Review: Pheonix Botanicals: Cloven Hoof Lip Balm, Little Wing Lip Balm, Jasmine Beauty Balm

Look at this adorable packaging!

I received my order from Pheonix Botanicals about a week ago, but wanted time to give it a fair trial. I've been wearing the lip balm about twice a day every day, and tried the beauty balm nearly every night. But, before I get to the actual review, here's a bit about the shop I bought it from:

From their Etsy shop About page: 

"A woodland faerie usually residing in Brooklyn (and currently spending a few months in Hawaii), I am fond of greener pastures! I flutter between the wild fields and the city, and bring some of nature's love back to you.

I’m thrilled about our abundant, wild therapeutic plants, and harvest them mindfully in the gorgeous wild Northeast. Phoenix balms and butters are made with real plants, and are thus very gentle on the skin. All ingredients are listed, and most are baby safe. Naturally and delightfully fragrant - prepared by a discerning nose! 

I blend exquisit natural perfumes, inspired by landscape, story, and emotion.

Apprenticing with local herbalists for several years, and working in ethnobotany research for much of a decade has exposed me to the myriad cultural and healing uses of plants... as well as a yearning to put the knowledge into practice. Spending time in nature, working with the plants, and creating with them is a joy. It's an honor to share my botanical creations with you!

Our name is inspired by that renewed feeling you get spending time in nature - like a Phoenix!

The CEO is also Phoenix. This joyful cockatiel oversees all operations, and adds his whistles and bird love to the mix."

The shop is run from Brooklyn, New York, and recently, Honolulu, Hawaii. You can see a lot of Hawaiian influence in the shop, particularly amongst the perfumes. Now, on to the review!

Irena put a ton of care into her packaging. From the hand-written thank-you note to the individual drawstring bags, it made disassembling my package a lot of fun and made it much more exciting than the usual tear-open, get-product sort of thing.

Something to note is that there was surprisingly little waste considering the layers involved: the tissue was recyclable, the bags were easily reusable, the cards were to keep, and so on. I even found a use for the black and gold string that held the package together: I knotted each end and use it to play with my cat. She loves that stupid thing more than any of her actual cat toys.

Pheonix Botanicals was also kind enough to include a sample of their perfume (which makes sense, as they seem quite devoted to their line of natural perfumes.) As you may have guessed, I, like most people, love samples and freebies. A perusal of their website revealed the value of this sample to be an unusually generous C$6.81.


Now, the products:

Cloven Hoof and Little Wing lip balms:

Ingredients (Cloven Hoof): organic vanilla pods, organic jojoba & olive oils, beeswax, organic shea butter, vitamin e oil, essential oils of clove & vervain.

Ingredients (Little Wing): organic vanilla pods, organic jojoba oil, beeswax, organic shea butter, cocoa butter, vitamin e oil, essential oils of vervain, magnolia & ylang-ylang.

I bought the Cloven Hoof for myself. Throughout winter (throughout most of the year, actually), my lips are constantly dry, and I use a lot of lip balm. I'm not down with wearing something super shiny or tinted, especially at work, but I wanted something with a nice masculine scent and luxurious ingredients. Cloven Hoof fit every requirement, though I honestly didn't expect it to be much better than any of the other multiple lips balms I've used this winter.

I'm pleased to say that it seriously exceeded my expectations. This is the first lip balm I've had that effectively not only got rid of the chapping on my lips, which was really starting to annoy me, but also left my lips soft and moisturized even well after it had apparently worn off. 

Additionally, the scent is awesome. It's a warm, slightly sweet, earthy clove - not overpowering, but a bit spicy, with a distinctly green note that I assume is the vervain (I have never smelled vervain on its own, so I'm a bit lost in regards to that). The tube states that this is 'Pan's coveted clove lip balm', and that does seem to suit it. It's a outdoorsey and wild, androgynous scent. Also, the fact that my partner loves the smell of clove makes it sexy, as well.

The Little Wing balm I bought for my partner, who goes through lip balm at an even greater rate than I do. When asked how it was, the answer was: "It's great, but I like yours better." This is probably on account of the sexy clove, as I mentioned earlier. Apparently it does work well, but not as impressively as my own.

The smell of Little Wing ("a lip balm with a thousand smiles") is unique. Though there is magnolia and ylang-ylang listed in the ingredients, to me it smells like a sweet green vanilla. Fresh-cut flower stems over a trace of true vanilla perfume - nothing food-y about this scent, and the sweet note is subtle enough to make it androgynous.

Both of these balms came in recycled paper tubes. I was afraid it'd get squashed or start breaking down in my coat pocket, but it's surprisingly tough.

Cloven Hoof lip balm: 10/10

Little Wing lip balm: 8/10

Jasmine Beauty Balm:

Ingredients: organic olive, jojoba, & rosehip oils, organic shea butter, Hawaiian beeswax, infused jasmine & natal plum flowers, jasmine essential oils & absolutes.

The description on the tin says that this is "a skin toning moisturizer with uplifting scent". I was thinking about getting a moisturizer for a while, since I of course want to retain my youthful good looks. The problem with this is that I have ridiculously sensitive skin, and almost everything either makes me break out, or gives me some sort of rash. I'd figured out in the past few years that some synthetic fragrances seemed to cause it, although which ones I'm still not sure of. I figured it was easiest just to avoid them all together. This beauty balm seemed pretty safe to try, and since additional items from the shop shipped for $0.50, I might as well give it a go while I was buying anyway.

The first thing I noticed was the scent. Jasmine is often called "The King of Flowers", and I can completely understand why. It's intoxicating. It's got a deep, warm, dry aspect to it that keeps it from being overwhelmingly floral and sweet, and it's strangely addictive. I would wear this as a solid perfume, honestly - I think that men's scents have a lot of room for floral additions beyond the ubiquitous lavender.

I wore this moisturizer several times over the past week, mostly putting it on before bed. I applied it to my laugh lines, (carefully) around my eyes, my forehead, and my hands.

The result: I broke out on my laugh lines, but not anywhere else. I really like the way it worked on my forehead - it didn't seem to make me oily, either. My hands have had a break-out of eczema lately, which I normally put cortisone cream on, but I decided to try the moisturizer on them, since they're also a good indicator of my sensitivities. It didn't get rid of the eczema, but it did make it any worse, either. Therefore, pretty neutral, and safe for sensitive skin. So while I love the scent and it's a decent moisturizer, I'm going to keep looking for something that better suits my demanding complexion.

8/10

Bonus: Lavender Noir Perfume Oil:

I forgot to take a picture of this, but you can see it in one of the photos above, in the little white envelope.

Ingredients: organic jojoba, infused botanicals, essential oil blend.

I like lavender, and this was a gorgeous version. The description describes it as smoky, but to me it's more spicy, slightly dry, with the faintest hint of citrus. According to the shop, the notes include: "Bergamot, Lavender, Wildflower petals, Tonka, Smoke, Mushrooms, Oakmoss." I confess that I probably just don't have a developed enough nose to detect the vast majority of these, but I'm working on it!

In my opinion, a nice androgynous scent, suitable particularly for the evening. I wouldn't wear it in close quarters, such as at work, out of respect for perfume allergies, and my partner sneezes around lavender, so I'll be reserving it for special occasions. I think I might also put a few drops onto one of the bags the lip balms came in and put it under my pillow to help me sleep.

A lovely scent, but for me, nothing spectacular, and not something I'll end up wearing very often.

7/10

You can find Pheonix Botanical's shop here: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/PhoenixBotanicals. Their website can be found at: http://www.phoenixbotanicals.com/, and their Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/phoenixbotanicals. 

Review: February Tea Sparrow

Here she is!

So, my Tea Sparrow package arrived a few days ago. They're apparently all shipped out on the 17th every month, but it took about three days to reach me, two hours' drive away. Got to love the Canadian postal system!

Anyway, for my very first Tea Sparrow review, I'll go over the packaging. After this, unless I mention any changes, just assume it's the exact same.

The back of the box, with the cute logo.

There were two cards in the box: one (the green) with the introduction on the front, and Tea Sparrow Tea Tips on the back, and a coupon for $15 towards any purchase from pantybypost.com. I checked it out, and it's apparently a subscription service that "delivers premium panties for about $15 a month... right to your door." On the actual website, I did find underwear for men, but they were quite boring. Additionally, after I'd been on the site for 5 minutes, it all inexplicably turned to Russian. Same site, only... Russian. I hadn't done anything to request this change so I suppose it's something they do to keep things exciting, or maybe it's a glitch. Anyway, I decided that pantybypost is not for me at this time. Still, it's a nice thought, I suppose. Discounts and freebies are always appreciated.

From left to right: Organic White Rose by Numi; Lavender Earl Grey by Rishi; Strawberry Champagne by Tea Desire, and Organic Chai Rooibos by Gathering Place.

The tea packets were nicely and economically wrapped in brown tissue, and arrived in perfect condition. I didn't smell anything upon opening the box, but sniffing the tops of the envelopes, I caught some scent, particularly of the Strawberry Champagne, which smelled absolutely amazing. Of course, that was the tea I chose to try first.

Note: Both my partner and I tried all the teas except for the Lavender Earl Grey, as my partner, who normally has pretty good taste, for whatever reason does not like Earl Grey. Well, more for me. Anyway, we tried them over several days, so that each one was tried fairly. The results are our compiled notes (well, mainly mine; my partner mostly said, "Mmm, nice.")

Strawberry Champagne by Tea Desire:

Look at this. Gorgeous!

Ingredients: Sencha green tea, carrot pieces, pineapple pieces (pineapple, sugar), strawberries, cornflowers, sunflowers, natural flavour.

The scent of this tea is mouth-watering. It's an effervescent, sweet, floral strawberry. And the taste, fortunately, reflects that. 

From the scent, I thought it would be 'Summery' for me, but it's a slightly darker taste than that. There is definitely a champagne flavour that comes through more while drinking - a slightly boozy sweetness. It's not fizzy but it tastes like it could be. A very well done strawberry champagne. My partner in particular likes it. 

9/10.

This tea can be purchased at teadesire.com at $6 per 50g.

Organic White Rose by Numi Organic Tea:

Smells just like a memory.

Ingredients: Fair trade certified organic white tea and organic rose.

Both my partner and I had the same reaction to smelling this: a strange and happy reminiscent feeling. For me, I'm reminded of my grandparents' cabin by the lake, where big untamed rose bushes bloomed every summer, smelling exactly like this tea. For my partner, it's the memory of walking down the country trails in the forest by the house, and the scent of the wild roses that grew there. This smells of true rose, a light and green, nostalgic floral. It's not perfume-y, more like standing in a rose garden on a summer day. And no wonder, with the generous amount of rose petals in the mix. 

It tastes as it smells - delicately floral. It's not heavy at all, and tastes lovely with a bit of honey.

9/10.

This tea can be purchased at numitea.com at $29 for 4 oz. If you want to try it before committing, a 16 count box of the tea bag version is only $6.99.

Organic Chai Rooibos by Gathering Place:

Warning: complete tease.

Ingredients: Rooibos tea, ginger, cinnamon, fennel, cardamom, cloves and black pepper.

Oh, Organic Chai Rooibos, you tricked me good. When I opened your envelope, you smelled absolutely amazing: spicy, warm, fragrant in a wonderful warm way reminiscent of ornate brass tea pots and silks in gold and red. I suppose that's a lot to live up to. But where did all that promise go?

It tastes like chai, yes, but it was very... faint, especially considering the strong scent. Perhaps I shouldn't have added cream to my tea, but that's how I've always drunk chai, and I haven't found it to dull spices much in the past. In fact, a few years ago, my very favourite chai was another herbal version, which stood up admirably to my additions of cream and honey. After tasting this one the first time, I thought that maybe it needed more steeping. I must have left it for a good fifteen minutes all together. The package does say that it takes 10 minutes to steep. Maybe, if I'd used more than the generous tablespoon I did, and left it for twenty minutes, it would have lived up to its promise. But by then, my tea would be cold. Is this meant to be an iced tea? Possibly, but I'm not an iced tea drinker, and there was no indication of that on the package.

I think that in the future, I'll make it the old-fashioned way: simmered in milk on the stovetop for at least half an hour. I suspect that it will be excellent this way. However, used as directed, it was a bit of a let-down.

7/10 - but if it does turn out to be great the old-fashioned way, I'll be sure to edit this.

This tea can be purchased at gatheringplacetrading.com at $8.05 for 100 g.

Lavender Earl Grey by Rishi Tea

The lavender buds weren't very, well, lavender, but they sure packed a punch.

Ingredients: Organic Fair Trade Certified black tea, organic lavender flowers, natural essential oils of bergamot and lavender.

The interesting thing about lavender, for me, is that it always has had the faintest hint of citrus to it. It's not surprising, then, that the scents of the lavender and bergamot blended completely to my nose. In fact, it smelled mostly lavender. Not that I minded, it was very nice indeed.

During drinking, the bergamot came out slightly more, but the taste was still that of lavender with a trace of citrus. However, the overall impression was still somehow that of an Earl Grey, making me wonder if I noticed more of the bergamot subconsciously, or if lavender was simply very Earl Grey in nature anyway. I've had the Tazo Tea version of Earl Grey with lavender, but I must say that this one beats it by far. Yes, this tea was delightful. It's a fragrant, floral, elegant Earl Grey, but just a little bit fun. It makes one feel like the type of person who reads a rollicking adventurous travel tale while sipping their tea from a china cup in their garden on a quiet, warm summer afternoon. Or, in other words, it makes a very good cup of tea.

9/10.

This tea can be purchased at rishi-tea.com at $4 per oz, or $13 per the quarter-pound.

Overall, I'm very impressed, and have found several teas that might become staples in my tea cupboard. I hope next month goes as well!

Note: Obviously I loved a lot of these teas, so why only 9/10? Well, I'm reserving that for something that is well and truly the best thing ever - something I can't live without, something irreplaceable. However, 9/10 is still considered pretty damn good. Any of them might be that 10/10 for you - give them a try!

Tea Sparrow costs $20 a month, with free shipping to Canada and the continental US.