Review: NEW eos Visibly Soft Lip Balm Sphere in Coconut Milk

Purchased by Me 

If you missed my previous posts, eos has just released a new line of lip balms called Visibly Soft. There are two flavors in this new line and I found Coconut Milk at my local Target (they're also popping up at Walgreens, Ulta, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl's and other retailers). If you're looking for these at Target, I found mine in the regular lip balm section (in the cough and cold aisle). My Target didn't have the other flavor yet (Vanilla Mint).

I've been wearing this lip balm day and night for almost two weeks now, so here's my verdict...

NEW eos Visibly Soft Lip Balm Sphere in Coconut Milk

(retail: around $3.29, 0.25 oz)

This first thing you'll notice about the Visibly Soft lip balms is that the signature sphere is a bit different. The spheres in this new line have a striped design and if you look closely at the pic above, you can see that the stripes are slightly raised. This gives the sphere a fun texture (I'm a tactile person and I love the way this sphere feels in my hand), and it also provides a slightly better grip than the regular, non-striped spheres.

From the eos website:

eos Visibly Soft(TM) Lip Balm, enriched with natural conditioning oils, moisturizing shea butter and antioxidant vitamins C & E, nourishes for immediately softer, more beautiful lips.

99% natural
Long-lasting moisture for immediately softer, more beautiful lips
Shea butter & vitamins C & E
Smoothes on clear
Precisely glides on lips
Twist-off top
Petrolatum-free
Paraben-free
Gluten-free
Phthalate-free

made in the USA

Looking at the ingredients above, you can see that the first ingredient is olive oil, followed by beeswax, and then coconut oil and jojoba oil. There's also some shea in this formula, and it's sweetened with stevia.

Let's compare these ingredients to the ingredients in one of the balms from the regular eos line, shall we?

Visibly Soft Coconut Milk

Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil*, Beeswax/Cera Alba (Cire d’abeille)*, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil*, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil*, Natural Flavor, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter)*, Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate, Sodium Isostearoyl Lactylate, Water, Sodium Hyaluronate, Stevia Rebaudiana Leaf/Stem Extract, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate

Strawberry Sorbet (regular line)
Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil*, Beeswax/Cera Alba (Cire D'abeille)*, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil*, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil*, Natural Flavor (Aroma), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter)*, Stevia Rebaudiana Leaf/Stem Extract*, Tocopherol, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil*, Fragaria Vesca (Strawberry) Fruit Extract*, Limonene**, Linalool**. *Organic. **Component of Natural Flavor. Certified Organic by Oregon Tilth.

The bulk of the ingredients seem to be the same, but the Visibly Soft lip balm contains a few ingredients that are not in the regular  formula, such as water and sodium hyaluronate. I'll go into more detail about that in a moment.

Texture and consistency: From the first time I swiped this on to my lips, I noticed a distinct difference when compared to the regular eos lip balms. For me, the regular lip balms take a while to "get started," meaning they are a bit dry/waxy at first and need to warm up a bit against the heat of your skin before they become easier to apply. The Visibly Soft balm glides effortlessly onto the lips the very first time. It's slicker, and it doesn't feel as heavy or waxy to me when compared to the regular line. That's not to say it's thin or greasy-feeling, it just feels smoother and slicker. I get no graininess at all from this balm; it feels very pleasant on the lips.

Moisturization: Again, there's a big difference to me here when I compare this to the regular eos balms that I own. Coconut Milk feels a lot more emollient to me. My lips feel more hydrated than when I wear the regular eos lip balms, and I'm guessing that has something to do with the fact that this formula contains both water and sodium hyaluronate (sodium hyaluronate attracts and holds water on to skin). I haven't noticed any visible different yet (see name), but I definitely notice a difference in feel. Overall, my lips feel much more hydrated than when I wear balms from the regular eos line.

Staying power: I was surprised to find that, for such an emollient formula, I can still get a good 3-4 hours of wear. I do want to mention that after the first two hours, the feel of this balm begins to closely resemble the feel of a regular eos lip balm. Since the first six ingredients in both formulas are identical, it stands to reason that once the water and sodium hyaluronate start to fade, the texture of the Visibly Soft balm would feel almost identical to a regular eos balm. After about two hours of wear, it  feels more like a regular eos balm to me (a little waxy and not as hydrating or moisturizing). This has actually become my little signal that it's time to reapply.

Flavor and fragrance: Oddly enough, this lip balm smells like bubblegum to me. Not a strong, super-sugary bubblegum, but more of a light, pleasant bubblegum note, with maybe just a tiny bit of coconut in the background. The overall fragrance is not strong or obnoxious to me--I quite like it! The flavor actually does remind me of coconut milk. It's not quite the full-fat coconut milk you get in a can, but it's also not the diluted type of coconut milk that you pour over cereal. It's sort of in the middle between the two. It's sweet, not too sweet, if that makes sense.

FINAL VERDICT: If you're already an eos fan, then you were probably planning to buy this before you even read this review (or you already own it). But if you're new to eos or you're on the fence about trying this one because you didn't quite care for the regular eos formula, I think you might be pleasantly surprised by this one. I find the Visibly Soft Coconut Milk formula to be a lot more emollient and hydrating than the regular formula, and it's also easier to apply. It feels more slick on the lips (and less heavy/waxy) than the original formula and I've been loving how my lips feel whenever I wear it. The only drawback for me personally is that I do find myself wanting to re-apply it about every two hours, because it does start to feel like a regular eos lip balm after about two hours on my lips. Other than that, I think the fragrance is fun (a soft bubblegum note with a coconut background) and it does taste like coconut milk to me. I'm looking forward to trying Vanilla Mint now

Do you own any of the new eos Visibly Soft Lip Balms Spheres yet? I'd love to hear from you!

The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.