I get really dry skin in the winter. My hands get so bad that it’s painful, my legs are an itchy mess – and the constant spreading of lotion can get exhausting. Then there are the vast assortment of lotions, each with their pros and cons. Scented or unscented? How greasy will it leave my hands feeling? How long will it even last? And as a last caveat – is it good for me and the environment?

I recently had the opportunity to try the Coconut & Lime Organic Lotion Stick by Bubble & Bee – it’s like lotion for your hands, feet, whatever in a form you’d recognize as chap stick. Seriously. The first thing I noticed was that it smelled divine. Good enough that when I caught my two year old son smearing it into my desk while I was cooking dinner last night, my first thought was, “Please god tell me he didn’t eat it (He didn’t – and for the record, the cleanup was remarkably easy – if he’d done the same thing with a liquid lotion it would have been a disaster. Plus 10 points for the Organic Lotion Stick right there!).”

I’m not convinced that this lotion will cure the really bad dry skin out there, although I’ve heard that continued use will show results, I’m a skeptic at heart. My hands require a lot of work and still feel a little dry after applying the stick lotion – but they also didn’t feel greasy and I did notice that they hurt less than before applying. I’m toying with the idea that this might be more about hand maintenance than instant relief? At the very least, as a mid day, easy to carry anywhere solution, teamed with a more medicinal intense relief hand lotion in the morning and at night – I think it would be perfect. And for all you normal people with normal dry skin, I don’t think this can be beat. No messes, no oily residue – just good, sweet smelling lotion. I love the clever idea of a lotion in a stick, so much cleaner and quicker and really just fun. There’s a novelty there that amuses the child in me.

The grown up in me, meanwhile, is eating up that whole organic bit. No need to wonder what the strange foreign ingredients are. I think you can easily recognize organic beeswax, organic cocoa butter, organic extra virgin coconut oil, organic sweet almond oil, organic lime essential oil, and certified organic coconut scent. The lotion stick contains no water, which means they don’t have to use synthetic preservatives, it doesn’t evaporate and wash off as easily as a bottled lotion would – and you’ll use less product, which means it will last longer, putting your $7.95 per stick to really good use. And that whole no preservatives thing is apparently a big deal – I didn’t know much about it either way before, but I read the following on the Bubble & Bee website:

Most lotions are 80% water with maybe 10% oil. Companies use chemical emulsifiers to make the water and oil combine, and synthetic preservatives are added to keep the water from growing bacteria. Even “natural” lotions aren’t really that natural because they’ve got at least an emulsifier and a preservative. Sometimes companies will go without preservatives so their label reads to be more natural. But that’s a problem, too. Now you’ve got a lotion that could be growing bacteria. What happens when you get that bacteria in a cut on your hand, or get it in your eye?

So, where does our lotion stick fall into all of this? On top, of course! Our 100% organic lotion stick poses no risk of growing bacteria. Bacteria and other pathogens can’t grow in oil. Because our lotion stick is 100% oil-based, there’s no risk of bacteria. Plus, you don’t have to pay for water. If your skin needs a little water hydration, pat some on and use our lotion stick afterwards. It’ll seal in the moisture and heal your skin a lot better than a bunch of chemicals would!

Bubble & Bee sells a lot of different products besides the super clever Lotion Sticks. I’m already eying their insect repellent for this summer and maybe some bamboo fiber towels… Basically, if you don’t want to spend hours drooling over fabulous organic products, I recommend avoiding Bubble & Bee, because I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to restrain yourself once you try them!

Bubble & Bee is offering our readers a discount at checkout! At checkout you can save $5.00 of an order over $20.00 by entering the promo code: review09 (expires 5/31/2009).