I think I may have finally found it. A cream for all my oily/combination/sensitive skin problems. Honestly, I never thought I’d find it in an Indian brand because till recently all the Indian brands that I have tried make heavy greasy creams that really have no place in the Indian climate.
But of late, a lot of Indian brands are starting to finally meet the actual needs of Indian women and I have been very pleasantly surprised by many of these products.
I’m sure you all know my skin type for by and you know that I have issues with humidity…. I have really dry skin on my body but I cannot use heavy moisturisers because I live in a humid climate… and that leaves my skin parched and irritated not to mention very itchy.
I have to resort to moisturising body washes to be able to skip lotions so that I don’t suffer with pustules and red angry bumps.
Iraya is another on India’s awesome Ayurvedic/natural brands. It has an amazing range of stuff filled with nature’s goodness and modern packaging’s attractiveness. One of the first things that caught my eye was the Vanilla and whole milk lip balm.
How cute is the packaging. Love the metallic screw on cap with the heavy glass bottle. They seem to have spent a good deal of time and money on the quality of the packaging. While the glass was a little rough and I couldn’t close the tin once I opened it. A bit of filing away the rogue edges with a metal file solved the problem and now the cap sits comfortably.
Another example of the quality of the packaging. How many companies do we know that do this (see above picture) to their lip balms? Not many I’ll tell you that. I really appreciate the effort they put in to keep the product hygienic . And no, I don’t mind that it is a pot and not a tube or a twist up. Keep your hands clean and then dip. Why blame the bottle because you can’t keep your hands clean 
To be very honest I think it looks like regular candle wax. It is rather deep down as you can see, feels kind of like the crow throwing the stones into the bucket to get the water up? But it still has a lot of product, the size of the bottle is humungous. And a little goes a very long way. It almost has the texture of Vaseline that has been kept in the fridge.
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I’ve placed it next to a slightly bigger body shop lip balm pot. As you can see this one dwarfs the TBS lip balm in size. Now to move of to the review of the actual product.
The company claims nothing. It just says that this provides moisture to chapped lips.
The ingredients list isn’t provided on the site. That is something that I am really not very happy about but it is given on the bottle. I am sure that those who purchase from the store would have no issue with this but those of us who shop online will have to forego the luxury of actually knowing what we are putting on ourselves.
I’m very disappointed. This is the very first product I wanted to try from Iraya and it turns out that it is a big disappointment. The taste is horrid. Nothing else. I wonder of the formula got altered because when it arrived it was a little melted and the bottle was very hot. But seriously, it tastes like soap. I feel like i accidently swallowed soap while i washed my face. And the smell reminds me of Hamam. Not the beginning smell, but the smell after a bit. In the bottle it smells awesome but when applied the smell changes.
PROS:
CONS:
My cons aren’t that much but at the same time i have really strong tastebuds.
Would I repurchase? I don’t know. If I find that it is only my lip balm that tastes like this because of the heat or travelling or whatever reason then yes I will repurchase but if everything tastes like this then I definitely will not buy it again. I can hardly use it now. Wondering is anyone is up to do a swap with me on this one. I’ve used it only three to four times. Cannot tolerate the taste.
TA
Kofykat
FabindiaSince I have been hunting rather desperately for online stores that have the things I want i decided to make a list to help fellow readers… I’ll be covering a majority of places that I know about. Not just for beauty but for everything.
*If I don;t write something in the description it’s because I haven’t shopped there.
Starting with the famous Flipkart: Continue reading
