $1.99, just as cheap as regular flavored Chapstick. No complaints here, but you'd think it might cost a little more with the better ingredients.

Appearance: Brown translucent with some sparkle or or something in the plastic. The words "all natural" in green with a water droplet on it to signify that it moisturizes. Sort of a cross-between a lotion bottle and a self-tanner bottle. Might not be unisex enough for some men, but isn't trying for a feminine appearance. Still has the Chapstick rounded cap that makes it easy to find in the dark. I'm not a fan of translucent tubes- I don't like seeing the gears. However, the look is, in general, attractive.

Glide: Pretty good, glides smoother and sticks more than regular Chapstick, but not as good as lip balms with a higher beeswax content. There is a slight graininess as you get more into to the tube.

Flavor/Smell: No real intentional smell or flavor, just the the smells of the ingredients. It kinda smells like toasted coconut, rice milk and some type of nuts. There's no sweetener, so there is no taste, but the smell sticks around for a while and is bland without being unobtrusive. This balm could benefit from and essential oil.

Lasting Power: If your lips are pretty chapped it will soak right in and you will need to apply almost immediately, however with normal conditions it will last as long as you don't wipe it off or eat.

Product Pluses: No petroleum, no artificial ingredients, sunflower seed oil, jojoba esters, coconut oil, beeswax, mango seed butter (fancy!), natural vitamin E and shea butter. However no SPF and it won't withstand temperatures higher than 77 degrees (it says on the label, no other brands/types have this warning, as far as I know).

3.7 out 5 tubes for good glide with out being greasy, natural ingredients and low price. Points were docked for slightly pervasive coconut smell and sparkly tube. Overall though, a pretty good buy, I recommend it.