Product Review: Lip Balm

I'm always purchasing different items, so I thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on my purchases. And what better place to share my opinion than my blog...

I can not stand having dry or cracked lips. So I'm always purchasing lip balm. My most recent lip balm purchase came from Bubble Tub. This store offers handmade soaps and toiletries. I chose this shop because of all the choices having 54 flavors of lip balm and they offer discount with multiple purchase. The listing I chose was Choose 3 and receive 16% OFF.

My purchase only took 8 days to arrive, which is great since it had to go through customs from Canada.

Inside my padded mailer, my balms were in a sheer bag and I also received several cards.

I received a business card, thank you tag, pink tag, and a seed card. My order consisted of three lip balms. I chose Crazy for Coconut (makes me think I'm on the beach), Banana Blast (reminds me of my favorite banana taffy), and Iced Pineapple and Tangerine (another tropical reminder). 

I love that the tubes are sealed in plastic. It's very nice to know that your lip balm has not touched another persons lips before yours.  I immediately opened all three to check out the scents and see if my lips say "aaahhh!" Not only do these balms have great scents, but they are super silky smooth on your lips.

The ingredients are printed on the back and as I was reading them, I noticed one specific ingredient "almond oil." I'm thinking "Oh No!" I scramble to look at the other two, and yes they all have almond oil. My youngest son, Aaron, is severely allergic to peanuts and tree nuts.

I discovered Aaron's allergy when he was around 18 months old. I was eating one of my favorite breakfast treats, peanut butter toast and chocolate milk. I tore a corner of toast off and gave it to him, within seconds, his lips began to swell, blotchy redness appeared on his face, and he started to sounding hoarse, obvious Anaphylaxis reaction. He then went through testing which confirmed my fear of the allergy. We also discovered that he is not only allergic to peanuts, but tree nuts too. Now, we have to keep an EpiPen with us where ever we go. You wouldn't believe all the items that contain nuts or exposure to nuts. I discovered a few years after we found out about his allergy, that a mother-to-be should not eat a lot of nuts during pregnancy. I had never heard that before. My craving while pregnant with him was peanut M&M's, and I ate them quite often.

Now back to my review...sorry for the detour. I quickly went to my computer to pull up the listing to see what I had missed. I read through the listing again and didn't see any info on including almond oil. I contacted the seller. I wasn't looking for a refund because I had opened and tested all balms, but I wanted the seller to know that the ingredient "almond oil", really needed to be included in the description and in bold. I could easily forget of having this balm on and kiss my precious child causing a reaction. She stated that the ingredients were listed at the bottom of the item in the "materials" list. Sure enough, it was. Dumb me...but I did learn a valuable lesson...READ EVERYTHING!!! I still think the ingredient should be listed in bold in the items description because it can be dangerous to some. A positive note is that the seller offered to replace the balms with ones made without the oil. She stated that she will make the balms without the oil upon request. I politely declined because I felt she didn't understand the importance and danger of nut allergies, and her product materials and working space may be contaminated with almond oil residue. I'm not willing to take that chance. 

I think this product is a great product, being smooth, deliciously scented, and a great price. I would recommend it to those who do not face the challenge with nut allergies. Although, I do feel the seller played down the importance of her using almond oil, the mistake was mine in overlooking the "materials" at the bottom of the page. I will count this purchase a my loss.