Health / Beauty - Eco Lips Organic Lip Balm

Life works in mysterious ways.

I made it all through the New York winter without any lip problems only to develop mysteriously chapped lips in the middle of June.

Go figure.

That's why I was so excited to discover Eco Lips Organic Lip Balms. This company rocks our green world.

Every Eco Lips lip balm contains at least 70% organic ingredients, but most have a much higher percentage. Like the new 99% organic, kid-friendly Pure & Simple balms. All the ingredients in the Pure & Simple balms are actually edible.

We admire the fact that Eco Lips has created such a fantastically diverse and exciting line of products. Vegans can happily spread on the 70% organic Bee Free balm based on organic oils, vegetable wax and organic shea butter.

Glamour girls can pucker up for Eco Tints - naturally glistening moisturizers that use 90% certified organic ingredients including sunflower seed oil, beeswax, castor seed oil and even organic aloe vera. The shimmer in the Eco Tints comes from natural earth minerals like mica.

As for the 98% organic Medicinal Eco Lips balm contains organic tee tree oil, lysine, organic calendula and organic lemon balm. It cured my chapped lips in about 24 hours.

My decidedly non-organic old lip ointment tasted unpleasantly of medicine and carried several warnings. If the balm was accidentally swallowed, I was supposed to call a poison control center. In retrospect, I don't know what I was thinking when I smeared that stuff on my lips.

Now I'm an Eco Lips convert. The products taste great, they work well and they're made mostly (in some cases nearly completely) from organic ingredients.

If you're reading this site, you probably already know why organic agriculture is a good thing, but in case you'd like a refresher course, Eco Lips has a nice overview of why organic is likely better for you and certainly better for the planet.

Eco Lips also points out the risks of buying products with 'natural' ingredients. As used on cosmetic labels, natural can mean pretty much anything. (Paula Begoun also has a nice explanation of the way the term 'natural' can be stretched.) On the other hand, products that carry the USDA Organic seal incorporate ingredients from farmers who meet a range of criteria, including the elimination of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides and GMOs.

NPR has a great overview of what 'organic' and 'natural' mean in different contexts. Note that organic claims have to be accredited or certified by a third-party, whereas natural claims do not require such certification. Or as NPR says, "The USDA defines [natural] only in regard to meat and poultry, so what it means on granola bars is anyone's guess."

Back to Eco Lips - besides using lots of edible, safe and organic ingredients, Eco Lips also gets points for making its products in the USA (handcrafted in Cedar Rapids, Iowa), mounting solar panels on its factory, not testing its products on animals and donating 1% of its profits to environmental organizations.

Fun fact - you can tell Eco Lips is a 21st Century company from the way it has adopted Internet traditions like user beta-testing. The Eco Lips Beta-Balm webpage lets consumers order products fresh from the Eco Lips R&D laboratory. Give Eco Lips feedback on these beta products and you could help influence the success or direction of a new lip balm launch.

Need one more reason to support Eco Lips? Well, you may have heard about a little water in Cedar Rapids in June. The bad news is that the Eco Lips factory was swamped. The good news is that Eco Lips employees were able to move valuable raw materials and equipment to higher ground before the deluge. Still, this dislocation will obviously be a challenge for Eco Lips. To help Cedar Rapids recover and help a great green company survive, we encourage all our readers to support Eco Lips.

Besides, based on our experience using Eco Lips products, your lips will thank you.

Where to buy:
You can order your balms ($1.99 - $4.99) directly through the Eco Lips website or at Whole Foods and many other fine retail stores coast to coast.