The Bee’s Knees (and lips and feet and hands…)

This is probably the most popular stick for chapped lips since ChapStick. I bought a stick years ago and jumped on the Burt’s Bees bandwagon. Since then I’ve tested at least one product in every one of their categories. They are high quality products with natural ingredients and the company is one of the greenest in the US. On their site you can find great information about their green efforts. Some of the highlights from my reading include:

• “By teaming up with North Carolina Green Power and Renewable Choice Energy, we’ve offset all our operations to 100 percent carbon neutral.”

• “Even in our offices, break rooms now have composting bins, as well as reusable and compostable utensils—they’re made from potatoes!”

• In 2002, co-founder Roxanne used some of their profits to buy “tracts of forest land in northern Maine to preserve them from development. This purchase marked the beginning of a long-standing relationship with The Nature Conservancy, which over the years, has helped conserve 185,000 acres of Maine forest land.”

You can find all this and a lot more on their web site. It’s very thorough and easy to read. For something their site doesn’t offer, here are my top recommendations:

Their Coconut Foot Creme is just short of magical. Even aside from the fact that I am crazy about most things made from coconut, this creme went above and beyond my expectations. After a lifetime of shoeless modern dance and a general preference for barefeet, I had almost resolved that my calloused soles were here to stay. However, when I went to my friend’s Costa Rican wedding in December, I had my first pedicure. It was fantastic, embarrassing, and pretty funny. My mom and I had them done at the same time. The women doing it only knew Spanish, and we knew none. So while my mom’s beautician was finishing her dainty feet, the lady working on me was still grinding away on my leathery hooves. I tried to look sheepish and grateful. I’m not sure what she thought, but I admired her perseverance and straight face she did a great job. After that, I really wanted to keep my feet feeling like feet. This creme has the look and consistency of honey, but is smooth instead of sticky. Because it isn’t mostly water like a lot of lotions, it doesn’t evaporate, it soaks in and truly, deeply moisturizes.

The Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Creme just plain works. No more dry, cracking wintery hand with this stuff. It is top shelf, all the way.

This is Burt’s Bees’ Baby Bee Bubble Bath. (You gotta love a company that loves alliteration this much, right?) I went to the local Skin Care Shop to find some bubble bath for my boyfriend for Christmas. (The boy just loves baths, and anyone who loves baths, needs some good bubbles.) They had three bubble baths. Two were in sleek, design-y bottles and one was for babies. After some deliberation, I bought the baby bath. The bottle was recycled, the ingredients were natural, and it even cost less.