Bella Il Forte's Lip Lovely Set is a two piece set that includes a lip scrub and a lip balm. Using a lip scrub exfoliates the dead skin from your lips allowing for a smoother surface to apply either lipstick, lip gloss, or the balm provided. If you apply the balm provided after scrubbing, the balm will soak in even better and your lips will end up softer than they would with just the balm alone. My kit is peppermint, but you can also get this in strawberry. It's perfect to get for yourself or to give as a gift.

While the packaging markets this toward females, even guys can use this! Who doesn't love a guy with soft, kissable lips?

You should check the ingredients for any possible allergies (or at least the ingredients I'm able to provide to you - more on that later).

You get two products, so I'll go over each individually.

Lip Scrub

The scrub is, as best I can tell, a sugar scrub. It's not a hard scrub like you will find in some body scrubs that use a pumice-like base. It's softer (and better tasting) than a salt scrub. I usually use Philosophy's Kiss Me Lip Scrub. The texture of this is a little more abrasive than that. I've used some lip scrubs that use a harder scrub component and I find that they hurt my lips. This was just the right amount of abrasion to get off the dead skin but not hurt me.

There is some type of petroleum base to the scrub. When you rub it in, your lips are left with a feeling like you put Aquaphor on them. It's like a mix of oil and jelly, I suppose. That kinda sounds gross, but it actually feels really good and leaves your lips feeling smooth. There is a slight greasy feel to it. It is very difficult to wash off, should you not enjoy the feeling. You'll have to scrub pretty hard to get it off your lips.

Here you can see the scrub on my arm.



In case that picture isn't really clear, I took one of it in the jar.



Lip Balm

The lip balm is made of a combination of butters, oils, and waxes. It feels thick on, but you can thin it out based on how much you apply. I would say this is most comparable to Burt's Bees. The one that comes in the little container, not the one that comes in a tube. If you haven't ever tried that, Burt's Bees is pretty awesome, so that's a compliment. It doesn't feel overly waxy. You can tell there is a wax component, but the oils minimize it. It does not feel sticky on your lips or greasy. It's not like a gloss where your hair will end up sticking to your lips every time the wind blows. It leaves a matte finish.

Here it is on my arm. I didn't take a picture of this one in the jar because it just looks like a lump in the jar.

Both items in my set have a peppermint smell to them. The aroma is fairly strong and lingers for a decent amount of time. Now, I don't think the aroma is so strong that other people are actually able to smell it. I think the reason it smells strong is because it's a peppermint item that you're applying pretty much directly under your nose. So, yeah, it's going to smell strong.

Both the scrub and balm have a slight peppermint taste to them. The scrub also has a petroleum jelly after taste, so if you can avoid getting it in your mouth, I would. The balm has a bit of a waxy taste to it, but it's not that unpleasant. If you lick your lips it won't make you gag. It doesn't tase great, but it doesn't taste bad either.

I'll do this in two parts as well.

Lip Scrub

What I do with my scrub is use it at night before bed and in the morning when I take my shower. I think this is a great scrub. Within two uses, it had removed all the dead skin from my lips. I had been neglecting my lips and with the cold weather and heaters, they really need a lip scrub. The extra oils left my lips softened so even if I didn't apply the balm, they were still soft. It makes a great primer for glosses, which I what I use it for in the morning. This means you don't get those awful little flakes that happen with glosses (gloss girls - you know what I'm talking about!). I actually like this better than Kiss Me because the scrub was easier to apply since it isn't in a tube and it was less liquid. It was also a little more abrasive and seemed to dissolve less. My little tip on the scrubs: Remove the scrub with a towel dampened with warm water. When you remove it, rub the rag in small circles on your lips. The rag will further exfoliate your lips and remove any remaining dead skin that the scrub didn't get.

Lip Balm
Burt's Bees is one of my favorite lip balms and I think this is on par with that. It's a good, thick balm that will do serious repair to chapped or damaged lips. If your lips are already healthy, it will just keep them nice and moisturized. I generally apply this before bed. I use gloss during the day and prefer color. Using lots of gloss means that my lips get dry and I need a good balm at night. When I wake up in the morning, my lips are hydrated and refreshed. You can apply this as thin or thick as you'd like. I can manage to get this in a really thin layer that's hardly noticeable (which I do if I use this during the day) or a very thick layer (which I do at night). If applied thin, it will last about an hour. If applied thick, it will last basically until you take it off or at least three hours. It is hard to get off if you decide you don't want it on your lips, at least completely. You'll be able to get the bulk off, but some of the waxes will remain.

This comes in a little container that looks kinda like a Chinese To Go container, but wider. It's striped pink and black. It says "Bella Il Forte Lip Lovely Peppermint Lip Set" on the front. The back has a little blurb about the product. This would make a great gift.





Each of the products has the same cute design. They say the name of the product - "Sugar Kisses" for the scrub and "Rescue Me" for the balm - on the front. On the back of the balm is the ingredients. On the back of my scrub is nothing. No idea why that is.





You get 1fl. oz. of each product. For balm and scrub, it's really a good amount of product. I took a picture of it in my hand so you could see how big the container is.

So, I usually go over the ingredients here. I'll do the easy one first.

Lip Balm

Carthamus Tinctarius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Beeswax, Theebroma Cacoa (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Butyrespermum parki (Shea) Butter, Simmandsia Ehinewsis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E)

I think everything there is actually pretty self explanatory, so I'm not gonna write up a paragraph on each ingredient.

Lip Scrub

My lip scrub has no ingredient list! I have no idea what is in this stuff. I emailed Bella Il Forte a few days ago and never heard anything back. Eden's product page only lists the ingredients for the balm. Bella Il Forte's website doesn't have anything either. So it's a mystery as to what's in this. I wish I could give you better information.

What I do have is that another reviewer posted an ingredient list. They have the strawberry version of this, so I have no idea if this also applied to the peppermint. Their list said:

Sucrose, Flavor, Helianthus Annuus (sunflower oil) Seed Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil in a Petrolatum Base

(credit to sktb0007 and this review.)

That sounds about right. I'm sorry I don't have better info!!

I really love this kit. I bought a second one as a Christmas gift for my mom and I thought about not giving it to her and keeping it for myself. I'm not gonna do that (cause I love my mom and all), but I did think about it.

My only complaint about this is that I do tend to like balm in tubes rather than little pots. I have this germ issue, you see. I don't like sticking my dirty fingers in a pot and then applying it to my lips and letting the finger germs fester in the little pot. I just think that's so gross. Generally, I stay away from potted lip products because of that. In fact, as much as I love Burt's Bees, I don't ever use it because it's potted. I'm not gonna dock points over it simply because I won't dock points over my neurotic issues. It does squeak me out. That's part of the reason I switched to the Kiss Me system, despite the fact that scrub in a tube is a pain.

Other than the germs though, this is a great kit. If I can get past the germ issue and continue to use this, I'll likely buy another one when I finish with this one. I also may buy a few more to give to some coworkers as gifts.