The natural lip balm market is booming all of a sudden. It seems everywhere you look, beauty brands are adding interesting scents, flavors and oils to beeswax. Keeping puckers soft is a particular challenge during the colder months, so we here at HBP thought we’d give you a jump start on soft lips…before the colder autumn winds come howling.
Although we get to sample a lot of natural and organic lip balms, in the most amazing scents (coconut Chai, anyone?), we can’t help gushing over Eco Lips. They make lip balm chic.
With tinted, edible, SPF, USDA Organic, gluten free and vegan (beeswax free) choices, Eco Lips makes it clear they are serious about lip balm. None of their balms includes petroleum, like mainstream lip balms. Eco lips opts for shea butter, hemp oil and other truly moisturizing oils and butters.
Mark Patterson, the president of Eco Lips, believes petroleum in beauty products is outdated and counter productive. “First off, there’s an environmental aspect [to using petroleum],” Mark says. “We are focused on environmental sustainability. Whenever we can, we’re going to avoid petroleum based ingredients. As far as effectiveness in a lip balm, we strongly believe petroleum is not a great moisturizing product.”
The drive to produce a great product in an environmental manner prompted the Eco Lips team to pursue solar energy for their manufacturing plant. Their idea was so well received in their community that it quickly caught on and became Iowa’s largest solar power initiative.
Mark Patterson, President of Eco Lips
“We initiated this solar project,” Mark says, “And it turned into a bigger project than we’d envisioned and it feeds the whole community.”
Eco Lips products are produced by a small team of committed employees who manufacture everything by hand. The only part that involves a machine is the labeling. Mark says in an 8 hour day, the team of ten full time and two part time employees can make 24,000 tubes of lip balm.
When we ask Mark why there needs to be so many varieties of balms in their line, he says their customers need and want choices.
“We have customers who want predominantly natural and organic products – people who have sensitivity to chemicals. Another niche is the need for gluten free body care. It’s a big deal right now. It’s an example of one niche we’ve found. We’re conscious when we’re sourcing ingredients that they are not derived from gluten. And our SPF30 balm is popular with extreme sports athletes.”
We ask what is it that separates Eco Lips from the rest of the lines out there. Mark’s answer? “Instead of coming out with a bunch of different flavors, we solve problems.”
Eco Lips can be purchased at Vitamin World, Whole Foods, REI, Sunflower Markets, Vitamin Cottage and online.
Eco Lips did not supply any form of payment in exchange for this interview.
Although we get to sample a lot of natural and organic lip balms, in the most amazing scents (coconut Chai, anyone?), we can’t help gushing over Eco Lips. They make lip balm chic.
With tinted, edible, SPF, USDA Organic, gluten free and vegan (beeswax free) choices, Eco Lips makes it clear they are serious about lip balm. None of their balms includes petroleum, like mainstream lip balms. Eco lips opts for shea butter, hemp oil and other truly moisturizing oils and butters.
Mark Patterson, the president of Eco Lips, believes petroleum in beauty products is outdated and counter productive. “First off, there’s an environmental aspect [to using petroleum],” Mark says. “We are focused on environmental sustainability. Whenever we can, we’re going to avoid petroleum based ingredients. As far as effectiveness in a lip balm, we strongly believe petroleum is not a great moisturizing product.”
The drive to produce a great product in an environmental manner prompted the Eco Lips team to pursue solar energy for their manufacturing plant. Their idea was so well received in their community that it quickly caught on and became Iowa’s largest solar power initiative.
Mark Patterson, President of Eco Lips
“We initiated this solar project,” Mark says, “And it turned into a bigger project than we’d envisioned and it feeds the whole community.”
Eco Lips products are produced by a small team of committed employees who manufacture everything by hand. The only part that involves a machine is the labeling. Mark says in an 8 hour day, the team of ten full time and two part time employees can make 24,000 tubes of lip balm.
When we ask Mark why there needs to be so many varieties of balms in their line, he says their customers need and want choices.
“We have customers who want predominantly natural and organic products – people who have sensitivity to chemicals. Another niche is the need for gluten free body care. It’s a big deal right now. It’s an example of one niche we’ve found. We’re conscious when we’re sourcing ingredients that they are not derived from gluten. And our SPF30 balm is popular with extreme sports athletes.”
We ask what is it that separates Eco Lips from the rest of the lines out there. Mark’s answer? “Instead of coming out with a bunch of different flavors, we solve problems.”
Eco Lips can be purchased at Vitamin World, Whole Foods, REI, Sunflower Markets, Vitamin Cottage and online.
Eco Lips did not supply any form of payment in exchange for this interview.
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Post is filed under Beauty Space, Company Profiles -This entry was posted on Friday, October 1st, 2010 at 5:56 pm and tagged with gluten free, organic, USDA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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