Kiss My Big Beautiful Vegan Lips! (A Review on Beeswax Free Lip Balm)

Honey is one of those things that is a tiresome topic of debate in the vegan world. If you’re a new vegan then you’ve probably seen conflicting information on different blogs, websites, etc. For me, the answer was very simple. Donald Watson, the “father of veganism”, included honey as one of the foods that vegans should avoid. As the founder of the Vegan Society he defined a vegan as “…someone who tries to live without exploiting animals, for the benefit of animals, people and the planet. Vegans eat a plant-based diet, with nothing coming from animals - no meat, milk, eggs or honey, for example. A vegan lifestyle also avoids leather, wool, silk and other animal products for clothing or any other purpose.” I don't see why I should go around ruining a good thing so I'll stick with Donald’s definition of veganism - he did create the word after all. As far as I'm concerned if you're not a bee, or Winnie the Pooh, you have no real need for honey in your diet.

Well, the same principal is extended to beeswax. Just as vegans don't use byproducts like leather or wool we also don't use products containing beeswax. Now usually I would say that it’s super easy to eliminate non-vegan things from your life but beeswax is an interesting one because we think so little about it from day to day but it’s in so many beauty products. I’m not really a lip balm kinda girl. I like my lips to have a little tint (or a lot depending on my mood). I usually buy 3 sticks of lip balm every 2-3 years and use it only at night before I go to bed. Right before going vegan I bought 3 sticks of Burt Bee’s lip balm. My unopened sticks of Burt Bee's were triumphantly given away to a friend as soon as I went vegan ,and I headed to Target to get myself a nice new stick of lip balm – beeswax free. I had been using Alba products for a while and they all proclaimed themselves to be “vegetarian products”, not tested on animals and all that other good stuff. So, without hesitation, I made a bee-line (pun intended) to the Alba section. I did a quick ingredient check, everything looked vegan, and off I went with 3 new sticks of Alba lip balm in all sorts of tropical flavors. I put one by my bedside, one in my purse and one in my travel bag - I was all set and ready. Then one day, out of sheer boredom, I did another ingredient scan only to realize that there was in fact beeswax in not one but all three of my Alba lip balms! Argh! I was so upset. But by now all three were opened and used. No one wanted a tube of half used lip balm so I kept them and decided to use them until they were gone. 2 1/2 years later I've finally managed to use all 3 (obviously I don't use this stuff often) and I marched (well drove) on down to Cosmos's Vegan Shoppe to pick up 3 new tubes of lip balm.

Cosmo’s has more choices of lip balm than any store I’ve ever been to. The brand that I kept going to time and time again was Crazy Rumors. They had several little “themes” for their flavors like Brew for tea flavors, Fresh Squeezed for Citrus Flavors, Hibiskiss brining flower power to your lips with a hint of color, Perk for yummy coffee flavors, A La Mode ice cream inspired flavors and Gumball to make your lips as sweet as candy. The choice was impossible to make but I picked out my 3 flavors that I will be spending the next 3 years of my life with: Spiced Chai (wearing it right now), Limeade, and Peppermint Lemongrass. Not only is Crazy Rumors an incredible vegan brand but the ingredient list is filled with all natural simple products like organic jojoba oil, organic extra virgin olive oil and organic shea butter there’s even a little stevia for sweetness. The flavor and texture is so amazing that I find myself putting on a little lip balm under my lip-gloss so I can smell the sweet scent all day.