Burt's Bees Lip Products

The most fun reviews are for beauty products! I was thrilled to get samples of Burt's Bees lip products from Pop Sugar Sample Squad and eager to try the new formulas. I have been a Burt's Bees fan for a while - who doesn't like high quality, natural products, mostly free of scary chemicals? Best of all, NO animal testing! Perfect. I admit I am biased before I even start reviewing.

I received two kinds of lip product - Lip Shine in "Pucker" and Tinted Lip Balm in "Sweet Violet". Both are excellent choices.

The Lip Shine is a red looking gloss in a tube. Right away, I liked the lid that is tamper - proof. It has that breakable ring like on a milk jug, so you could tell if someone had used the product before you. That being said, it was also in a blister type package which may be a more recent development. (?) I remember seeing Burt's Bees products in my local health food co-op with very little in the way of packaging at all. The glosses would be stored in a free standing display with testers. I know Burt's Bees is carried in drugstore settings as well, so perhaps more packaging is needed. In any case, I was 100% confident the lip shine was unused...

It is dispensed with a slant tip top for gliding on the lips. I found the gloss to be a nice consistency - it is smooth and surprisingly not sticky. The ingredients for softening are apricot wax and sunflower seed oil.... yummy! It actually does have a nice, sweetish flavor and seems to last a while. It's the nature of the product that gloss shines like this are not typically long lasting and I re-apply often. The tube makes it very convenient for a pocket or purse.I was pleased that the red color was not too bright or heavily pigmented. It is a very sheer wash of color that seems just right.

The Tinted Lip Balm starts out in wonderful packaging that elevates the lowly lip balm (think Chap Stick on the gas station counter near the register) into a lovely gift to yourself. The package is a neat cardboard tube that shows the name and color against a dark background. I was excited just opening it up! Inside, the plastic tube is the universal lip balm tube, but no matter, the first impression has been made. The tube is a practical design that works and makes it easy to stick your balm in a pocket when you are heading out for a walk. The violet color was most likely not the one I would have chosen for myself, but I was pleasantly surprised that I could actually wear it. Like the Shine Gloss, it turns into a sheer color when applied.

This balm feels smooth and protective, not waxy. The moisturizing ingredient is Shea Butter, with lots of other botanicals in the signature Burt's Bees style. It is also available in 9 colors, more of which I am sure to try. I was happy that these formulas were also both free of shimmer- I like glitz, but sometimes gloss is better served plain. Some of them wind up looking too frosty for my taste. I was really happy to be able to try these products, and I was not disappointed - I still love Burt's Bees!

Fiber One® Meal Bars

 So let me start out by admitting I’m not really a cereal person in the morning. I would no sooner choose a granola bar as my breakfast of choice either. My breakfast food routine is more of the savory variety - peanut butter on toast, or the occasional egg-in-the-microwave between two halves of an english muffin with lots of pepper. I’m not sure if it’s the low blood sugar, but I don’t reach for something sweet in the morning, but rather a food that tastes and feels like protein. My worry about using a cookie or granola-like bar for a meal replacement is the fear that I will experience a huge spike in blood sugar , which leaves me painfully crashing in short order. I truly do limit my sweets, and l have learned not to eat such things on an empty stomach. Dessert is dessert for me, never eaten first like the saying goes. I understand that a lot of people can have donuts and coffee first thing in the morning - thus the “continental breakfast” - but I am not one of them.

With that disclaimer in place I will share my experience with Fiber One Meal Bars. I am a Bzz Agent and agreed to try the Fiber One Meal Bars in exchange for my honest opinion. I received two different flavors for free via Bzz Agent: Chocolate Peanut Butter and Strawberry Greek Yogurt.  One of my favorite things about these bars is that they really don’t taste too sweet. It’s not like eating a candy bar, more like a between a soft granola bar dipped in chocolate or yogurt. Very tasty, and they did not cause my blood sugar so surge madly then plummet. I enjoyed both flavors, too - it is really hard to choose a favorite between the two. I REALLY want to try the Dark Chocolate Almond flavor as well.

According to the label, these bars are pretty fair nutritionally. My Fooducate App gave the Chocolate Peanut Butter bar a “C”. Not ideal, but the comparable bars in this food category are rated between “B” & “D”, so it is not the worst by far. (Food bars typically don’t get “A” grades because they are highly sweetened). The biggest minus to this product is that it is a very processed food, which is not optimal if one is trying to eat "healthy".

The bottom line is this this bar is a delicious snack! I would probably not seriously try to replace a meal with this product, but it does contain a high amount of protein and fiber, which makes it a much better choice than a candy bar for an easy, portable pick-me-up on the go. I was pleased to note that the Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor also contains iron, calcium and vitamins A & C, which has WAY more value than a peanut butter cup. And finally, to really seal my rep as a "health nut" I also try to keep an eye on my sodium intake - ideal foods are 100 mg or less per serving. The bar is 180mg, which is actually still not bad in the grand scheme of things. It's really pretty difficult to find low sodium prepared foods in most categories.

Overall, I like this product a lot, although I would not consider it a health food - just “healthier” than candy. I am sure I am probably more critical than many others would be, but I take my "healthy eating" seriously.

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