A lip balm so nice, I bought it twice.
Last month I was shopping in Sephora with my sister during the sale, and it was so crowded in the aisle I wanted to look in that I just hung around the endcap for a bit until it cleared. This particular endcap was full of various lip balms, one of my biggest guilty pleasures even though I'm allergic to most. I ended up buying a Kari Gran Lip Whip, and I was so impressed with it upon bringing it home that I ordered another shade before the sale ended.
Kari Gran is a clean and organic beauty brand based in Seattle with a range of skincare, lip balms, and mineral makeup. I had never tried anything from the brand, but had heard a little bit here and there about it. For some reason a lightbulb went off when I saw the Lip Whip - I couldn't remember hearing anything about it, but I just knew it would be good.
As I said above, lip balms are majorly hit or miss for me. Some are instant favorites, like the Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask and Glossier Balm Dotcom, while others cause my lips to burn and peel for weeks. The only thing the lip balms that irritate my lips have in common is the presence of both coconut oil and shea butter, which is usually a hard thing to avoid in natural lip balms. The Kari Gran Lip Whips struck my fancy when I saw that it contained neither of these ingredients while still being natural. Instead, it contains castor seed oil, beeswax, camellia seed oil, and olive, sunflower, and calendula seed oils.
The thing I love most about the Lip Whips is the texture - rather than an oily salve, they feel like a luxurious whipped cream. They spread easily over the lips, and you only need a tiny dab so the pots will last a long time. The two tints I have look beautiful and never splotchy or patchy. Radiant was the first shade I bought, inspired by the 2014 Pantone Color of the Year Radiant Orchid, and it's a beautiful cool pink shade that adds just a hint of tint and brightness to the face. After that, I decided I needed a more "flushed" shade, so I picked up Suji Red (named after the co-founder's daughter!). It's so amazingly pigmented, like a lipstick. It adds the prettiest "just bitten" flush to the lips, and I'm also going to try it out on the cheeks and report back on that. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to need to pick up every shade as well as the clear one to wear around the house.
I try not to make too many impulse purchases these days, but this has certainly been one of the best. I'm so intrigued by the brand now, and am looking into trying out some of their skincare next.
Have you tried the Lip Whips or anything else by Kari Gran? What was your best impulse purchase?
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