Last Thursday was the day that the August issues of the women’s glossies hit the shops.  After a fantastic month of magazine freebies last month (Benefit AND Ciaté – wow) I wasn’t expecting to find anything too thrilling this time, but was pleased to see that Glamour were giving away products from the natural skincare brand, Balance Me.  I had heard of Balance Me before and had been keen to try their lip salve for a while, so of course this was the freebie that I went for!  Balance Me Rose Otto Intensive Lip Salve.

I really like Balance Me’s packaging – I think the simple white tube and basic font with a swirl of colour is really classy and pretty.  I’m also pleased the salve is accented with purple as that’s my favourite colour haha.

The salve comes in a lip gloss style squeezy tube, but unlike gloss it isn’t sticky.  In fact, it’s probably the creamiest lip salve I have EVER used.  You only need a tiny amount to cover both of your lips, say, a 2mm blob, and it smoothes your lips as soon as you apply it.  I tend to use my finger to put it on instead of the tube applicator as too much comes out of the tube if you do it that way.  As you can see below, the salve has a yellow tinge to it.  This is the only thing I don’t like about this product as I think it looks a bit like earwax – not good!

The best thing about this salve, for me, is the smell, as well as the fact that it is 100% natural in origin!  It is scented with various essential oils, including several different Rose oils, Ylang Ylang, Mango, Lavender, Red Mandarin and Patchouli, amongst others, and they combine to give a strong scent which is really quite fantastic.  I put this on whilst in the car the other day and everybody else in the car could smell it and commented on how lovely it was.  I can even smell it on myself when I’m wearing it which is quite pleasant!  Some of the ingredients used to make the salve so moisturising are Virgin Coconut, Beeswax, Sweet Almond, Shea, Jojoba and Cocoa Butter.

The tube claims that the lip salve ‘plumps, smoothes and hydrates’.  Though the latter two are true, I haven’t yet felt or seen any plumping effects from it, but that’s fine by me as plumping products tend to irritate my skin!  I’ve definitely noticed a difference to the texture of my lips though…  They’re quite obviously softer and they feel protected when I have it on.

Balance Me are a UK based company which pleases me as I am a huge advocate of supporting British business.  This is honestly the best lip salve I have used, and I will be buying another tube once this one runs out.  It’s just beautiful!

Which Glamour freebie did you choose this month?

Naomi xx