Product watch: Plump up your lip volume — and also help them feel better
Colour and Care: Treat winter-dry lips with Dior Lip Glow Oil, €35.91 at brownthomas.com
This month’s lipsticks may only be seen by your nearest and dearest but they can also get lips looking fuller and feeling better by lockdown’s end. Lip launches that pack in more care than colour soothe winter-dry skin this Valentine’s Day.
Dior’s spring beauty collection is all about glow and Dior Lip Glow Oil, €35.91 at brownthomas.com, gives lips a glassy, non-glittery gleam. Lip plumping — natural or otherwise— is about as likely to go out of fashion as hair colouring and because fuller features are often a makeup trick of the light, this oil delivers an impressive one-two plump. It can be worn alone for maximum care and shine or as a base for any lipstick by applying the product and removing the excess with a tissue. Wear it as a lipstick topcoat to get mirror-like shine. It comes in six shades of pink and a cherry red inspired by the cherry oil in the formula. Other antioxidant oils include Vitamin E and sponge gourd seed extract.
Indeed Labs' wonderful Hydraluron Volumising Lip Treatment gets a spring makeover this year. The pharmacy favourite is available as Hydraluron Volumising Lip Treatment + Tint, €19.99 at boots.ie, in red, peach, baby pink and Barbie pink from February 1. This treatment’s balm-like texture is very emollient but not at all sticky. It has a glossy finish and does make lips appear instantly plumper, plus it contains hydrating ingredients that temporarily fill out superficial lip lines. These include shea butter, pomegranate sterol, mango butter, and safflower oil.
The formula also includes antioxidant ingredients to protect lips from free-radical damage, including vitamins E and C. It also contains coffee seed and tropical fruit (acai, mangosteen and goji extracts), both rich sources of antioxidants.
Remember when your lip balm was no more sophisticated than perfumed petroleum jelly? Much has changed. Charlotte Tilbury’s new Hyaluronic Happikiss, €32 at charlottetilbury.com, is a coloured balm with a formula as complex as a facial serum’s. Hyaluronic acid instantly plumps and hydrates lips. C-peptide works to maintain their youthful appearance, reducing the appearance of fine lines.
The stick contains super-soft polymers and a water-holding ester that gives lips a high-shine. It moisturises the lips, leaving them looking glossy and dewy. Sustainably source passion fruit butter, an ingredient known for its replenishing and conditioning properties protects against free radicals. Happikiss comes in nine naturally flattering shades and one crystal.
Bobbi Brown does the lipstick equivalent of fruit jelly this season. Crushed Shine Jelly Stick, €28 at lookfantastic.com, is the latest addition to the brand's Crushed Lip line-up. The stick is infused with hyaluronic acid to help plump and smooth while instantly improving the lips’ moisture barrier. Cherry, apricot and papaya oils comfort skin and help the colour to shine vibrantly. The jelly formula glides on sheerly and creates a colour ‘pop’ with two coats.
Eight spicy new shades of YSL’s Rouge Volupté Shine Lipstick,€35.50, make up Burning Chilis, a collection that both conditions your lips and makes your teeth look whiter by contrast. The Rouge Volupté formula isn’t new but YSL got it so right back in 2015 that colours are all that need to change. Up to 65% of the formula is composed of oils such as macadamia as well as pomegranate extract, rich in antioxidants, Rouge Volupté Shine is a fast-acting lip conditioner, preserving and hydrating the lip barrier up to eight hours, according to the brand.
Some of the plant-based ingredients are sourced from the YSL Beauté Ourika Community Gardens in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains, where botanicals are harvested by a cooperative of women who work to better understand their potent effects. Rouge Volupté both feels terrific and gets a little messy, though it's not as greasy as you’d expect of a product that’s almost two-thirds oil.
NARS’ spring colour collection is inspired by Claudette Augustine, the mother of founder François Nars and decorated with hearts and butterflies. The collection includes four new shades of the NARS Audacious Lipstick, €32, named after Claudette and his grandmothers, Léa and Ginette. Audacious Lipstick deposits bold, ultra-saturated colour that stays put without bleeding or feathering. The formula contains tamanu oil, Vitamin E and white mushroom extract, all of which work to make lips softer and more even. Léa is a neutral spiced rose, Augustine is a taupe nude, Claudette is a rusty red and Ginette is a deep brown-red.
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