Product review: Yonder & Green Moisturizing Lip Balm and Moisturizing Face Cream
Yonder & Green is a New York company founded in 2006 and dedicated to providing fresh, handcrafted skincare products. All products are handmade in small batches, contain no synthetic, animal-based or petroleum ingredients, and are never tested on animals. Recently the company sent me samples of their Moisturizing Lip Balm and Moisturizing Face Cream for review.
As long-term readers know, I'm a bit of a lip balm 'ho. I carry it with me everywhere and have tubes of it stashed all over the house (including one that sits above the function keys on my computer keyboard in my home office; it's shameful, I know).
My personal (picky!) requirements for a daytime lip balm are that it has a soft texture, works well under lipstick, and doesn't have to be reapplied a bazillion times a day (even though I totally WILL reapply it fairly often, because I'm addicted). The texture of the Yonder & Green lip balm is really a bit more waxy/crumbly than I'd like. It's not that it's dry, exactly -- it doesn't drag across my lips or anything -- it's just not super soft and slickery like I prefer. It also seems to kind of sit on top of my lips rather than sinking in, which means it doesn't work all that well under lipstick (or at least, not the ones I tried) and it tends to rub off fairly easily. In that respect, it was a bit of a disappointment.
My nighttime lip balm requirements are vastly different; I just want something that forms a protective barrier and doesn't irritate my lips or migrate all over my face and pillow while I sleep. I'm happy to say the Yonder & Green lip balm fared much better under these requirements. It does form a nice protective barrier on my lips and it stays put.
However, every night I wore it, I woke in the morning to slightly irritated lips. I've looked over the ingredient list and the only things I can pinpoint as possible culprits are the orange and lemon flavorings. My lips are REALLY sensitive to citrus flavorings/oils for some reason -- they tend to leave me an inflamed, peeling mess (I know, pretty!). While fortunately I did NOT have any sort of severe reaction to this product, I did have enough of an irritating tingle to make me think I'm probably just sensitive to one or more of the ingredients.
So instead of lip balm, I've been using it as a cuticle/nail conditioner and it's working great for that. Go figure! It's still a bit crumbly, so I have to rub it in, but it does a great job of softening my cuticles and giving my nails a natural, healthy shine. And I like the citrus scent okay; I just can't wear it on my lips.
Now let's move on to the Moisturizing Face Cream. Each jar comes hand-lettered with a batch number and a "freshness cycle" -- a date range during which the product should be used. There's a seal under the cap, and the texture of the cream is very soft and buttery ranging toward slightly liquidy/lotiony, depending on the temperature of the room in which you store it.
This is not a treatment product. You won't find any retinol or AHAs or peptides or whatever in this stuff. This is straight-up moisture, and how. The product is packed full of plant oils and essential fatty acids (hello, sweet almond, evening primrose, grapeseed, olive, shea butter, need I go on?) and does a fantastic job of moisturizing without irritating skin.
You all know I love to smear anything oily on my face, but this stuff really isn't oily/greasy, just very emollient. I used a light hand with it (it's been very rainy/humid here so I don't really NEED extra moisture right now) and it did an awesome job of plumping and hydrating my skin without irritating it OR causing breakouts. I'm not sure you'd love it if you're an oily gal, but used as a night cream, it did not cause any extra oiliness for my normal/combo skin during the day.
Moisturizing Face Cream comes in three varieties: Unscented, Rose-Lavender, and Rose-Ylang Ylang. I was sent all three and found that they performed the same on my face. I love that the product comes in an unscented version because often the scent of a product determines whether or not I can even stand to have it on my face (I'm looking at YOU, loathsome Nivea). I was a little leery of the fragranced versions because I HATE most rose scents, but I'm happy to report that the Rose-Lavender just smelled of lavender to my nose, and the Rose-Ylang Ylang was all ylang. The fragrances are all-natural -- just plant oils -- which helps, and they're very subtle and don't linger very long once the product is applied.
Incidentally, while the label says Face Cream, you can really use this stuff anywhere. It works great on cuticles, heels, elbows, and I love it on my legs after shaving. Which is nice, because there's no way I could use up the entire 2-oz. jar within the four-month freshness cycle if I were only using it on my face, particularly this time of year!
Yonder & Green Moisturizing Lip Balm, priced at $5 per tube, and the Moisturizing Face Cream, ranging from $30 to $35 for a 2 oz. jar, can be purchased from the company's website. Sample size jars of the face cream are available for a small fee.
As long-term readers know, I'm a bit of a lip balm 'ho. I carry it with me everywhere and have tubes of it stashed all over the house (including one that sits above the function keys on my computer keyboard in my home office; it's shameful, I know).
My personal (picky!) requirements for a daytime lip balm are that it has a soft texture, works well under lipstick, and doesn't have to be reapplied a bazillion times a day (even though I totally WILL reapply it fairly often, because I'm addicted). The texture of the Yonder & Green lip balm is really a bit more waxy/crumbly than I'd like. It's not that it's dry, exactly -- it doesn't drag across my lips or anything -- it's just not super soft and slickery like I prefer. It also seems to kind of sit on top of my lips rather than sinking in, which means it doesn't work all that well under lipstick (or at least, not the ones I tried) and it tends to rub off fairly easily. In that respect, it was a bit of a disappointment.
My nighttime lip balm requirements are vastly different; I just want something that forms a protective barrier and doesn't irritate my lips or migrate all over my face and pillow while I sleep. I'm happy to say the Yonder & Green lip balm fared much better under these requirements. It does form a nice protective barrier on my lips and it stays put.
However, every night I wore it, I woke in the morning to slightly irritated lips. I've looked over the ingredient list and the only things I can pinpoint as possible culprits are the orange and lemon flavorings. My lips are REALLY sensitive to citrus flavorings/oils for some reason -- they tend to leave me an inflamed, peeling mess (I know, pretty!). While fortunately I did NOT have any sort of severe reaction to this product, I did have enough of an irritating tingle to make me think I'm probably just sensitive to one or more of the ingredients.
So instead of lip balm, I've been using it as a cuticle/nail conditioner and it's working great for that. Go figure! It's still a bit crumbly, so I have to rub it in, but it does a great job of softening my cuticles and giving my nails a natural, healthy shine. And I like the citrus scent okay; I just can't wear it on my lips.
Now let's move on to the Moisturizing Face Cream. Each jar comes hand-lettered with a batch number and a "freshness cycle" -- a date range during which the product should be used. There's a seal under the cap, and the texture of the cream is very soft and buttery ranging toward slightly liquidy/lotiony, depending on the temperature of the room in which you store it.
This is not a treatment product. You won't find any retinol or AHAs or peptides or whatever in this stuff. This is straight-up moisture, and how. The product is packed full of plant oils and essential fatty acids (hello, sweet almond, evening primrose, grapeseed, olive, shea butter, need I go on?) and does a fantastic job of moisturizing without irritating skin.
You all know I love to smear anything oily on my face, but this stuff really isn't oily/greasy, just very emollient. I used a light hand with it (it's been very rainy/humid here so I don't really NEED extra moisture right now) and it did an awesome job of plumping and hydrating my skin without irritating it OR causing breakouts. I'm not sure you'd love it if you're an oily gal, but used as a night cream, it did not cause any extra oiliness for my normal/combo skin during the day.
Moisturizing Face Cream comes in three varieties: Unscented, Rose-Lavender, and Rose-Ylang Ylang. I was sent all three and found that they performed the same on my face. I love that the product comes in an unscented version because often the scent of a product determines whether or not I can even stand to have it on my face (I'm looking at YOU, loathsome Nivea). I was a little leery of the fragranced versions because I HATE most rose scents, but I'm happy to report that the Rose-Lavender just smelled of lavender to my nose, and the Rose-Ylang Ylang was all ylang. The fragrances are all-natural -- just plant oils -- which helps, and they're very subtle and don't linger very long once the product is applied.
Incidentally, while the label says Face Cream, you can really use this stuff anywhere. It works great on cuticles, heels, elbows, and I love it on my legs after shaving. Which is nice, because there's no way I could use up the entire 2-oz. jar within the four-month freshness cycle if I were only using it on my face, particularly this time of year!
Yonder & Green Moisturizing Lip Balm, priced at $5 per tube, and the Moisturizing Face Cream, ranging from $30 to $35 for a 2 oz. jar, can be purchased from the company's website. Sample size jars of the face cream are available for a small fee.
Labels: face, lips, moisturizer, product reviews, skincare, thumbs up, Yonder and Green
2 Comments:
Great blog, will definately be checking here frequently for my latest beauty fix!
Can you please talk about how you organize all of your products?
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