Another day another lip product. Apologies that this post is going up so late in the day I have been on the first day of a 2 day course for work which means that I have not had internet access today. I also have been told that I have a test on the course tomorrow which means I have a substantial amount of reading to do tonight boo hoo!
So onto the products. On one hand I was kind of excited to get hold of these products, damn me for being sucked into another blogger hype. But on the other hand I was slightly dubious. Having been let down by the original Just Bitten balm by Revlon which is a double ended wand with a stain on one end and balm on the other I was worried these would have the same results. However instead of having a separate balm its built into the stain. These have unsurprisingly been likened to the Clinique chubby sticks and judging by the packaging alone I can see why. I can't however speak for the Cliique version as I have yet to try them. Now I was not aware these had reached the UK stores although I did know that they were on the Boots website. The colours are limited both in store and on the site at the moment in comparison to those available across the pond but none the less I managed to pick up Rendezvous which was on my radar after seeing Louise donning it in a recent post and also Honey which is a deep pinkish mauve colour. The product is almost a crayon for your lips which you can twist to reveal more product thus removing the need to sharpen. I had heard that they have a minty aroma and whilst I could not smell this immediately when applying to my lips, a good sniff of the actually stick revealed that this is true, think toothpaste girls. I had envisaged these to have more of a fruity scent, its not unpleasant in the least just not something I was expecting. I was impressed with the formulation though - smooth and pigmented and ticked all the boxes in what I look for in a lip product. Rather than apply a separate balm this leaves almost a balmy layer over the stain which wears off after a while and you are left with just the stain. And when they say stain, boy do they mean stain, this bad boy isn't budging for no one! I did find that as the balm wears off they can leave your lips feeling a tad dry and like most stains can cling to any dry patches on your lips. I didn't find this quite the case with Rendezvous but with Honey which is a much darker shade you could notice slight darker patches where it had collected on dry areas. I found the easiest way to remedy this was to apply a clear lip balm throughout the day which replaces the original balm left after initial application.
In a nutshell I would say I was more impressed with these than their lip butter releases. Revlon have certainly upped their game here and I look forward to seeing whether there become more shades available in the future.
