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!

In terms of loose powder, my holy grail was the ELF HD Studio powder. Unfortunately, ELF stopped selling in the UK, and when they returned it was with a massively reduced product range and with hidden custom charges so I've not purchased from them since.

After my last pot ran out, I decided it was high time to investigate other powders. Rather than the HD blurring effect, I was more after oil control, and stumbled across this cheap and cheerful offering from Collection.

For some reason, the Skin Trainer serum is a red box encased in a silver box...strange packaging choice, but OK.

The anti-spot serum is a thin-ish liquid with an SPF of 20. Leaves no white cast or what have you on my dark skin. Also, it absorbs extremely quickly, very important when I'm in hurry in the morning. I've been using it in the mornings (not in the evenings although twice daily application is recommended) since Black Friday, (so a month and a bit now) and my skin seems more even toned and smoother, although I have recently started using a Foreo rip off and occasional AHA so they could also be responsible. I've had two spots since using this product. Annoyingly, my nose is still pretty oily, though that too has reduced somewhat recently...I'm more inclined to credit my skin trying to adjust to the colder/drier weather than this product though.