REVIEW: Burt's Bees Radiance Night Cream with Royal Jelly

After my pretty awesome experience with the Burt's Bees Cream Cleanser I thought I might try one of their creams to help battle my suddenly-dry skin. I know I haven't been drinking as much water as I should, and I know it's cold out and hot inside...but REALLY! My skin is pretty crazy dry.

I spent a considerable amount of time in-store reading the boxes for the various Burt's Bees moisturizers and decided to try the Radiance Night Cream with Royal Jelly.

The good folks at Burt's Bees claim that Royal Jelly is "very nourishing, royal jelly is made of nectar, pollen, flower parts, vitamins, minerals, bee hormones and other natural ingredients". To be honest, I just learned about the "bee hormones" part, which kind of gave me the giggles.

As a minor health fanatic, I have heard lots about the health benefit of Royal Jelly. If you do some research, you will learn that it does some amazing things for bees. Royal Jelly is what is fed to the Queen Bee, it is what makes her so much bigger than the other bees, and it is what makes her fertile (all other female bees are infertile). Royal Jelly is loaded with amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins B5 & B6, as well as the same anti-bacterial properties renowned in honey!

In the end, I figured since I'm the Queen Bee of my household I should try this moisturizer.

And it hasn't disappointed!

Despite a heavy load of oils in the Ingredient List (Sweet Almond Oil is second from the top, and further down you'll find Sunflower and Vegetable oils), this cream feels closer in texture to a lotion. Royal Jelly is the 9th ingredient from the top, and is followed by other awesome natural goodness, like Lemon Peel extract, Horsetail Extract, Rosemary and Pine Tree extracts, hops, etc.

The texture was very light, and even slightly sticky. The sticky feeling disappeared pretty quickly and wasn't off-putting, it just felt a little unusual at first.

The cream absorbed right in and did not feel heavy at all! My skin felt nourished, it looked beautiful and didn't feel dry! My skin has actually been so dry, that I was using this cream either (and sometimes, both) day or night!

This cream's ONLY downfall was its fragrance... it was the EIGHTH (!!!) ingredient from the top...meaning there was more perfume than Royal Jelly in this product. The smell was lovely, dont get me wrong, but surely it can't stink enough to warrant *that* much fragrance, right?

Hopefully that is something the good people over at Burt's Bees can fix sometime soon!

Also, at over $30 a jar, this product is WAY too expensive to not have tester jars out. There are Vichy, La Roche Posay, NeoStrata, etc creams at that same price range... and THEY have testers. **cough cough, are you listening Burt?**

This cream was lovely and nourishing that it actually encouraged me to buy the matching eye cream as well!!! I will review that another time...

In the meantime... TRY THIS STUFF!

REVIEW: Burt's Bees Soap Bark & Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream

Do you ever read the instructions on any personal or hygiene product and it always states the oh-so-obvious "Keep away from Eyes" warning? And you think to yourself "Well, duuuuhhhh". The folks at Burt's Bees weren't joking! This cleanser has a minty-tingle-factor, which is irritating to the eye area. I'm talking tears-running-down-your-face-oh-my-god-why-do-my-eyeballs-feel-like-they're-freezing kind of irritation. So if you are looking for a cleanser that also takes off your makeup, then keep on looking!

If you are okay with (or prefer) using an eye-make up remover before you wash your face, and want something more natural in your skin care routine, then you are going to LOVE this cleanser.

Minty-warning aside...this cleanser is AMAZING!!!!

It is a non-foaming cream cleanser that deep cleans without stripping your skin, but never feels heavy, greasy or filmy. I have always preferred foaming cleansers because I had such a hard time finding a milky or creamy cleanser that didn't leave an oil slick behind!

All of my make-up (except my eye make-up) dissolved beautifully, and the cleanser felt so refreshing! It rinsed off beautifully, and sometimes I even use a washcloth to massage and exfoliate. Once its all rinsed off, and you've patted your skin dry you will not feel that tight and dry oh-gawd-where's-my-moisturizer feeling.

Even though the words "Deep Cleansing" are on the label, the product is completely non-drying! Most people associate "Deep Cleansing" with drying and stripping, but that is definitely not the case with this cleanser!

I originally bought this cleanser because I have been experiencing record dryness on my face this winter! The ingredient list starts off with water and is followed by a variety of oils, such as Sunflower Seed Oil, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter, and Soybean Oil. Glycerin is in there, along with loads of plant extracts, like soap bark extract, chamomile, witch hazel, aloe; and essential oils like Rosemary, Lavender, Lemon, etc.

The high oil concentration and lack of chemical surfactants have made an amazing difference to my skin. I don't feel as dry as I did before I started using this cleanser, and my skin looks more supple and bright!

I have read other reviews about folks with acne or very oily skin who also loved this product! Sounds like a winner for most skin types!

For someone looking for a gentler and more natural cleanser for your skin, I would highly recommend this cleanser! It's about $15 for a 6 ounce tube (170g) and it should last forever because you need so little!

Have you ever used this cleanser? What did you think of it?