Korres Lip Butter

Baby, it’s cooooold outside!!! When I woke up yesterday morning it was 6 degrees outside and this morning was no better. As a result of the cold weather this winter, my skin has been on a rollercoaster ride, at times only slightly dry and others completely dehydrated, scaly and itchy. My lips probably got the worst of it but thank goodness I had a supply of Korres Lip Butter. I actually purchased these three pots last winter but only opened them a week ago. They have absolutely done wonders for my lips! Read on for more info.

These pots came in a set with a couple of tube lip glosses. The texture is light, almost “spongy” feeling in the container and there’s a good shine to each of them. Here are a few pictures of each “flavor.”

Guava

Guava

Pomegranate

Pomegranate

Quince

Quince

One thing that struck me right away with the Korres Lip Butters is their moisturizing capabilities. They had my lips whipped into shape in no time! My lips went from peeling and cracked to soft and supple. Although I prefer my lip balm to come in a tube, I found the pots very easy to use and part of that has to do with the soft texture of the balm. Let’s take a look at the ingredients and see what we have here:

• Shea Butter: a thick, greasy feeling “butter” that functions as a moisturizer in softener
• Rice Wax: solid form of rice oil, used to keep the balm firm yet flexible
• Polybutene: a synthetic polymer that is used as a binder and viscosity adjusting ingredient. Also make the lip balm “sticky”
• Trimethylolpropane Triisostearate: skin conditioning agent and emollient
• Hydrogenated Polydecene: skin conditioning agent and emollient
• Polyethylene glycol: a type of ester, which is a substance that helps other ingredients mix together (like water and oil, for example)
• Hydroxystearic Acid: a thickener
• Stearalkonium Hectorite: a suspending agent, which means it helps keep ingredients consistent across a batch of product
• Propylene Carbonate: a solvent and film forming agent
• Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate: a skin conditioning agent/emollient
• Sucrose Tetrastearate Triacetate: an ester that contributes to a nice “skin feel”
• Flavor (Aroma): designed to provide a taste to this product. I don’t taste anything but several of these ingredients smell strong/taste strong so I have a feeling whatever they used to “flavor” this balm is really more about masking the smell/taste of the ingredients
• Tocopherol: an antioxidant that is used to keep the oils from going rancid
• Dicalcium Phosphate: this can be used as an exfoliant as well as an “opacifying agent” which just makes cosmetics less sheer (and this is very sheer)
• Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil: a light feeling oil
• Ascorbyl Palmitate: a stable version of Vitamin C. Could be used as an anti oxidant or for skin benefit
• Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Wax: an edible wax used as an emollient
• Psidium Guajava Fruit Extract (in the guava “flavor): probably used to flavor the lip butter but I don’t detect any flavor
• Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter Extract: a skin conditioning agent/emollient
• May Contain: Titanium Dioxide: if used here, it’s probably functioning to make the product more opaque. At the end of the list, it’s probably not doing much for sun protection, which it is also known for.

That’s a lot of ingredients! Some of these items may be part of a different substance, but when formulating cosmetics, manufacturers have to list the individual ingredients in a product. For instance, if I was selling a cake in a bakery, instead of just listing “cake” and “icing,” I’d have to list out each individual ingredient of the cake and icing. Make sense? Based on my research, most of these ingredients are fairly widely known and, depending, on whether you like “all natural” products or not, some of these ingredients will be desirable and some probably won’t. Rest assured, though, that there’s nothing wrong with any of these ingredients and they contribute to a really lovely lip butter!

Each shade in my collection is very sheer (Guava is completely clear) so they are incredibly easy to apply without looking in a mirror. On my lips, they mostly add shine and boy, do they moisturize! As I said, they have completely taken care of my dry lip problem.

Korres Lip Butters are available at Sephora for $12 each. In addition to the colors above, there are also Jasmine, Mango and Wild Rose colors available. If you’re looking for a great lip balm, look no further! (but do check out Korres!)

Ages of Beauty rating: ****