TL;DR hand-crafted goodness achieves near-perfection

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A Deeper Look

Disclaimer: The beautiful Alana at Etta + Billie was kind enough to accede to my “requests” (read: begging) to trial this product for free in exchange for an honest review. However, while the product was gifted, all opinions are unfiltered and wholly my own.

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Etta + Billie is a California-based, apothecary-inspired self-care brand born out of founder Alana’s love for food. This love is reproduced in every single product, from the cold brew mint coffee soap (which I was also gifted, and simply LOVE) to the grapefruit cardamom lotion to, obviously, the lip balm trio whose features I critique below.

As pictured, these balms come in the following decadent flavors (or fragrances, if you will): Ginger Orange (my fave), Lavender and Double Mint. The packaging is made of 100% post-consumer recycled plastic (four of my favorite words in the English language) and the ingredients are 100% natural, fair trade and certified organic.

(Between the extremely reasonable price of $8/pop and the many prize-worthy buzzwords I listed above, do you even need to read the rest of my review? I mean…do go on.)

Across the board, the E+B balms smell and taste scrumptious. (If I could turn the Ginger Orange into an ice cream, I would eat it by the pint daily.) They are effective and long-lasting. If you apply more than a few swipes at once, they leave a pretty sheen on your lips. Several weeks into trial, I still have plenty of product left in each of the 0.15oz tubes.

So why does it receive a 4 on Packaging? Two reasons. The first is that the Double Mint has started to disintegrate slightly into grainy bits (see picture below) that either come apart from the rest of the balm and head straight into my mouth, or sit on my lips until I manage to wipe them off. While this doesn’t render the balm unusable, it does require considerable care be taken in application.

This textural hiccup can (presumably) be attributed to the small-batch process employed to create them and/or the fact that there’s no funny business in the ingredient lineup. However, it must be noted that I’ve tried even simpler balms that don’t struggle in this manner.

And the second? It’s a personal nitpick. The product information sticker states that one should “reuse” and “recycle” the tube. However, the tube is made of plastic (which is nearly un-recyclable, despite what Big Blue Bin would have you believe) and how on earth does one reuse a lip balm tube?

(Seriously. Tell me if you know.)

Important: Certified Organic, Fair Trade, Female-Owned Business, Contains Beeswax