The Nars spring collection has a number of nice items. I put a swatch of the Lhasa eye shadow up on Beauty and Fashion Tech, along with a photo of the full collection. Here, I am covering the Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in Mexican rose.

Nars Velvet Gloss Lip Pencils are always nice delightful items. They are thick, full of pigment, and wear very well. I tend to prefer thick crayon type pencils such as these over standard lipstick. The Mexican Rose shade for the spring collection is a nice bright rose that gives a good pop of color, without going overboard. Below is a swatch:

The shade is very pretty, would work well on many different skin tones, and has good pigment, yet is still on the sheer side.  Definitely a good choice for spring!

The Nars spring collection is available now. Get it at NarsCosmetics.com.

Disclosure: This review is based on a product provided by a representative of the company. For more, please see our disclosure page.

Disclosures: Girl Gloss at times reviews products provided by a representative of the company. When we do so, we specifically state so. We also use affiliate links. For more, please see the disclosure page

About the Author: Carleen Coulter

Girl Gloss is brought to you by lip balm addicts, so isn’t it about time that it had a best lip balm list? I think it is! The following are the best lip lip balms that money can buy!

The Best Lip Balm List

The best balm list is split by tinted and untinted products and is generally in order of favorites as far as the top 5 or so go. But after that it is hard to pick favorites among the items, as they are all good products. You really can’t go wrong with any of these nice balms. Instead of trying to link to each balm, I verified that you generally can find them through the following sources, with the exception of Votre Vu, which has their own website and is also an MLM program.

Lip Balm at Beauty.com

Lip Balm at Drugstore.com

Lip Balm at Norstrom

Sephora

Ulta

Best of the Standard Lip Balms

Below are 30 of the best lip balms. These generally are untinted or refer to the untinted version of the balm.

1: Badger Cocoa Butter Balm: Big, fat, and tasty, plus natural with great moisturizing ingredients and made by a cool company. What else could you want? Badger is our perennial number one favorite!

2: Murad Vitalic Energizing Pomegranate Lip Protector SPF 15: For the most part, I tried to keep gel tubes off this list because I classify them as glosses instead of a balms, but Murad’s lip protector is simply too good not to be on the list. This super moisturizing gel tastes great, gives lots of shine and offers SPF 15 protection.

3: Eos Lip Balm: The cool Eos lip balm pods are all the rage and the balm is pretty darn good too! Fun to carry and great to wear.

4: Votre Vu: Votre Vu makes a luxurious, buttery balm with a nice vanilla almond taste that comes packaged in a lipstick type tube. For hand cream fans, you can also get the Duette, which is a tube of particularly nice hand cream with the balm in the lid.

5: Fresh Sugar Rose: A cult classic for a reason, Fresh Sugar Rose has a luxurious feel with a wonderful scent and taste. This is the best luxury level lip balm that you can buy.

6: Maui Mike’s Lip Balm SPF 15, Surfer’s Mint: A popular balm that has a great texture that is not too waxy and not too oily. It wears very well and offers SPF protection.

7: Caudalie Lip Conditioner: This buttery balm has great texture and also is good sized, making it a great choice for those who like a bigger balm.

8: Palmer Coco Butter Balm: A nice standard lip balm. Buttery and long wearing. Look for it at your local drugstore.

9: Mission Lip Balm: A favorite for outdoor activities, Mission balms have a good SPF level and are a bit waxier so that they will last longer and give good wind protection. I wear mission when I go running.

10: Jane Iredale Lipdrink: Moisturizing and soothing. This is a good everyday balm.

11: Tarte fRxtion Natural Sugar Exfoliator & Lip Balm Duo: Exfoliation is important and often over looked. This duo is a great way to exfoliate and then moisturize.

12: Alba Hawaiian: Super tasty is why I love this balm. It also is packed with some nice oils and is a bit on the glossy side for fans of lighter balms.

13: Lorac Vitamin E Stick: A great choice for vitamin E lovers. This stick conditions and protects.

14: Shiseido Sun Protection Lip Treatment SPF 36 PA++. Buy this one for its great sun protection. Perfect for tropical vacations!

15: NUXE Reve de Miel Lip Balm: A nice balm that generally gets good reviews.

16: Kiss My Face: If you love natural products, this is the balm to buy. It provides good moisture though natural oils in a lightweight balm.

17: Bliss Fabulips: Yet another nice buttery balm.

18: H2O Plus Lip Treatment: Provides extra conditioning for extra dry lips.

19: Dr.Hauschka Skin Care Lip Balm: This is a nice standard balm that is generally well rated.

20: Banana Boat Lip Balm: Great for outdoor activities, this balm is a bit waxier in order to last longer and it has a good does of SPF. I often wear this one in summer and alternate it with mission balms for outdoor activities.

21: ChapStick Fresh Effects: A super minty balm to freshen breath while keeping your lips fresh as well.

22: Classic Chapstick: The old standby, I still love my cherry Chapstick!

23: Badger Classic Balm: A lighter, slightly oilier balm, good for those who like smoother and glossier balms.

24: Philosophy Kiss of Hope Therapeutic Lip Treatment: An all around good conditioning lip treatment.

25: Maybelline Baby Lips: Soft and soothing, this is a nice standard balm.

26: L’Occitane Shea Butter Lip Balm Stick: I love shea butter, and this balm packs it in. Great for overall moisturizing.

27: Peacekeeper Eco-Sensual Lip Balm: Another nice daily wear lip balm with a lot of fans.

28: Neutrogena Lip Moisturizer: If you need an easy to find lip treatment, this is always  a good option.

29: Yes To Carrots:  A lightweight balm that can be found at most drugstores. Comes in a variety of flavors, including carrot!

30: Jack Black Intense Therapy Balm: A highly conditioning treatment balm.

Best Tinted Lip Balm

Here are 11 great tinted balms.

1: Benetint Balm: Benetint is the original lip stain, and their balm packs in the pigment for pretty rose colored lips with a dose of moisture. Don’t be afraid of the red pot, the tint is very natural looking.

2: Elizabeth Arden 8 hour Lip Protector: A balm that wears very well and gives off a good amount of tint.

3: Yves Saint Laurent VOLUPTÉ SHEER CANDY Glossy Balm Crystal Color: Expensive, but the choice of pretty and sheer shades makes it worth it.

4: Korres Lip Butter: lightly tinted natural balms.

5: Dior Addict Lip Glow: Claims that the tint will adjust to your perfect color. I don’t buy into that, but I still love this product for its pretty tint and great conditioning.

6: Laura Mercier Stick Gloss: Good tint in a quality balm.

7: MAC Tinted Lip Conditioner: These pot balms have a good amount of pigment and moisturizing properties.

8: Tokidoki Gelato Lip Balm Stain: I love Totkidoki, and their lip balm stain does a nice job at providing color and conditioning.

9: Chapstick True Shimmer: A balm with a shimmery tint to it. Try it over standard lip stain for comfortable and neat look.

10: Nivea Tinted Lip Balm: Nivea makes several tinted items, each of which gives a nice bit of color in a light weight balm.

11: Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer: Offers a decent range of shades in a slim balm.

Shop For The Best Lip Balms

Buy Lip Balm at Beauty.com

Buy Lip Balm at Drugstore.com

Buy Lip Balm at Nordstrom.com

Shop at Sephora

Shop at Ulta

It is time again for the best makeup of 2011. Below are the eight best products we tried this year, in no particular order.

(1) Tokidoki Perfetto Eyeliner: Tokidoki puts out some great cosmetics and their eyeliner is fabulous (we also adore the eye shadow palettes). You can see more, along with a swatch here:   Tokidoki Perfetto Eyeliner Review

(2)  Murad Soothing Skin, Lip, and Cuticle Care Stick: this soothing stick dispenses a nice gel that is great for a number of areas, including the lips. Learn more here:  Murad review

(3) Tarte Lipsurgence Lip Tint: Love, love, love Tarte’s lip tints! these crayon shaped tints provide nice color that lasts very well. for a look at one in action, see our Tarte True Blood Lip Tint Swatch.

(4) MAC Sheen Supreme: MAC created a real winner with their Sheen Supreme line of lipsticks. You can view a number of them here: MAC Sheen Supreme Swatches

(5) Kevyn Aucoin Mascara: If you like tubing mascara, you owe it to yourself to check out the highly rated product from Kevyn Aucoin. Here is more information:  Kevyn Aucoin Mascara Review

(6) Nars Holiday Collection: Nars put out a beautiful holiday collection this year that any woman would love. Read our report:  Nars Holiday

(7) Eco-Tools Brushes: For good quality, ecologically sound, and affordable makeup brushes, look to eco-tools. Here is our review:  Eco-Tools Review

(8)  Duwop Private Red: Duwop has a great neutral red lipstick that looks good on just about everyone.For more on finidng the best red lipstick read our article on the subject here: Best Red Lipstick

Interested in years past? See our Best of 2009 and Best of 2008 lists.

The Nars Holiday Collection this year has a modern kabuki theme. The collection of  luxury beauty items were personally curated by François Nars himself, who had this to say about the collection:

“I am completely fascinated by Kabuki theatre; the makeup and costumes are especially beautiful. My attraction to this art form led to the creation of this Collection.  The shades and products used in the NARS Kabuki Collection range from bright, intense shades to deep saturated hues.” –FrançoisNars

The collection includes the following gorgeous items:

The Hanamichi Eye Shadow Palette with brush.

A sleek and pretty Kudoki Kabuki Lip set with brush.

Kuroko Mini Nail Polish Set.

Mie Mini Soft Touch Eye Pencil Sets.

Shop the Nars holiday collection

The limited edition Tarte TrueBlood Collection at Sephora is pretty impressive. It includes a rocking palette with 17 eye shadow shades that I just love, along with a cheek stain and a great Tarte True Blood Lip Tint. I purchased the lip tint and had not previously tried a Tarte Lipsurgence Natural Lip Tint before. I really do love it! The tint is a nice thick crayon type tint, but it has a bit firmer tip than most of the true lip crayons. The effect is that it goes on much like a stain, but feels a bit closer to a sheer lipstick. It wears very well. It doesn’t last quite as long as a stain would, but it definitely lasted longer for me than many lipsticks do.

Here is a swatch of the Tarte True Blood Lip Tint:

The shade is a very versatile berry/rose that is sheer, yet shows up quite well. You can also build it some for a more opaque look. I love this shade and suspect that I will totally wear it out this summer! I’m looking forward to trying it over a regular stain too for some super long wear. I also think that further Tarte Natural Lip Tint purchases are likely in my future.

The Tarte for True Blood Collection is limited edition and I think it is going to be quite popular. You can see more True Blood swatches, including all of the eye shadow shades in the True Blood Glamour Me kit here on Beauty and Fashion Tech: Tarte True Blood Glamour Me Swatches.

Buy Tarte True Blood Lip Tint

At some point in time I purchased a Nivea A Kiss of Flavor Passion Fruit Tinted Lip Care balm. Then I promptly forgot about it only to discover it the other day. Now, how I could overlook something as lovely as a passion fruit flavor balm, I’ll never know. That is a favorite flavor of mine, and it isn’t very common. On top of it, I like lightly tinted balms.

The Nivea tinted lip balm did not disappoint. The flavor is light, yet tasty, and the tint is quite nice. this one have a bright enough tint with a fair amount of pigment, so you can actually get some decent sheer color form it—something that many tinted balms fail at. Moisturization from the balm is decent. It isn’t best balm I have had and I had to reapply a bit more often than I prefer, but for the trade off of getting a nice tint and a favorite flavor, I really don’t mind.

Nivea tends to run between $2-3 and can be found at most drugstores.

Lip stain is all the rage right now. I always loved using Benetint on my lips, and Revlon’s roller ball version of Just Bitten rocked. Now it seems like pens are the in thing,, which with multiple companies marketing them.  I’ll be looking at Revlon’s Just Bitten Pen version pretty soon.

Maybelline has joined the fray with their own pen lip stain, Maybelline Color Sensational. Below is a swatch of the shade Feelin Rosy, which suits me pretty well.

Maybelline’s pen lip, stain fares much better than CoverGirl’s version for application and wear. It goes on pretty well, with the pen shape being nice for careful application,s and it stains quite well too. It also comes in multiple shades, which is nice. What it lacks, however, is the nice touch that Revlon gave to their new Just Bitten lip pen version, which is the addition of a built in balm. Lip stain needs to dry on the lips, and is not at all moisturizing, so applying a balm or gloss over it is a must.  Of course, carrying a balm or clear gloss is no big deal—I often have both, but having it built in is nice. I will be reviewing the Revlon stain soon.

Maybelline is available at all drugstores and big box stores.

I had the pleasure of meeting with representatives of NARS Cosmetics last week and viewing the new NARS Summer Collection for 2010. Among the lip items were a set of NARS Pure Sheer SPF Lip Treatments which are wonderful little tinted lip balms.  These thin balms include sun protection and are made with Wild Mango Butter, Vitamin E, Polar Berries and Açai Oil. Texture is that of a medium balm. So it is buttery and lasts fairly well.

There are six shades—one clear and 5 tinted. The NARS Lip Treatment Balms are quite sheer, so they don’t all show well in my swatch below. However, they do build a bit, so if you get one of the highest tinted ones (such as Angelique), you will see more color from it. Swatches are below, but I lost track of which are which. Angelique is the brightest one to the right though.

New lip shades for the Summer Collection include NARS Lip Gloss Coup de Coeur and NARS Lipstick Love Devotion.  The lipstick is a coral shade that is rather sheer. It can be built up for more color, but I prefer it on the sheer side. The gloss is a richer shade that pairs nicely with the lipstick to darken things up a bit.  NARS’ gloss tends to wear well and is not sticky.

For more on the NAR Summer collection, head on over to Beauty and Fashion Tech to see eye shadow and blush swatches and the new NARS multiple: NARS Makeup Summer Collection. I will also be reviewing the new NARS Multiple Tints and new primers there over the next week or two.

Note, this review is based in part on products provided to me by a representative of the company and contains affiliate links. For more, please see the disclosure page.

Take note! This is flat out the best tinted lip balm that I have found to date! I am in love! I also can’t remember where I bought it! Ack!

Lipology tinted lip balm is so tinted that it perhaps it should be classified as a moisturizing lip stick, except that even the best moisturizing lippies do not feel truly conditioning like a balm. Lipology does. What is more, it included anti-aging peptides, broad spectrum sun protection, and it tastes fabulous.  Below is a swatch of the shade Raspberry.

Like I mentioned, I can’t remember where I picked up my lipology balm, but I suspect it was at Ulta. Regardless, I can’t seem to find it online. It looks rather unassuming—just like a standard lipstick, and I initially thought that is what it was. When I wore it, however, I was immediately very happy with the balm’s texture. It feels akin to a medium balm that is just buttery/waxy enough to last for quite some time, but also very moisturizing. I would love it as a balm alone. But then it adds truly wonderful color that also wears very well. My Lipology tinted balm lasts longer than many balms do, and the color lasts longer than manylipsticks. This isn’t the wimpy color seen with most tinted balms either. It  is a lipstick worthy pigment that can be worn for sheer (but not wimpy sheer) to medium coverage.

The Lipology tinted Lip Balm is also lightly flavored. It has a light mint taste that is not too strong. Instead, it is just enough to be pleasant and adds to the overall experience of the product being more like a balm than a lipstick.

Lipology makes a number of other lip products. If I can find them ,I’ll purchase some more to review. In the meantime if anyone comes across Lipology products please let us know where you found them! I am also sending an inquiry to the company about purchase locations.

I was sent a few Eyeko cosmetics to try. Eyeko is a UK company (but they ship worldwide) with cute line of products. The marketing is somewhat anime/manga in appearance and it also reminds me a bit of the Korean company Etude House.

One of the best products I received was their Strawberry fat Balm. The balm comes in a short, fat tube, so it has a large surface area. The balm itself has a light tint and is medium in weight—not overly glossy, but no all that waxy either. It also is tasty!

Mostly though, the thing is just darn cute. I’m a sucker for cute packaging, so I am really liking Eyeko’s products!