Review: Beard Lab Darwin Beard Butter

I've been a regular customer of Beard Lab for a few years now, I've got a fairly decent collection of their products and without exception they're all fresh, interesting and great quality. So when I found out they were re-branding and bringing out a whole new range of products I felt like I needed to get myself at least one of the new range to round out my collection. I already own a good selection of different oils so their Darwin Beard Butter seemed like the obvious choice, something new and completely different from any other product I've used before.

Now this is no cheap and cheerful balm, this is a premium beard care product and that is obvious from the outset. The very first thing that you notice is the quality of the container, there is no cheap plastic tub or a dented little metal tin, this product comes in a sturdy, dark tinted glass jar with a nice screw on lid and it certainly wouldn't look out of place in any man's wash kit.

Opening the jar for the first time and you're immediately hit by the smell of fresh citrus that fades out to a gentle sweetness reminiscent of Opal Fruits (or for those of you under 30, Starburst). The butter itself looks fairly similar to a balm and even has a similar feel and consistency to a balm when you first touch it, but that really is where the similarity starts to end. With a balm you usually have to pre-warm the container and even then you often have to work the balm with your fingers to get it to melt, this stuff starts to melt the moment in comes into contact with your skin and by the time you've spread it over your fingers it's completely melted and ready to apply. As you start to massage the butter into your beard you get occasional wafts of the very pleasing citrus smell, this smell lingers in your beard for the better part of a day. The butter itself is very easy to apply and is quite easily absorbed by the hair, leaving your beard feeling soft but not at all greasy as can sometimes happen with oils. Whilst I've found this definitely gives your beard more hold than an oil, it doesn't give you anywhere near the stiffness of a beard balm and in my eyes that is actually a good thing because balms can often leave your beard feeling fairly coarse and a little unpleasant. For me this product really shines when you wash your beard the following day as it almost feels like you've conditioned it, it really leaves your beard feeling amazing and not all dry.

I have to say overall I am very pleased with this product and I'm more than happy to have a couple of jars of this in my beard product collection.