Day 35: Heart-Shaped Box: Lip Creams from B Never Too Busy to Be Beautiful
A review by Jessica M

B Never Too Busy to Be Beautiful is a little-sister company to Lush, the ever-growing, cult-classic creator of natural toiletries. While Lush offers mostly body products, hair care, and skin care, B Never concentrates on cosmetics and fragrance. Rowena Bird, one of the company’s co-founders, describes B Never’s mission as “ethical beauty that doesn’t scrimp on glamour.”

B Never’s Lip Creams are definitely glamorous: they are packaged in adorable, beaded-and-bejeweled, heart-shaped containers and dressed up with bits of actual gold leaf. They’re also beneficial: their vegan, non-animal-tested formula includes jojoba oil, shea butter, synthetic beeswax, and fragrance derived from rose absolute, orange oil, or cocoa extract, depending on the color. Thanks to their moisturizing ingredients, these lip creams can be worn without any lip balm underneath them, and they are available in a wide array of colors, from natural to dramatic.

Ballet, for example, is called a “versatile milky mahogany” in the B Never catalogue and website. It’s a light, matte neutral, useful for creating a nude, neo-mod lip. It’s just a little too brownish for me, but it would flatter someone with a tan or olive skin tone. Pretty B, a “cute coral pink,” is a perfect choice when my face needs a bit of a pick-me-up. It’s a sheer, bright rose with fine silvery shimmer. It looks semi-transparent by itself, and it adds a touch of shine and sparkle when used over a coral-rose lipstick like Sue Devitt’s Cape Colony. I would love it even more if it were shimmer-free, so that I could wear it to work without worrying about looking too twinkly under the fluorescent lights.

Bellflower is described as a “frosted pink,” and it really is frosted! It’s an iridescent bluish-pink with a generous helping of sparkle. It’s a little too party-like for me to wear on workdays, but I like to dab a bit of Bellflower over a creamy pink lipstick on the weekends. Blast, a “neutral tawny pink,” has more concentrated pigment than the other shades I’ve tried. This is actually a deep, plummy mauve, neither too pinkish nor too brownish, with a sophisticated-yet-earthy look. It has an on-trend feel, and since I’m so fair-skinned, it suits me best for evening use.

Have you tried these creams or any other products from B Never? Do you have any other favorite natural and/or vegan lip cosmetics? Feel free to share in the comments!

Lip Creams are sold for £9.30 (about $13-$14) at B Never’s three U.K. locations and at http://www.bnevertoobusytobebeautiful.com/.

Photos by Jessica M.