CANADIAN BEAUTY REVIEWS: All about lip colour

Today I am going to talk a little bit about my favourite lip care and lip colours! I have a lovely array of LUSH cosmetics lip tints and balms and scrubs- if you follow my blog you should know that I am a little bit LUSH obsessed ;) I love LUSH lip care because it is more natural than other big beauty brands, and it looks great! The tins might look small for the price, but they last forever!
The deep red coloured one at the very top is the newly released LUSH lip tint, A Million Kisses ($8.95), which I discussed in my last blog post. It is a deep, rich, smooth red that really makes a statement when you wear it! Also pictured are: Honey Trap lip balm ($6.95), Celebrate lip tint ($8.95), Snow Fairy lip tint ($8.95) and the Bubblegum lip scrub ($8.95).

Honey Trap is my go-to lip moisturizer. I will layer this under my LUSH lip tints to ensure they glide on smoothly. As you can tell by the photo posted, my current pot is well-used. I bought it last May (2011) and it is still about half full even though I use it daily so this speaks toward the excellent value these products have! With oat milk to calm and soothe your lips, this balm has a vanilla-honey, white chocolate scent and flavour, with just a touch of peppermint to cool and soothe dry lips. If you hop over to the LUSH link posted, you can see the ingredient list for this balm and notice that the majority of the ingredients are completely edible, making this a safe choice for licking ;)
The Bubblegum lip scrub by LUSH is one of three lip scrubs in the current line up: they also offer a mint flavoured scrub and a chocolate flavoured scrub. Bubblegum is the winner in my heart- it tastes delicious and it is completely edible! All you do is glide some of the sugar-y scrub over your chapped or dry lips, rub your lips together, and then lick off. Made primarily of castor sugar and organic jojoba oil, this scrub is very friendly to winter lips! It also lasts forever, making it a great purchase for the price. When I use it, I will actually put a touch of Honey Trap on first to ensure the scrub sticks easily to my lips. If you try to apply it to bone-dry lips, it may get a bit messy!

Two of my lip tints are seasonal wares that are currently not available for sale- this is a crying shame! Celebrate is my favourite every day lip tint- it is subtle and understated in a light, shimmery pink that goes well with my skin tone. Packed with sweet orange, lime and cognac oils, I find it to be a moisturizing lip tint. However, if you do have dry lips the colour will stand out in the creases so I always layer honey trap underneath before applying Celebrate.
Snow Fairy lip tint is a bright pink colour that is not quite my cup of tea. It goes on pretty much as seen in the above photo: a deep and bubblegum-y pink that is not my personal taste. I have read online that some girls are using it as a cheek tint as well, although I personally would not do this because I have acne-prone skin and it would most likely cause a break out! This lip tint smells delicious, like cotton candy! It has shea butter, cupuacu butter and murumuru butters to ensure your lips stay nice and soft while wearing it, and even contains dried cranberries which contribute to the colour and taste of this seasonal tint!

I know I come off as a die-hard LUSHie in this blog, but I do use other lip glosses, tints and balms by other great brands. Last year, I did a purge where I threw away a lot of old lip colours- many brands use ingredients that are not safe for human consumption in their lip care items; being as we put these things on our mouths and will no doubt consume part of the product, this makes no sense to me. We could be poisoning our bodies by accident in the name of beauty, which doesn't sit well with me. That is why I mainly use LUSH for my lips now. However, these products were keepers based on their prettiness. From left to right, I have: a MAC lustreglass in Wonderstruck ($17.50), MAC plushglass in Fulfilled ($22.00). Before buying LUSH, I was a MAC junkie. I support MAC because it is a Canadian company, and also because I like the quality of the products. The Lustreglass is extremely sticky. It is not user friendly unless you plan on wearing your hair up for the night! It will get all stuck in your hair and if you plan on kissing anyone, they will end up wearing half of it, too! I used to wear it a lot but stopped for those reasons. The Plushglass is meant to plump up your lips for a sensual pout. I bought it to try out, and I find that it irritates my lips. When I wear it, they burn a little bit. And YES it works- they do get plumper, but I actually do not like the look of it. I think I like my lips better au natural.
The third product in is by Estee Lauder, an Ultra Brilliance High Gloss called Honey. I like this because it is less sticky than MAC. The colour is quite sparkly and beige-tinted on my lips which looks better on me when I have a tan. I got this as a gift from my mom a year or two ago, and I cannot locate a price online. I keep this gloss in my purse for when I need a little razzle-dazzle on short notice. Fourth from the left is another MAC lipglass, called Oyster Girl ($17.50). This highly sticky lip gloss goes on pretty opaque, making my lips look very light pink and sparkly. I like to wear it when I do my eye makeup dark, as the contrast looks pretty cool.
In the middle is my precious Burt's Bees beeswax lip balm! At just under $5.00, this is a great product. It has mint in it which leaves my lips tingly and soft. It lasts forever and I keep it in my purse for on-the-go moisturizing. Alongside LUSH, Burt's Bees products are more natural and therefore a much better choice than synthetic offerings by other companies.
Beside my lip balm I have my beloved bareMinerals Pretty Amazing lip colour in Free Will ($16.00). This high-impact, opaque lip colour is ultra-shiny, but I do not find the staying power on this to be very impressive. It is not insanely sticky like MAC's products, which I love. I find the colour to be understated and neutral, which is also a plus for me. I like this brand because they also like to use natural ingredients in their products, which you know I am all about!
The final four lip products are rarely used by me, but I said I would show you my entire stash so I had to hold true! The peachy one is a drugstore brand, the clear one is a gloss by Joe Fresh, and the far right is a highly sticky gloss by American Eagle. In the bottom is my sole lipstick, a nice pink colour aptly named Pink Berry by Estee Lauder.