When you put something on your face every day, you want to have confidence that it does not contain harmful ingredients. Ideally, makeup products will not only abstain from causing harm but contain ingredients nourishing for your skin. One such company is Burt's Bees. Today, we will do a Burts Bees makeup review.
In our review, we'll tell you everything you want to know about Burt's Bees and review one of their popular product lines. We will also look at three similar cosmetic companies who pride themselves on natural ingredients and eco-conscious production and compare their products to Burt's Bee's products.
What Is Burt's Bees Makeup?
Burt's Bees is a line of personal care products that is known for being Earth-friendly and using natural ingredients. Burt's Bees originated in Maine with a man named Burt Shavitz. He was known locally for his roadside honey stand.
Burt struck up a relationship with a local artist, Roxanne Quimby, who started making candles with unused wax from Burt's beehives. The unlikely pair made $200 at their first vendor fair and made a whopping $20,000 in the first year of their partnership. They expanded their line to include beeswax lip balm, which is how most of us came to know the brand.
Sadly, Burt Shavitz passed away in July 2015 at 80 years old, but not before turning his brand into a household name. Today, Burt's Bees offers a full line of cosmetics and personal care products including foundations, mascara, lip balms, toothpaste, face creams, sunblocks, hair care, baby products, shaving creams, pet care, and so much more.
Burt's Bees is revered for its environmentally friendly products and production. All of their products are over 95% natural origin without phthalates, paraben, petrolatum, or sodium lauryl sulfate. Each product you buy will display what percent of the product is natural, and non-natural ingredients are used minimally and only for preservation and performance.
Burt's Bees is serious about responsible sourcing. To date, they've completed nearly seventy site visits to monitor raw materials. In 2012 they launched an initiative aimed at identifying key ingredients in their products and then selecting regions where those ingredients are produced. The initiative, called Community Sourced, strives to create relationships with the communities within those regions and form mutually beneficial partnerships.
Not surprisingly, the first of those relationships focused on beeswax. Burt's Bees formed a relationship with beekeepers from Uyowa, Tanzania, which is where half of the wax used in their lip balms and other products now come from.
All of Burt's Bees products are Leaping Bunny Certified. This means none of their formulas are tested on animals and they don't ask anyone else to do so on their behalf.
Burt's Bees takes pride in using all recyclable packaging. Beyond that, they avoid over-packaging their products and use recycled materials as much as possible. On average, their packaging is made of 52% recycled material.
Burt's Bees has a landfill-free operation and is CarbonNeutral certified, which is a certificate granted to companies that successfully take steps to lessen their carbon footprint. They are involved in watershed restoration projects and have given $3.5 million in grants to support honeybee health and biodiversity. Their employees volunteer over 2500 hours every year to support community partners.
Product Specs
Image Via Amazon
For our Burts Bees makeup review, we are going to focus on a product the company mastered early on: lip balm. Today, we'll look at the tinted lip balm line, which is 100% natural, free of parabens, phthalates, petrolatum, and SLS.
The key ingredient in their tinted lip balm is Shea butter, a natural fat that will provide 8 hours of moisture, and other botanical waxes. The tinted lip balm comes in six shades: Hibiscus, Zinnia, Pink Blossom, Rose, Red Dahlia, and Sweet Violet. All the shades offer a nice tint without being too overbearing.
Pricing
Our Burts Bees makeup review reveals a very reasonably priced product at just under $5 for a tube of 0.15 ounces. Savings can be found when buying tinted lip balms in multi-packs.
The price range for the products reviewed in this Burts Bees makeup review begins at around $5 and goes up to around $50. To accommodate fluctuating market prices, we have rated the price of each product as $, $$, or $$$, to indicate where the price of each item falls in the aforementioned price range.
Burts Bees Makeup Review: How It Compares
For our Burts Bees makeup review, we have chosen lip lines from three worthy competitors to see how Burt's Bees stacks up.
Quality Ingredients: 5 Stars
Burt's Bees gets 5-stars for ingredients. This tinted lip balm is 100% natural, with the main ingredients including shea butter, coconut oil, beeswax olive oil, sunflower seed oil, and other botanical waxes. This product is free of phthalates, parabens, petrolatum, and sodium lauryl sulfate.
Shades: 4 Stars
We give Burt's Bees four stars on the shades. While there could be more of a variety, we love the six shades they do offer: Hibiscus, Zinnia, Pink Blossom, Rose, Red Dahlia, and Sweet Violet.
Packaging and Application: 5 Stars
We give Burt's Bees five stars on their packaging. The tinted lip balm comes in a traditional chapstick-like .15 ounce tube for easy application, and is made with 50% post-consumer recycled plastic.
Performance: 5 Stars
We give Burt's Bees a 5-star rating for performance. The lip tint gives your lips a nice hint of color while keeping them moisturized for up to 8-hours. Unlike many similar products, this lip balm is not too oily.
Price: $
The first competitor in our Burts Bees makeup review is 100% Pure. 100% Pure is another makeup company that strives for environmental sustainability and the use of natural products. All of their cosmetics are colored from fruit, vegetable, and tea pigments and are full of vitamins, antioxidants and other phyto nutrients to promote skin health, which is a welcome departure from synthetic dyes that can contain coal tar, lead, mercury, or other heavy metals.
The 100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Lip & Cheek Tint is all-natural, using ingredients such as shea and cocoa butters and different fruits, including blackberries, pomegranates, cranberries, cherries, and raspberries.
Quality Ingredients: 5 Stars
We have to give 100% Pure 5 stars here. This all-natural lip and cheek tint uses a base of shea and cocoa butter for moisture and fruit pigments for color, besides the high concentration of anti-aging vitamins and antioxidants.
Shades: 4 Stars
We give 100% Pure 4 stars for shades. While they have the same number of shades as Burt's Bees tinted balm, we believe making this product for lips and cheeks limited them in ideal lip-color selections. Choose from colors including Cranberry Glow, Pink Grapefruit Glow, Peach Glow, Shimmery Cocoa Berry, Sugar Plum Sheer, and Shimmery Strawberry.
Packaging and Application: 4 Stars
100% Pure packages their lip and cheek tint in recyclable packaging that is at least partially post-consumer recycled materials, and the plastic is all BPA and phthalate free. The .26 oz container loses a star because the surface is too wide to easily apply directly to the lips. This is probably because it is also meant for use on the cheeks.
Performance: 4 Stars
We give 100% Pure 4 stars for performance. While it is adequate for lip hydration, and we like that it has a dual purpose, the colors don't apply as you might expect from looking at a swatch.
Price: $$
The second competitor in our Burts Bees makeup review is Kjaer Weis, a modern organic makeup line using all certified organic ingredients and packaging that is refillable. Kjaer Weis's lip tint is produced in Italy with no artificial ingredients. This product is not tested on animals and is gluten-free. Made with beeswax and lemon peel oil, this balm has a nice creamy texture applied with a finger or a brush.
Quality Ingredients: 4 Stars
We give Kjaer Weis Lip Tint 4 stars. 95% of the agriculturally sourced ingredients come from organic farming. While the main ingredients are pleasing, including beeswax, jojoba seed oil, Rosa Rubinginosa seed oil, and Gardenia Florida fruit extract, some shades contain artificial pigment.
Shades: 4 Stars
We must say, the shades of Kjaer Weis Lip Tint are lovely; but they lose a star for only offering four shades: Goddess, Sensuous Plum, Lover's Choice, and Amazed (if you can find it in stock).
Packaging and Application: 4.5 Stars
We love the packaging for this lip tint. It comes in a chic metallic container with a pivoting lid. The container is refillable, saving you money on future purchases and showing the Earth some love. The only issus is that having to use a finger or a brush to apply isn't as convenient as the traditional twist-up lip products.
Performance: 5 Stars
Five stars in the performance category, and for the price we'd expect nothing less. This tip tint goes has a velvety feel and will keep your lips feeling soft all day. The colors are beautiful and complement any skin tone.
Price: $$$
The last competitor in our Burts Bees makeup review is Illia, another company that appreciates natural and organic products; however, they are not against the use of synthetic products when proven safe. Ilia says not all natural products are good for you and not all synthetic products are bad for you, and they try to strike the perfect balance between the two.
Quality Ingredients: 4 Stars
We give Ilia 4 stars here. Key ingredients include sunflower seed oil, cocoa seed butter, and orange peel wax, but some synthetic ingredients are found in some shades.
Shades: 5 Stars
If we could, we'd give Ilia more than 5 stars here, because they have a whopping 16 shades to choose from. Shades come in a variety of pinks, reds, purples, and neutrals. We'd list the shades, but we don't know how informative that would be with shade names including Jump, Hold Me Now, Shell Shock, and Little Sister. You have to see them to make a choice.
Packaging and Application: 4 Stars
Ilia gets points here for using the traditional twist-up lipstick model; the easiest of all application methods. However, we're not sure how eco-friendly their packaging is. While they say their packaging is sustainable wherever possible, they don't give a clear indication of how often that is possible or what that really means.
Performance: 3 Stars
Ilia gets 3 stars for performance. The color is long-lasting, but the formula dries and flakes, making it an ineffective moisturizer. The color doesn't go on as expected, either.
Price: $$
Burts Bees Makeup Review — Verdict
Image Via Pixabay
What we learned from our Burts Bees makeup review is that Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm performs like a high-end tinted lip balm for a fraction of the cost. Not only does it strike a perfect balance of color and subtlety with its beautiful shades and near-sheer application, but it keeps our lips feeling moisturized without feeling oily.
We also love that this product is 100% natural and comes from a company that is incredibly eco-conscious and philanthropic. This Burts Bees makeup review concludes that Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm is a 5-star product that outperforms even its most highly priced competitors.
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