BARA Facial Balm
A beautifully scented botanical balm that never quite earns its place in my evening routine.
I purchased this product with my own money from laurelandreed.com.
The Backstory
I went through a period of being obsessed with facial balms. Their scents, textures, and botanical blends all sounded distinct, though after trying enough of them, the differences begin to feel increasingly subtle. They’re all facial balms, after all.
BARA caught my attention with its fragrance description. Vanilla, rose, and frankincense sounded like a welcome departure from the herbal aromas I kept encountering. I’d never tried H IS FOR LOVE, but a little black jar and the prospect of a sweet-smelling balm were enough to get me interested. I expected a competent emollient, not a revolution in skincare.
Formula & Claims
BARA is a waterless blend of jojoba, macadamia, apricot, pomegranate, tamanu, and sea buckthorn oils, structured with beeswax. It also contains an infusion of marshmallow root, calendula, chamomile, and lemon balm, with rose, vanilla CO₂, frankincense, and lavender providing the fragrance. It’s a thoughtful formula with plenty of emollient and skin-conditioning potential.
H IS FOR LOVE has also described BARA as capable of softening and fading scar tissue. Scarring is one of my concerns, and I’ve undergone laser treatments and microneedling to address it, with moderate results. I wouldn’t expect a balm made primarily of oils and beeswax to accomplish meaningful scar remodeling where those procedures have had only moderate success. But I didn’t buy it for that, and it’s not the standard I’m measuring it against.
The Experience
The fragrance is lovely. It’s softly sweet and vanilla-like rather than overtly herbal, and easily my favorite part of the product.
The texture, unfortunately, loses me. BARA is very soft and buttery, melting quickly into an oily layer. I prefer balms that retain more structure and feel thicker on the skin. This leaves a more pronounced sheen than I enjoy, even by balm standards.
I can understand why someone might love that melting consistency. But I seldom reach for BARA willingly. There are balms I genuinely look forward to using; this is one I pull out mostly because I already own it and want to finish the jar.
Final Words
BARA is a perfectly competent balm with a genuinely enjoyable fragrance. But the sensory experience was the reason I bought it, and the texture ultimately undermines the part I love.
At $110 for 30 ml, I need more than a pleasant scent to justify a repurchase, particularly when I have so many other balms I’d rather use. It’s not at the very bottom of my list, but it sits pretty low.
A lovely fragrance can make me buy a balm. Apparently, it can’t always make me use it.
