HURRAW! The art of amazing lip balm [and a killer giveaway!]

**The draw is now closed- a winner will be announced shortly!**

Some of you might already be thinking, "Lip balm? For real?'  Yep, lip balm. It's a big deal to me, and over the years, I've used hundreds of them. I'll find one that I think is great, but after the third or fourth one, there will inevitably be something... one little thing... that bothers me about it enough that I won't buy it again. It's too sweet. The texture turns grainy after awhile. It melts too easily, it won't stay on my lips long enough, it's too waxy... I could go on. I even have brands that I return to periodically because they're perfectly lovely but I just need to be in the mood to use them. You see, I've usually got about a dozen active lip balms at a time, stashed in different places. I'm obsessed. The lip balm love affair may actually be one of the most common beauty obsessions that exist.

So what's the big deal about Hurraw! lip balms? They are silky and satiny, sexy and perfectly textured, profoundly hydrating, all natural, made with uber-high-quality ingredients that are literally good enough to eat, they are softly fragranced, very affordable... and my favorite part? They're not all formulated exactly the same. Each balm is a little work of art in itself, and I think this is most evident in several of my favorites, including the Ayurvedic trio (Pitta, Vata & Kapha).

My interest in the ancient Indian healing art and science of Ayurveda has grown quite a bit over the past couple of years, and these lip balms are formulated on-site with finesse and thoughtfulness by a staffer who also happens to be a practitioner of Ayurveda. Like every HURRAW! lip balm, they are authentic, a pleasure to use and filled with gorgeous ingredients.

While it was the Ayurvedic trio of balms that pulled me in, it was the "tea trio" that held me down. I'm absolutely crazy about them, but my crown jewel has to be Green Tea. Here's the ingredient breakdown:
Sweet almond oil, hemp oil, coconut oil, jojoba oil, cocoa seed butter, olive oil, camellia (green tea) powder, vitamin e, natural flavors. The brand uses raw, organic, vegan ingredients to create their products, and wildcrafted ones whenever possible.

This stuff makes your lips so soft and hydrated, that I swear that I can feel the moisture seeping through my lips into my entire face. Can you picture that? Maybe it sounds kinda gross, but if you're the winner of the TEA TRIO giveaway, you can find out for yourself if that's an accurate description of the delightful insanity that is  HURRAW! lip balms, and perhaps if this blog's readers are lucky, share some of your own weird technicolor visions of these addictive lip care products.

I've already bought some for my closest friends and family, and I personally own about twenty of these at any given time. My goal is to have tried one of everything, and I'm not very far off, to be honest. My husband is totally into the Root Beer balm, and Mom goes for the citrus fruits: lemon and lime. Another brilliant duo that I haven't mentioned yet are the Sun and Moon balms: Sun is tangerine and vanilla with SPF 15, and Moon consists of a mercifully soothing blue chamomile and vanilla, and is a bit thicker so that it really stays on all night.

You can win one each of the following lip balms, tucked away in an adorable little muslin drawstring bag:
Green Tea, Chai Spice and Earl Grey.

GREEN TEA

CHAI SPICE

EARL GREY

Just leave a comment below telling me about your current favorite lip balms, and what you look for in the ideal lip balm. On Monday night around 7pm Central, I will announce the winner in a new post. The winner will be determined by Random.org. At that time, the winner will be responsible for emailing me at eyelineronacat at gmail dot com with their mailing address so I can send out their goodies! Think of me as a version of Santa Claus that deals strictly in badass stocking stuffers, who has way too many pairs of high-heeled boots and bottles of perfume for her own good.

Feel free to head over to the HURRAW! website to check out all the different flavors and formulations they have. If you are a true lip balm freak, I dare you to click away without buying a couple. That is something I've been woefully unable to do as of yet.

Good luck to everyone, and happy holidays to you and yours!

[prize trio provided by HURRAW! balms. All other balms purchased by me for my own personal use. All images copyright HURRAW! balms, all rights reserved.]

The LUSH Chronicles: My first foray into the freshly launched Emotional Brilliance Cosmetics line

Spin the wheel! You can do it in LUSH shops or online. Just give it a whirl, and when it stops, quickly choose the 3 colors that appeal to you the most. The wheel will tell you how you're feeling-- check out the cosmetics that correspond to the colored disks, and you've got the exact look to suit your mood at that moment. Each shade is associated with a word, and when you combine your three words, it serves as a colorful makeup fortune cookie. Well, that's the idea anyway. It's the cutest corny gimmick I've seen in quite some time, and I have to admit that I love it.

What I ultimately did, though, was just choose the colors I really wanted to wear on my face, and I came up with a gorgeous avocado green liquid eyeliner (Healthy) which I completely adore, and a very vibrant, dark aquamarine (Control) color that you can layer to make it a deeper blue. Warning: Control (the deep blue) will stain everything in its path, including your skin (but it comes off well with an oil-based cleanser- try LUSH Ultrabland cleanser, it takes everything off). I love the clinical but cute and cheerful dropper bottles, and the little hang tags that come with each one. On the other end of the non-squeezable solid plastic bulb is the perfect fine, easy to control brush for liner application. The eyeliners I chose have no shimmer and smudgeability is fantastic until it sets. It's the only liquid eyeliner I've used that actually applies just as evenly and easily along the bottom lashline as the top, There are plenty of cremes and plenty of shimmers in the range; I think there is definitely something for every taste.

Here's another part I love: the ingredients. For the eyeliner, ingredients include:
Rose petal infusion, glycerin, almond oil, jojoba oil and cupuacu butter. Retails for $22.95.
Awesome! If there's a natural alternative to ANY old thing that works just as well or better, I'm all over it.

The eyeliner collection: I have the avocado green (Healthy) and third from left, deep aquamarine (Control)

Feeling Younger Skin Tint is OMGorgeous. It's a versatile cream highlighter that can me mixed into foundation (which, for me by the way, is LUSH's Colour Supplement in Jackie Oates). It can also be used straight out of the jar (with or without a brush) for strategic, natural looking highlighting blended onto the high planes of the face, cupid's bow and inside corners of eyes. The platinum-white shimmer is subtle, but like with any highlighter, you have to know when to say when. Friends don't let friends use too much shimmer. Its absolutely lovely moisturizing formula is similar to the Colour Supplements (did I mention I love my Jackie Oates? It smells like benzoin and blends like a dream). Final verdict: Feeling Younger is just as good as the best cream highlighter I've ever tried and about half the price. Bam.

ingredients include: oatmeal infusion, orange flower water, almond oil, cocoa butter, glycerin, jojoba oil (basically, it's a party for your face and your invitation was just FedEx overnighted to you). Retails for $18.95.

Feeling Younger Skin Tint: a fabulous, un-obvious highlighter and luminizer

Colour Supplement in Jackie Oates (fairest), smells faintly of benzoin (BONUS!)

Okay, a word about LUSH Colour Supplements. Yes, ANOTHER word. Okay. It's not part of the Emotional Brilliance cosmetics line, but I want to talk a bit about it anyway, because it's absolutely essential in creating all of my looks. Imagine the creamiest, whipped, sheer tinted, perfectly pigmented moisturizer, tailor made for sensitive skin. Add to it that there's a shade for the extremely pale among us (dozens of big companies still refuse to do us this favor, even since the tide has changed against tanning). Oh yeah, and you can also use it as a spot concealer, and mix it into your facial moisturizer to diffuse the color. That's my Colour Supplement in Jackie Oates. Somebody ought to name a luxury handbag after it.

ingredients include: oat milk, safflower oil, aloe vera extract, organic rosehip oil, shea butter, glycerin, honey, tincture of benzoin (a natural preservative). Retails for $15.95-- and it's WAY better than foundations I've spent 5X more on.

The Lippies- need to get my paws on a couple of these soon

Top row are the lipsticks, bottom left are the eyeliners, bottom right are the eyeshadows

Now that I've had the chance to try a couple of products from the Emotional Brilliance cosmetics line, I'm super-confident about going back for more. More of everything! (if any of my readers get that reference, leave a comment and I just might give you a surprise).The mascara, a couple of lipsticks and eyeshadows are calling my name right this very minute. Well done, LUSH!

[samples provided by the company for my consideration]