Search is Over: Best Balm In The World

**Picture above is from @thegranolagoat on Instagram**

​For a while, I've been trying different balms from all over, big and small companies. I have a bit of an obsession that started with May Lindstrom Blue Cocoon which is a cult favorite. So through the last year I've found some really awesome ones. However, I have found one that has taken place of Blue Cocoon for me personally. 

I LOVE Blue Cocoon however, something about it doesn't mesh with my skin if I use it regularly so I can't use it often, but I still love it. So when I tried a balm called Starry Night Omni Balm from The Granola Goat I was kinda worried because I thought the Blue Tansy was being a real issue for me. Trust me I've tried other balms that had Blue Tansy and it was not easy on my skin either. If you've never met a product with Blue Tansy your senses are going to be blown away it smells amazing and so comforting and calming. 

It was a very very nice sigh of relief when Starry Night didn't cause any congestion in the skin for me and worked like a dream. So Blue Tansy wasn't the problem. This is also a very soft balm as well. What I mean is a lot of balms are kinda hard because they do solidify and you have to work to get any product out of it because it's so solid but it breaks back down to an oil with your skin temp. The balms from Granola Goat actually use a different type of Shea Butter in the balms. She uses Nilotica which actually is making a big impression in general in the skincare industry, more on that at another time though. This version of Shea Butter is much softer in my opinion. I feel like typical Shea butter in general is very difficult for my skin in the sense that it's a bit too heavy or too rich? This type of Shea, meaning Nilotica, is amazing on my skin. It's very soft. It absorbs very easily. Also it doesn't take away from the "oil" which is what essentially a balm is supposed to be. What I mean by that is when you have a balm that's incredibly hard and solidified it does break down but it has chunks that you kinda have to work out. It can take a while for it to sink in to the skin for me anyway, leaving you feeling greasy afterwards till it sinks in. With Starry Night I have the "rich" feeling of the oils. Like I have drenched my skin in the best oil combo ever. I don't have the overpowering heaviness that can take away from most balms that I've tried. 

The second thing I love is that she uses very few ingredients in her products. I have a healthy amount of her products. I'm just now getting into her balms but in everything she does it's very simple with a small ingredient deck that is full of potent and effective ingredients. Meaning I think it allows those ingredients to stand out on their own. Also, for those who love oils and green beauty but there's maybe one ingredient that doesn't suit your skin, in my case possibly commonly used Shea Butter, but lets say yours is like a carrier oil like Almond or Jojoba or Rosehip, etc. That usually means that products that have an extensive ingredient deck filled with all "good things" essentially, but still have like 5 carrier oils in them, you still might have an issue with those products and using them because they added something that maybe wasn't so necessary. Yet that "something" that they added means you can't use that product.  There's been plenty of products both man made and organic that have had one ingredient that made me take a hard pass on the product even though everything else sounded divine. That's a huge bummer when you get right down to it. I recently seen a product at Sephora from a very well known brand that had the longest ingredient deck I've ever seen in my life and in this industry thus far. I feel like we're missing the mark most of the time of being right in the middle with formulas, not too simple of a product but not too complex of a product ingredient wise, and I think this is where The Granola Goat, Omni Balms especially, shine the most. They have a simple but effective and potent ingredient deck. Utilizing less common forms/species of commonly used ingredients, like Shea, that work better and are softer and pairing it with incredibly effective ingredients such as Blue Tansy, Watermelon Seed Oil, Sea Buckthorn, Red Raspberry just to name a few that I see pop up in the ingredient decks when looking at the products they offer. 

Lastly, the best part is these products are not expensive. It blows my mind actually. To have a product that is SO comparable to Blue Cocoon, that I actually prefer. Coming in at $23 for .85 oz. which is around "40 uses". It is affordable, so effective, on a sensory level it is Nirvana in skincare, it checks all the boxes and I think it deserves it's own stand alone post. Which is what this is. If you're in the market for it or if you want to try some balms, I will point you in this direction every single time. So, I'll leave a link if you're curious to see what The Granola Goat has to offer. I recommend Starry Night (obviously) but I also really like Brighter Days and Magical Mushroom Omni Balm as well (not sure if that's still available though). To be honest there isn't a product that I've tried that I haven't liked from The Granola Goat. 

You can check out her shop here: ​https://thegranolagoat.com/collections/balms