I've been intrigued by the Fresh lip balms for a while - they're widely raved about on the Blogosphere, and a small part of me just likes the novelty of a metal tube. So in late November, I bit the bullet and bought a sample pack of seven mini lipbalms from their website. Weirdly, I can no longer see this particular set on their website - admittedly, the Fresh website is ballache to navigate - but I think I paid around £44 for it, not including £6.95 postage. It's not exactly a student purchase, I'll give you that.

 The box did have a red ribbon on it, which I excitedly ripped off.
 The pretties!


 From left to right: Advanced Lip Therapy (clear) Nude, Rose, Tulip, Ruby, Fig, Advanced Lip Therapy (clear) with SPF.




Hand swatches:
 From left to right: Nude, Rose, Tulip, Ruby, Fig.

Lip swatches:
 Bare lips.
Advanced Lip Therapy.
 Nude. My lips are pretty pigmented, so this barely shows up - a hint of shimmer, but not much else.
 Rose gives a subtle fuschia colour to the lips - much less noticeable in real life.


 Tulip is a slightly deeper red, much more pigmented version of Rose on my lips, with a little more shimmer too.
Fig is a deeper sheer mauve-brown on my lips with shimmer that borders on microfine glitter. It's a little distracting for a tinted lip balm.

So what do we think about the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments?

They're nice. All of them feel very light on the lips, and as someone who despises the heavy feel of say, Vaseline, a lip balm that feels weightless is a must. The range of colour pay off is good, too - I can reach for Nude for lazy days or Tulip if I want a bit more of a statement lip. The packaging is very luxurious and classy, too.

For what they are, they're also pretty expensive. Excluding postage, this gift set works out at nearly £7 a (mini) lip balm - although this is way better value than their full sized tubes, which retail at £19 a pop. Considering the fact that they're very soft and creamy and also mini sized, I've got through a couple of tubes entirely with about two weeks of regular use. That wouldn't make a dent in a standard size Nivea or EOS, for comparison.
While you can't compare budget with high end, I'd completely understand high end pricing if the product delivered high end performance. In terms of moisture, I'd actually rather stick with my Nivea Fruity Shine balms, which surprised me! The tinted Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments are actually not particularly moisturising. The clear versions give a lot more moisture than the tinted ones, but also wear off quickly. They're also very heat sensitive - after a day at work with SPF in my pocket, the little stub of it remaining had melted against the side of the tube, slanting it so it was pretty much unusable. :(

While I don't think I'll be repurchasing mine when they run out, I am interested in the similar product from L'Occitane - priced at £12 for 4g and reported to be super moisturising, those will probably be my next purchase come payday!

Told you I'd get round to one of these eventually ;)

 Really loving Boots No7 voucher thing that they had going on, snagged myself three of these as I got a voucher with my (very expensive) purchase...I'm saving the best for last...
From memory I believe the middle one, which looks black in the photo but that's only because my photography skills (or lack thereof) are seriously appalling, is called Totally Teal. And it is a very unique teal colour which is why I picked it up :P It's almost like a creme finish, but not? I assumed it would be metallic, but it's not quite. Very confusing. I wouldn't have bought this for full price but at £1.75, it was just about right.
The black one is called Glamourous Black or something equally as unimaginative and I can't be bothered to go find the bottles and scour them for the names so when I'm actually reviewing these I'll name them then lol.
 My Palmer's Body Cream ran out, and they seem to have altered the formula as it doesn't smell half as good as it used to, so I didn't repurchase and bought this instead. It's huge and overly runny lol, but I don't hate it. It's far better for the body than for the face in my opinion. Doesn't smell of anything really...*mourns cocoa butter formula back when it used to smell great*
 Lol it's deoderant. It works. Overly Lynx-esque design though, maybe Sure want to work on that or something.

Last but best. I don't care how disrespectful that sounds to the other products, I've been wanting - no, craving - this for an age. Since the summer at least. I AM A FANGIRL FOR THIS PALETTE. And I usually only say that about my favourite K-pop girl groups/boy bands but I feel the term can be applied here. I was totally an Urban Decay virgin, pure, untouched. Except for those loose pigments. *shifty eyes*
I'll do a proper, in depth (sort of. By now, I'm sure all of my followers - so many! Happy dance - are aware of how easily I get sidetracked. Oh look, something shiny! Must investigate!) later on, but if this palette were a man, I'd totally tap that. Plus now my mum has got one and everything. It's so cool!

Fangirling over, what have your best purchases of November/October been?