Isn’t it nice how your friends pull through for you?
My good buddy Marie did me a favor without even realizing it, and reviewed this lip balm from ChapStick that I just never got around to purchasing. Thanks Marie! 
PRICE: $2.79 at my local Meijer grocery store. -I found it for $1.99 at Drugstore.com
PACKAGING: Initially the package is what caught my eye. I often take visits to the Lip Care aisle so I happen to notice new products fairly quickly. The outer packaging is refreshing with a blue, white and green color scheme that reminds me of something FRESH, almost like a bathroom product. The balm comes in the normal plastic tube with the top that snaps down and the little screw on the bottom. The tube has a pretty blue plastic lable with tiny white designs on it. Fresh Effects is written in a appealing-looking font. It’s just a nice presentation. Though I know it’s there for my protection, I hate the protective seal that goes over the cap and down the tube that you have to pick off in order to get to the moisturizing glory inside. It always rips the lable and then there’s sharp jagged edges of plastic lable that try to cut my lips open so I had to tear it a little so I wouldn’t receive bodily harm. So I sort of ruined it. But it’s still cute looking!
TEXTURE/GLIDE: Surprisingly not very stiff and hard to start like most ChapStick balms. It goes RIGHT on, which I like. No nonsense. Feels very smooth and creamy when applying. Texture is barely grainy. I don’t even notice it and I think it goes away after it sits on your lips for a moment. Then it starts to tingle like most mint balms, but it’s not burning. It’s a cooling sensation. The texture is also sort of heavy feeling but not yucky. I can tell I have a lip balm on. Like butter.
FLAVOR/SMELL: It smells like mint gum. Like a mixture between Doublemint gum and some sort of wintergreen. It’s not unpleasant. I vaguely smell some tea in there. But the mint is very prominent. I can definitely taste the tea when I apply the balm. In fact, I’d consider the tea and mint to have a very good balance. It smells fresh and clean and tastes like calming, generic tea. Not bad for kisses!
LASTING POWER: This stuff was pretty decent for a cheap store brand. I’d say over an hour went by and I could still feel and smell the mint. You can actually TASTE it in your mouth after a while. It’s VERY minty and tea-like.
INGREDIENTS: Mostly a bunch of natural oils. The first ingredient is sunflower seed oil. I don’t know if that means anything to a professional balm aficionado but it doesn’t mean much to me. No alcohol in the ingredients at all.
ANYTHING ELSE: Oh, there is one more flavor in the family of Fresh Effects. It’s called Refreshing Mandarin. I tend to shy away from citrus flavored balms since I really don’t enjoy artificial orange or citrus flavored products anyway. It might be good for those who enjoy oranges.
OVERALL: Pros: This is a very decent balm from ChapStick. I am a drugstore balm sort of girl and I grew up on Lip Smackers, so I love it when there’s a cheap balm that feels somewhat more pricey. It feels like I paid $5.00 for this balm. Cons: The mint is very powerful, thus eliminating the desire or NEED to reapply in a addictive manner, which I enjoy doing. Be prepared to commit to the mint/tea taste for a while. Imagine drinking mint tea for over an hour. I don’t think it’s something I’d repeatedly apply throughout the day. Pros again!: I’d use this balm if I was about to embark on a lengthy make-out session or if I needed to feel clean and fresh after eating a Big Montana. It does have that cleaning tingle! So if you’re looking for a minty balm that does exactly what the name says: Tingles, Moisturizes, Nourishes, then get this one. It’s fresh, minty, and makes you smell clean.
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The mandarin smells really nice too. And you still get that cool tingling. I’d say this is a quite nice everyday lip balm. I think it might be a little too light for me during Winter though. Hana(Quote)
I love this lip balm. It’s very smooth, kinda like German Nivea lip balm in the dark blue tube. Good buy!! trina(Quote)