Thwarted, then Impressed, by HiP Jelly Balms

I'd wanted to try L'Oreal HiP Jelly Balms for a long time, but never got around to picking them up at any of the drugstore BoGo sales. Plus, none of the CVS stores around me seem to carry these products. (That's not what I mean by "thwarted" though. I'll explain at the end.)

Finally, seeing them on sale at Target inspired me to take the plunge. And I'm very happy I did!

I went for "Delectable," a candy-red color that makes me look like I've just eaten a bunch of strawberries. (In a good way.) It's not as dark red as I expected on my lips -- more of a natural blush. The swatch looks almost berry-colored on my hand, which is okay since those shades work for me.

It is very shiny, not at all shimmery. It glides on well, almost too well -- this isn't a pot in which you have to swirl your finger around to dig out an application, I found that after a few wears, a thin layer of already-soft goop remained on the top of the balm.



Jelly Balms retail for between $7 and 9. I got mine on sale at Target for $5 or 5.50. I will probably buy this again in other colors, and layer it over lip balms, lip pencil and possibly lipstick, to give a finishing oomph of shine and color.

You might like Jelly Balm if: you want sheer, shiny color that feels smooth on your lips. **My tip is to layer it on top of some lip balm for an extra-smooth experience.

You might not like it if: you want full coverage color, SPF sun protection and dislike balms that come in pots. **SPF if something I try to look for when I can.

Okay, lastly, "thwarted"...After purchasing it at Target I skipped to my car and eagerly ripped off the seal, wanting to try it after months of anticipation. And the jar wouldn't open!! I had *three* male friends try it over the next week and none could get it either. One even got out a pliers and almost busted the thing. (Thankfully, the pliers wasn't big enough. At the time it seemed like a good idea in desperation though.) I finally exchanged the damn jar, where the woman at the returns desk was also unable to open it. She ended up labeling it as defective...so it will thwart no other well-meaning consumer, I hope. :)

MAC Hello Kitty Swatches...for my Mama?

In recent years, my mom has become a major Hello Kitty fan. (Just go with it, lol.) So I'd love to get her something from the new MAC HK collection, which I checked out in-store for the first time yesterday.


I think I'm going to go with a lip product because she'll probably use that the most. I was considering accessories but didn't see anything that seemed irreplaceable, especially since she has no special love for MAC so getting their compact versus a regular Sanrio one wouldn't make a difference to her. High-quality HK cosmetics aren't easy to come by, however, since most are made for 5-year-olds!

The question is what to get. The collection is so playfully (and appropriately) bold that nothing jumps out at me off that bat as fitting my mom. Shimmer is okay but globs of sparkles will look too immature and not flatter her. She doesn't wear neon pink, instead favoring more demure colors appropriate for a middle-aged woman. She has rosy fair skin and light blue eyes.

I'm leaning toward one of the lipglasses -- possibly Mimmy or Sweet Strawberry. Mimmy would be great to layer over lipstick, but since my mom is often on-the-go I don't know that she'd take the time for the two-step application process.

Sweet Strawberry could work since it deposits color, but I don't know how the berry shade would look on her. I look good in berries so that's a somewhat promising sign, however, my mom has red hair and tends to wear red lipstick whereas I have light brown hair.

Hmm...guess I'll go back to the store and try those two specifically on my own lips, and make a decision. Better do it fast, since some of the HK products are already sold out online!

Any ideas for what to get my mom from this collection?

My Hydrating, Lipstick Substitution

I am especially picky about lipstick this time of year, when cold, dry weather leaves my lips chapped. Sometimes I still want a color boost though, like when I'm conducting an interview at work or going out on the town. Of course, those are the times when I'm probably too involved in talking, sipping and/or eating to worry about whether my lipstick is smearing or melting off or some other horror....so I'd like something with minimal maintenance too.

Impossible? Not necessarily.

What I've done lately in a pinch is line my lips and fill them in with a fairly natural-looking lip liner, then coat with lip balm. This leaves my lips soft and hydrated with a nice wash of soft color. Using a shade close to my natural lips also means that if it happens to rub off, it won't look shocking weird to reapply, which is good when I'm aiming for the polished-yet-natural look. (Note: A simple swipe of shimmery, light-colored gloss adds extra 'oomph.')

I came across this by accident. While hurriedly applying makeup in the bathroom of a reception hall, a fellow patron at the wedding I attended on Jan. 1 actually commented on how nice my lips looked. I intended for the lip liner and lip balm I had on to just be a base for lipstick, but considering all the drinking and eating I was bound to do that afternoon, I figured I'd just leave my pout as-is.

I've mostly rocked this look with NYX's Mauve 831 lip liner and Lizard Lips chapstick, which I'm in love with! It's made of beeswax, aloe, lanolin, grape seed oil, a combination of other oils and vitamin E. It also has SPF 22.

Lip liner + lip balm = subtle, moisturized beauty.

**Btw, I tried photographing myself wearing this but I'd just eaten some cabbage and it gave my lips purple spots!

Sweet Salve-ation

1. Smith's Minted Rose lip balm -- This has the same consistency as it's famous cousin Rosebud Salve, but with an added minty kick. ($7, Sephora.com)

2. ChapStick 100% Naturals -- I prefer the texture and scent of these to the classic ChapSticks; Naturals are composed mostly of oils and waxes, whereas the Classics are more than 40 percent petrolatum (likely accounting for the consistency difference), according to the ingredients on the brand's Web site. ($2.99, Walgreens.com)

3. Burt's Bees Beeswax lip balm -- Beeswax, natural oils and lanolin make this a winning combination that's more than 95 percent natural, the company boasts. It leaves my lips minty soft. ($3, BurtsBees.com)

4. Carmex -- Ah, the infamous, addicting yellow tube. Though I don't think it's as dangerous as detractors and urban legends claim, the salicylic acid is a bit curious to me as an all-over treatment. Regardless, I like how easily this glides on and thoroughly coats my dry lips. ($1.69, CVS.com)

5. Lather lip protector with SPF 15 -- The tube calls it "an intense lip moisturizer," and it definitely delivers. I love its light citrus scent and how it soothes even my most dry, cracked lips. Being environmentally and animal friendly is an added bonus. ($6.50, Lather.com)

6. Nivea's A Kiss of Shine-- A moisturizing/glossy hybrid with vitamin E. It also has a cirtus scent and unique consistency that's not balmy, but is more mositurizing than regular lip gloss. ($3.29, Drugstore.com)

The Last Lip Gloss Brand I May Ever Need

I'm only exaggerating a little bit. Really, I'm currently quite infatuated with NYX mega shine lip glosses. So much so that I've purchased five of them in the past six weeks. And at $2.60 a pop at a local beauty supply store, they're especially easy on the wallet as far as beauty products go!


Pretty, huh? Vanessa at Nessasary Makeup - whose reviews and tutorials I absolutely love - recently had a post with her NYX "lipstick army"...and while I'm not quite there yet, I'm quickly becoming a convert.

These are glosses, not lipsticks, so don't expect a heavy, lipstick-quality color. The lighter colors are more sheer, particularly 'Juicy Red,' the most translucent in the tube of the bunch. Since I haven't yet mastered the art of taking pictures of my lips, check out the below photo and I will verbally explain how they look on my lips.

From left to right:
Sunrise is a bright, opaque, shimmery, berry color that's less red than it looks in the tube.
Juicy Red makes my lips look exactly as tasty as it sounds. It deposits just a hint of color and a lot of shine.
Salsa is also bright, berry, shimmery and fairly opaque, but lighter than sunrise and less intense. It's a true, bold pink that feels very tropical to me, if that makes sense.
La~La~ is probably my favorite color. It deposits just the right amount of light, rosy, bubble gum pink on my lips, subtly perking up my complexion. (Side note: You can't see it in the photo, but Juicy Red isn't sparkly at all, Sunrise and Salsa are shimmery, and La~La~ and Perfect have bigger sparkle particles in them.)
Perfect is sooo pretty. It puts a very muted pink glaze on my lips with tiny sparkles, only apparent from up close.

Overall product pros:

• Wide range of colors.
• Fantastic texture; this is some of my all-time favorite textured lip glosses. I find slight variances based on color - for example, between the glosses with shimmer, with sparkle and those without it. Yet across the board I find these glosses to be smooth and provide ample coverage without being too sticky or gloopy.
  
• No taste and no odor (unless you sniff it really close).
• Great alone or over lipstick.
• Not too sparkly. The shimmer works as a light reflector and is subtle.
  
• Great price.

Cons:

• Not widely available depending on where you are. (I got mine at an independent beauty supply...I've seen NYX in some drug stores, but never these lip glosses.)
• Relatively long-lasting but nothing special when challenged with food or drinking.

What I especially love is the quality. I haven't used many high-end lip glosses so I can't compare these NYX glosses to them. However, I am very experienced when it comes to drugstore brands, from Revlon, Covergirl, L'Oreal and Maybelline to Wet 'n Wild, NYC and Bonne Bell (in my younger days) -- and in my opinion, these NYX glosses match or beat all of them. Plus, they're cheaper?? Count me in. (FYI, online the glosses are $5 on NYX's Web site, but I'd still pay that much for them, definitely.) I feel like I'm not sacrificing quality for cost, that it's fun and easy to experiment with different shades, and that I don't have to break the bank to treat myself once in a while.

My Lips Say 'Thank You'

I've been battling one of my arch nemeses lately -- raw, tight, uncomfortable lips. The temperature is still hovering around 70 degrees here in the Maryland-outskirts of D.C., yet my lips already feel like it's the middle of winter with the heat cranked up and poor ventilation.

Of course once your lips get dry like that, the problem can easily (and quickly) spiral out of hand. And my problem was that I had nary a Chapstick or bottle of Vaseline in sight. All my lip balms seemed to have vanished at exactly the moment I needed them! Plus, I was too lazy/indecisive/frugal to get something new...so I let things get progressively worse, till my lips really freaking hurt.

Then in the nick of time last night, I found my tin of Smith's Minted Rose Lip Balm.

You know it? If so, you probably love it. "Created specially for Sephora, this cult-favorite, minty, multi-purpose lip balm soothes dry lips, calms and heals irritation, and soothes the sting of minor burns," the retailer's Web site says. "Try dabbing on dry elbows or knees to condition, and relieve dryness."

I haven't used it on my body much, but I'd believe it works. The ingredients are: cotton seed oil, borax, aromol, and essential oils in a "special" petrolatum base. It's a lot more solid than regular petroleum jelly, but has a similar consistency when you get some on your fingertip. The nice smell and cool, minty-yet-subtle 'zing' of this stuff is a really nice change from your standard petroleum lippie though. The tin is adorable, and the product just has some fantastic quality about it I can't quite put my finger on. It feels really nice on, is pleasantly fragrant, restores my lips to a non-uncomfortable state, and it looks nice too...just the right amount of healthy shine.

In writing this post I did some research on borax, a compound that has some people concerned about its presence in cosmetics because it is also used in detergent and is toxic in high doses. This alarmed me a little bit too, so I turned to The Beauty Brains, a great site on which cosmetic chemists cut through advertising hype and look at the science behind products to give readers scientifically-accurate, unbiased information. (Packaged in an easy-to-read, entertaining way! Check the site out, for sure.)

In discussing what borax does in beeswax-based Lush lip balms, the Right Brain explains that it forms an emulsion, which is a stable mixture of two unblendable liquids, such as oil and water. (The Right Brain says about Lush: "Borax-beeswax emulsions are unusual - they’re “water in oil” emulsions so the water drops are dispersed in the oil. That type of emulsion tends to be more water proof which is good for a lip balm.") Smith's uses petrolatum and not beeswax, however, it still seems logical that like in the Lush product, Smith's salve uses borax as an emulsifier instead of turning to a multitude of other chemicals.

"And a final note: if you do any kind of web search on Borax you’ll find that it can also be used as an insecticide, but don’t worry about that," Right Brain notes at the end of the post. "It’s only toxic to humans at very high levels - in fact it has the same toxicity profile as common table salt. (Hey, even water can be toxic if you drown in the stuff!) So a little bit in your lip balm is perfectly fine."

So I'm willing to believe that borax is safe in this use. I haven't tested it myself, but when you consider all the carcinogens and potentially harmful substances we all encounter everyday...plus the fact that, as the Brains point out, a lot of things are toxic in high doses but safe in smaller quantities.

Time to Say Goodbye

To some yucky old lip gloss. Ew.

Specifically, Maybelline LipPolish in Sweet Blush, a shimmery light pink. But see how nice the tube from the company's Web site looks (obviously not my color)? Yeah, my tube doesn't. I opened my temporary makeup case today - what I used to transfer stuff when I moved - and it stuck out like a sore thumb. The package is faded, the product color looks a bit funny, and sure enough, it smells kinda nasty. It's definitely a couple of years old and mostly empty, plus a lot of the remaining product won't even come out.

There's no sense in keeping it since I have no intention to put it anywhere near my lips, especially in light of my recent NYX lipgloss purchases. So long, lip gloss!

I have a bad habit of keeping cosmetics for way longer than recommended. But I've always wondered if they really spoil in such little time, like three months for mascara. Something to research for another day...

Why Didn't I Try These Before?

NYX lipglosses (specifically, lip gloss with mega shine)
Packaging info: Standard lip gloss tube with doe-tip applicator.
Price: $2.99
Hadn't tried before because: I never saw them in my local drugstore.
Trying now because: I saw them at a beauty supply store near my new place.

Thoughts so far: I picked up "La~La~", a bubblegum pink color, and "Juicy Red," which looks just like it sounds on my lips, kind of like I've been eating a tasty red lollipop. The consistency is really smooth, not too sticky or too runny. Both colors are fairly sheer, and I don't know if that's what the whole line is like or just the colors I chose. But if I keep liking them as much as I am after the first few days, I will definitely purchase more! There is a wide color selection and you can't beat the price when it comes to quality.


Nivea Creme (small size)
Packaging info: Blue tin with hearts on it <3
Price: $1.99 for one ounce.
Hadn't tried before because: I use moisturizer with SPF during the day and don't generally use night cream at night. And if I do, I tend to just slap on whatever body lotion I have around x_x.
Trying now because: Something dried my skin out horribly a few days ago and gave me a temporary allergic reaction. It could be the Neutrogena grapefruit scrub I purchased that was accidentally open. Maybe the package not being sealed properly did something to the contents? It only has 2 percent salicylic acid which isn't normally too much for me, but maybe there's another irritating agent in it. I haven't taken an in-depth look at all the ingredients, I figured stopping it for the time being was a good solution. Plus, I'd recently read that Nivea is a potential low-end substitution for the much hyped La Mer, and this seemed like as good a time as ever to try an intense moisturizer.

Thoughts so far: I love the smell and the way it melts into my skin. I love how rich it is. My little tin is adorable too! (If I write more about it I will take a pic, since I can't find one online.) My skin is thankfully clearing up, though not using the Neutrogena scrub and trying to take good general care of my body could be helping just as much as this cream. Nevertheless, I'm going to continue using it for a while at night and see how that goes. So far, so good. Again, the price can't be beat for the quality.


Watching America's Next Top Model online
I'm such a sucker for bad TV...especially if I can watch it online. I don't watch the regular television much anymore, or almost at all. When I did though - especially over the summer if was having a lazy day - I'd occasionally catch ANTM marathons on VH1. Yes, it's cheesy. But instead of cleaning my room tonight or going out, since tomorrow morning is work and my friends are all busy, I decided to find some more Internet TV shows. My real guilty pleasure is MTV's "The Hills"...and now that I know I can watch the even-more-cheesy ANTM online, well, I'm going for it.

Are there any products you'd recommend? Or guilty-pleasure TV shows I can catch up watching online?

Protect Your Pout: Sticking to Lippies with SPF

My greatest beauty weakness is lip gloss. I love trying new colors, textures, scents and tastes... plus it's so easy to sneak in a purse or pocket and touch up on-the-go! I almost bought a cheap, cookie-scented chapstick yesterday, till I remembered my new goal of sorts: seeking lip products with SPF.

You likely heard the fuss a few months ago that SPF-free gloss may increase your chance of lip cancer by making it easier for UV rays to penetrate the lips. The linked ABC News article (May '08) has several doctors explaining the roots of this belief. But it also points out that the lack of "large, targeted studies proving or disproving this theory....[makes the doctors quoted and the] American Cancer Society reluctant to draw fixed conclusions."

So, it's currently a theory. A scientific theory, of course, not one out of nowhere. And it seems to me to have an obvious logical basis - oil on your skin encourages burning, so why wouldn't shiny, oily gloss on your lips? But who knows to what degree does gloss have an impact, if any? I don't. That's why there are specialists to do clinical trials on these things!

Either way, it's important to protect your skin and especially your precious lips from too much sun exposure.

"Lips don't produce sebum, or oil, like skin does, and that leaves them particularly susceptible to sun damage -- in the form of wrinkling, loss of volume, and, of course, skin cancer," wrote dermatologist Leslie Baumann MD in the Miami Herald (July '08). "...even if you can't abandon your favorite glossy gloss, it's crucial that you apply a layer of lip balm with SPF first." (Clearly, that's only one doctor's opinion -- authoritative, but not gospel.)

How am I acting in light of all this? Well, I'm not yet giving up my favorite lipstick shades or stopping myself from testing the latest hues. I usually wear lipstick at night or indoors anyway! However, I'll go for products with SPF when I can...particularly when an SPF and non-SPF product are equally attractive before taking the protection into account.

Thankfully high-end and low-end companies alike are producing a slew of lippes with SPF nowadays. Thus, in the case of my cheap cookie balm, I knew I could find something as good or better with the added protection.

In fact, I already have. Here are three products I own -- off the top of my head, I probably have more -- that are SPF friendly.

--Tarte's 24/7 Lip Sheer in Tea Time ($14, SPF 15) This is my newest HG product, and really my first HG balm/tint. I love the color though it gets a bit dry. I prefer applying it with something more moisturizing as a base. Active Ingredients: 7.5 percent Octinoxate, 6 percent zinc oxide. **Recommended

--Sephora's Operation Smile Lip Baume ($5, SPF 15) This was a gift from my sister and I think an LE product, which makes me sad because I've had it for at least two years and am starting to run out. It's a clear balm with petroleum, lanolin, beeswax and a bunch of oils. Active ingredients: octyl methoxycinnimate, octyl silicylate (sp? for octyl salicylate), benzophenone. **I've read conflicting/unclear info about this formula for sun protection, but I'm just telling you about products currently in my stash and encourage you to read more...maybe even educate me if you have links to definitive info.

--e.l.f. Super Glossy Lip Shine ($1, SPF 15) Proof that for the same price as my cookie chapstick I could get something with sun protection. I picked this up at a dollar store in NYC...have only tried it a few times, it's a tad sticky for my taste but a decent gloss overall, especially for the price. Active ingredients: 2 Hydroxy 4 Methoxy Benzophenone, Octyl 4-Methoxy Cinnamate, Titanium Dioxide **Yes, I know there's nicer glosses with SPF. I wanted to cite this one since it is the same price as the cookie balm (which was on clearance! and this is only a buck regularly).

Will you go out of your way to get lippies with SPF? Are there any products you'd recommend?