I always feel like throwing a little party when I finish a lip balm. I tend to either lose interest in them or lose them before I can finish them. In my medicine cabinet, for instance, I have a smooshed and broken tube of Caudalie Lip Conditioner I've been working on trying to finish for years, and various purses and closets are full of the half-empty remnants of lip balms I've loved and lost.
One of the balms I managed to finish somewhat recently was a tube of Marshmallow Peeps-scented lip balm from Etsy bath and body shop Orange Thyme. (Other recent empties: a tube of Jack Black lip balm, which is my new absolute favorite, another tube of Orange Thyme in Lemon Creme, shown below, and a mini Fresh lip balm from the Sephora birthday present a couple of years ago. The latter actually fell into the toilet before it was 100% finished, RIP... = Rest In Pee.)
Orange Thyme has been a victim of my short lip balm attention span because none of the permanent varieties I tried struck me as quite as wonderful as the seasonal Peeps balm, so it's fallen by the wayside of late, but for almost a year, I kept that Peeps balm in my medicine cabinet and applied it every night before bed, without fail, and it kept my lips soft and moisturized, as a good lip balm should, and smelled nice, as a good lip balm should. (The Lemon Creme was good, but not as delightful to me as the Peeps balm.)
Packaging:
I haven't ordered from Orange Thyme recently enough or often enough to remember how my order was packaged, but the lip balms themselves come in pretty standard packaging--the normal twist-up Chapstick-style tube, made of translucent plastic, and labeled with a colored label with the name of the balm and the ingredients on it.
Selection:
Orange Thyme offers three types of lip products:
- Lip balm
- Lip tint, a sheer tinted balm
- Lip shimmer, a shimmery tinted balm
They also offer a one-year lip balm subscription for $40, which comes out to $3.33 per balm, with the balms sent in quarterly packs of three. I think it's a really fun gift idea even if there's no way I could ever use up one lip balm per month. (Dear God--it's like the CSA of lip balms!)
Three types of soap:
- Shea butter bar soap
- Olive oil bar soap
- Whipped soap sugar scrub
Two types of lotion:
And perfume oil roll-ons. I think they also offer a lip scrub, but none was available for purchase while I was writing this review.
There is a dizzying array of lip balm scents available from the shop--there are 30 different choices listed in the "pick three" sampler choices. The soap and lotion scent choices are more limited.
Samples:
0.75 oz samples of the shea butter soaps are available in packs--2 for $3, 4 for $6, or 8 for $12. You can get a random assortment of the olive oil soaps, 5-6 oz total, for $6.25.
Quality:
I have found the lip balms to vary somewhat in texture--some of the ones I've tried seem a little softer than others, while others are a bit too hard for my taste. However, they all seem equally moisturizing and similar in scent intensity, and the packaging is professional and consistent: no crooked or smeared labels or underfilled balms. They don't taste like anything to me, and the scent is noticeable but isn't overwhelmingly strong or long-lasting.
I like the ingredients for their balms: avocado oil, cocoa butter, candelilla wax, shea butter, natural and essential oils. Lots of nice, emollient butters and oils.
I realized while researching my purchase history from them that I had actually tried their olive oil soap and completely forgot about it until I looked at my Etsy purchase history. The lip balms clearly made a lot more of an impression. On the other hand, I gave it a good feedback score, so I don't think there was anything wrong with it. I think it was just forgettable.
Cost:
The lip balms are $3.50 apiece--size is not listed. Burt's Bees lip balms seem to be about the same size and cost around $2.25; Chapstick costs around $1.60 for a tube the same size. (For comparison's sake, Temptalia has a great breakdown of price per ounce for higher-end lip products.)
It's within the acceptable range of lip balm prices for me, but what the hell do I know, I own a $19 jar of Nuxe Reve de Miel. (I haven't completely lost my sanity and started buying By Terry Baume de Rose or La Mer lip balms yet, though. Also, I like Natalie Dee's rationale for buying shmancy lip balms.)
Perfume oils are $9.50 for 9 mL. While this is pretty cheap, I believe it's repackaged fragrance oil, and you can buy around 4 oz of that for the same price (118 mL).
Bar soaps are around $6 for a 5-6-oz bar. Again, that falls solidly in my extremely scientific and precise "acceptable price" range.
Customer Service:
I haven't had to contact Orange Thyme customer service before, but as of this review, she has 11,966 feedback ratings on Etsy with an average score of 5 stars. Pretty damn good.
TAT:
Turnaround time for processing an order is quoted as 7-14 days in the store policies. It looks like it took them 7 days to ship my order when I ordered before.
Shipping:
Shipping starts at the following rates (this is for one lip balm, and prices go up as items get heavier):
| United States | $2.70 USD | $0.15 USD |
| Canada | $6.50 USD | $0.23 USD |
| Everywhere Else | $7.00 USD | $0.25 USD |
One of these days, I'll get around to ordering some more Orange Thyme balms and trying their shea butter soaps--I love using fancy scented bar soaps and I actually do use them up, but I have a large stash to get through first thanks to a Pacifica credit I had to use up, so it will probably be a year before I buy more soap.
On my wishlist:
- Tea-scented lip balm set! Jasmine Tea, Earl Grey Tea, and Green Tea and Honey
- Vanilla Plum lip balm
- Cuticle and Nail Balm in Blood Orange
- Vanilla Bean sugar scrub--oh, who am I kidding, I just want to eat this
- Coconut Milk shea butter soap
...well, OK, maybe the Festivus one.
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| Ain't no party like a finished lip balm party! |
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