Benetint

Well, I've been using Benefit's Benetint lately for blush. It's a red liquid that comes with a nail-polish like brush. You brush it on your cheeks and then blend before it dries. It's subtle but there and I really like it. It looks completely natural.

I can't decide if I like it $28 worth though. The big draw for me is that it's also lip stain. I had just been applying it with the brush, even though I just see that it's supposed to go on under my lipstick and applying with a cotton swab (won't I then get a mouth full of cotton?) Anyway... I'm not a fan of it plain. It dries my lips and worse yet, makes them look dry. Red, but dry. And it doesn't last. I'll have to try it as a lipstick base. Hmmmm.

But, it does smell and taste like roses. Yum.

Right on the Lips

I think my lips are fairly average. They get dry and a little chapped during winter, but nothing crazy. I don't have a lot of issues with them.

If you have normal lips, I can't think of anything better than Burt's Bees.

I'm currently completely enamored with their Replinishing Lip Balm. It has pomegranate oil, so it's really tasty as well as being nice and moisturizing. (But it is a *little* girly.)

I'm not a huge fan of lipstick, because I eat it like no one's business. Seriously, if I apply right before I leave for work, it will be gone by the time I get there, so I tend to stick to lighter stuff that's easier to apply, because I need to reapply constantly.

That's where their lip shimmer comes into play. It has lip balm qualities with a light coat of awesome color! My one complaint is that every time I find a color I love, it goes away. :(

I currently regularly use: Coffee (no longer available, which is sad because it is the PERFECT shade of brown for pale girls) Rhubarb (a dark, pinky pink) Merlot (a darker, bluer red) and Nutmeg (just a little browner and shimmier than my normal lips.)

Tip: if you go to the website and click on the magnifying glass over on the left, it will show you the actual gloss, not just the tube, which will give a better sense of the color.

On the other hand, at $5 a pop, you can just buy a bunch and experiment. Your lips will thank you.

From the mailbag: transformed lips!

This just in from reader Emily, a two-thumbs-up for Neosporin Lip Treatment.

"As someone that suffers serious dry, painful chapped lips pretty much from September to May, this stuff is amazing. My lips were always chapped and cracked, and itched from the chapping and cracking, which meant I'd bite my lips, leading to worse cracking, sometimes leading to painful blisters. Ouch! But this stuff is soothing, thick-but-not-sticky, long-lasting and mild-tasting, with the added benefit of a light analgesic to dull the pain from the chapped lips. The latter is the key ingredient for me. I've gone through a tube in 2 weeks, which sucks because it's relatively expensive (compared with good old blue Chapstick). But oh-so-worth it. In two weeks my lips have been transformed."

Thanks, Emily! I'll have to give it a try...I hate going out for drinks and realizing that I am distractedly biting my poor chapped lips between beers.

Fruit Spritzers and Donut Lips

I’ve been a fan of Cover Girl Wetslicks lipgloss ever since Horsey Foreign Model and Small Orange Man sang its praises on the best-ever season of America’s Next Top Model. It really does have a great, nonsticky texture, and it does indeed smell like cupcakes. On the other hand, my enthusiasm for Wetslicks has never been quite enough for me to keep one of my three tubes anywhere I could find them, and if I had to guess, I’d say they’re slumming around the bottom of one of my lesser-used makeup bags with about twelve other rarely-used lipglosses that seemed like a good idea at the time of purchase.

The newest Wetslicks incarnation, Fruit Spritzers, has recently rekindled the flame. Packaged in a convenient squeezy tube, rather than the wand-applicator Wetslicks of yore, the only real difference is that these glosses taste and mell like assorted fruits, not cupcakes. That was enough for me to buy three and throw them all in my bag.

Of the three I own, the lemon flavor is the weakest, and a disappointment. Papaya is considerably better. The flavor/fragrance of Fig Splash, however, is awesome. To me, it seems like more of a chocolate flavor than straight-up fig, though I rarely eat non-Newtonated figs so I may not be the best judge here. Way, way better than cupcakes.

The color of Fig Splash, on the other hand, I can’t recommend. It's the frostiest lipgloss I've ever seen. Crazy frosty white shimmer. If you use any more than the tiniest dab, your lips will look like a day-old glazed donut, guaranteed.

This may be a beauty blog, but we recognize that there are times when you must choose your own interests over how you look to the outside world. And for me, Fig Splash time is one of those times. I don’t care how I look, my lips are soft and figgy fresh. And that's all I need.