Review: Crabtree and Evelyn Lip Butter and Hand Cream

If you have ever looked to the blogs I follow, you'll notice I follow a fair bit of fashion blogs. So, with that inspiration in mind, I would like to offer my personal review of beauty products once in a while. I know I myself personally will google a beauty product before buying, because you (at least me) can never fully gauge how some products are at the store, especially when you're being pressured by sales associates, friends, or just time constraints. I'll often buy something, only to realize later its texture wasn't what I remember it to be or that it had a funky smell I couldn't smell fully at the store. So I will attempt to warn and give a review on products that I get or have. I am NOT being paid to do this. I bought everything with my own money and received no discounts or bonuses that is not given to every shopper. Now, onto the review!

Crabtree and Evelyn Hand Cream:

I've been using C&E's hand cream for a couple years now. I got my first tube as a gift from a family friend when she came over to stay in Toronto for a medical residence. I got the Rosewater Hand Therapy, which I continue to love and use to this day.

It's a rich hand cream that smells like roses, not the cheap sweet rose smell, but fresh and fragrant (it really does smell like real roses...just like the ones from my garden during late summer). Another plus for me at least is that it is actually made with rosewater. Using rosewater to wash your hands and such reminds me of a really really good spa or the extravagent and rich European kings and queens of the past. (You know, instead of using lemon water to clean their hands after meals, they use rosewater. Come to think of it, lemons were probably more precious than roses back then.) The shea butter is expected in a hand cream like this, so not much more to say about that. C&E has tons of different scents, and they usually all each have a unique ingredient in them (ie. Rosewater contains...rosewater. Lavender has Lavender oil..etc).

I find this hand cream less oily than other hand creams. It's still very thick and rich, but it's not oily per say. It is absorbed quickly and leaves your hand feeling super mositurized. One thing I did notice was that if I put too much on, it makes my palms kind of damp. It's not an oily feeling, but a slightly damp/moist one. It's nice though in the winter if you're not doing anything with your hands to just let them absorb and be surrounded by moisture.

Overall, this is a nice hand cream that's a nice treat for these harsh winter days. I just got 2 for $25 at Eatons last weekend, so they will cost you about $15 with tax a tube. They last a long time (at least for me), and a tube lasts all winter for me. I usually share the second tube with my best friend or mom....or save it to give away as a present later. The cream has a pretty long shelf life (I found my first tube a while back, and it's still good...and it's 2 years old now), so it can be stored for a while. I don't recommend 2 years though...but they'll easily last half a year or so I'm sure.

Crabtree and Evelyn Lip Butter:

Last weekend, I was at Eatons and I stopped by the store (2nd floor...on the south side (queen station) by the apple store) to pick up a gift for Ben's mom. I ended up getting a Hand Polish, two regular tubes of Hand Therapy (2 for $25....So I got two. They're $18 each normally), and a small travel sized Hand Therapy. They were giving a gift of 2 travel sized Hand Therapy (La Source and Rosewater...my two favourite ones!) and 2 Lip Butter (Vanilla Creme Brulee and the Mint one) for any purchase over $50, thus the extra travel sized hand cream.

I used the Mint one the day of since I'm usually not fond of vanilla or food favoured products. The mint one was really underwhelming. It really was not anything special and I would not spend $7.50 on it (and luckily I didn't). The Creme Brulee on the other hand smells divine. It doesn't have any taste, but it smells SOOOOO good. I feel like I'm eating dessert just by smelling it. YUM.

The texture of the Lip Butter is like....well....butter at room temperature. I honestly feel like I'm just putting butter on my lips. It's a little too liquid for my preference. However, it does leave your lips decently mositurized and shiny for a while. But once again, it's just like putting butter on my lips. It might be just the thing you like, I don't personally like it because I'm more of a lip balm and lipstick kind of girl. But that's my preference. If you're looking for a rich, creamy lip product that smells divine, this might be it for you. Shea butter is listed as its top ingredient, so it's a somewhat natural lip product.

I think I will be using the mint one to treat my cubicles...><" since I'm not super fond of it and I don't really need another lip product. The consistancy and such makes it a good candidate for the cubicles I think. I will continue to use the Creme Brulee one since it just smells so good and is a nice treat for the senses.

Overall, I would not pay $7.50 for a Lip Butter. However, I do recommend you to stop by the Crabtree and Evelyn store and buy some hand cream, soap....etc and get the freebie gift (it's worth $25 if you bought the stuff in it separately). Shelf life wise for the Lip Butter, it doesn't look like it's going to have a long one. So share it if you got two and you're not fond of one, or find some other purpose for it. The tube is 14g, so there's quite a bit of product there to use.

UPDATE: The lip butters go bad after about 10 months to a year. Their consistency changes and you get grain-like particles (size of loose flowing salt) in them (I believe it's the fat in the shea butter). So don't buy a bunch of these thinking they'll last. They won't.