Burt's Bees Strawberry Lip Gloss Vs. Naturalistics Strawberry Juicy Balm

All a girl needs is her lip balm. That's my motto, and I've lived by it since I was a kid in junior high. A 24-year-old college grad now and old enough to sport the most popular make up brands, I still find myself scanning the drugstore shelves for the same lip glosses I used when I was in middle school.

Two highly popular, quality, and inexpensive lip glosses; Burt's Bees and Naturalistics can be found in many drug stores. Burt's Bees is being advertised and presented all over the front counters of CVS, but what's so good and not so good about these brands?

Burt's Bees is widely known for its natural ingredients. Just like Breyers ice cream, the ingredients in Burt's Bees have supposedly been grown from the ground up. There is no artificial anything. That is why the ingredient list for Burt's Bees Strawberry Lip gloss reads, "grape seed oil, coconut oil, beeswax, lanolin, cocoa butter, natural flavor, and tocopheryl acetate & tocopherol (vitamin E)." On the other hand the ingredients in Naturalistics Strawberry Juicy Balm read as follows: " Mineral oil, paralfinum liquidum, hule mineral, and ricmus communis among a host of other ingredients that I can neither pronounce nor spell correctly.

If you are looking for the natural feeling you get when you put on your lip balm, Burt's Bees might be for you. However, before choosing between these two lip moisturizers, there are other factors to consider such as price, texture, smell, and moisture.

As far as taste and smell goes, Burt's Bees does not smell like strawberries. It smells sweet, but not anything like fruit. The color of the gloss is off-white and the taste is not very good at all. The consistency of Burt's Bees lip gloss is a bit thick and therefore, it is a little challenging to get a good amount of gloss on your finger when you stick it into the small 2.5 oz jar.

Naturalistics smells a little closer to strawberries, but not exactly like the fruits themselves. I prefer the smell of Naturalistics Strawberry Juicy balm to that of Burt's Bees. Like Burt's Bees, the taste of Naturalistics is certainly nothing to write home about.

Naturalistics Strawberry Juicy balm comes in a stick form and you can apply as much gloss to your lips as you want. The texture of Naturalistics is smooth and a little greasy. However, such a texture gives you that just moisturized and pouty-lipped feeling you get after applying some balm or gloss.

In terms of price, Burt's Bees products are generally more expensive than similar products on the market. A 2.5 oz tub of the gloss cost about 3.99 while Naturalistics runs about a dollar less.

Finally, the ultimate test of any lip-gloss is the length of time it actually keeps your lips moisturized. After using Burt's Bees Strawberry Lip Gloss, I was very unsatisfied with how my lips felt. The lip-gloss did not keep my lips moist for very long at all. I had to constantly keep dipping my finger back into the jar in order to reapply the gloss.

On the other hand, Naturalistics Juicy Strawberry Balm kept my lips moisturized for hours and hours. I guess the mineral oil really does its thing. Even though its moisture capabilities of Naturalistics are sufficient, I still want to pop open the tube and apply that good smelling lip-gloss again and again. Am I having a natural experience when I use Naturalistics? No. However, I am having a strawberry experience, and isn't that all that matters when a gal applies her lip balm?