Lip Products

All the bebes are doing it

| Loni

Mustela Hydra Stick

$9.50

More info HERE

I have mentioned before that I love French beauty products, not because I am obsessed with France, even though it is a lovely country that I had a great time visiting (Hey Rosey!) but because the EU regulates personal care products differently than the US, by regulating what chemicals are allowed to go into personal care products to protect consumers. The EU does not allow chemicals known to cause things including cancer, reproductive and neurological harm, into personal care products. The US, not so much. The EU has banned over 1,000 chemicals from being put into personal care products while the US has banned only nine.  I like products made in the EU because they make me feel extra safe.

The first time I used the Mustela Hydra Stick was in high school. I saw it in a magazine and hunted it down to a fancy pharmacy in NYC. I toted it around like I was the coolest person ever because I had this coveted little piece of magic from France.

Nevertheless, as I have mentioned in other posts, I like to, late night on the weekends, on the way home from being out, I like to go to drugstores. Conveniently, there is a great drug store that carries super hard to find brands and is open 24 hours a day down the street and on the way home to my house. So the other night after dinner with my friend Rosey, I stopped in and was inevitably greeted by the night staff that know me well.

I found myself in the baby aisle staring down this little pint-sized deodorant shaped stick of moisture goodness. Because I know Mustela is made in France I knew it would be made without parabens, sulfates, synthetic dyes, phthalates or triclosan, which it is, so I didn’t even have to do my compulsive label checking.  I walked that little stick to the register and skipped home.

The Hydra Stick is a great shape to haphazardly slap it on your lips and it lasts a super long time without being sticky. Its not shiny shiny, but rather it leaves a healthy moistness to your lips and because it is creamy, it tones your lips into this nice supple color, that’s not obvious and is totally unisex. It has a mild baby scent that’s odd for a lip product, but since that’s not its only use, as you can use it on your face too, that makes sense and besides the scent is nice. Its super cute in your purse and it makes me smile every time I pull it out because this little stick is so adult for a baby product and its funny to think of little French kids using it on the playground. Well I don’t know if that’s what all French kids do on the playground, but using my own childhood as a source, that’s what I would do.

*Above image used without permission from HERE

Toxic Tuesday: Tainted Love

| Loni

Tom Ford Lip and Cheek Stain in Tainted Love

$48.00

More info HERE

Enter my favorite activity, going out to eat with my high school girlfriends and immediately upon seeing them asking them if I can look into their purse. Well, this time, it was not so immediate   After a delicious birthday dinner for our friend Sarah (Congrats BTW!), I asked my friend Chrissy if I could look in her purse, she obliged, but this time instead of letting me explore, she pulled out this square lipstick case and was like “You have to try this, your gonna love it.”

I took the luxe tube from Chrissy, and in the small cramped bathroom of a NYC restaurant went to town. I instantly knew it was Tom Ford by the imprint in the product and got really excited. I put it on, and it was as Chrissy had warned me, the most perfect universally flattering color ever. I was in love. The color, just slightly burnt brick, a really subtle red whose texture is not glossy but rather leaves a nice scheen to your lips. It  was also completely moisturizing like a balm. The most luxurious tinted balm ever.

I kept putting it on, and then Chrissy told me I could use it on my cheeks too. I had just powdered my face so I needed a little something and this too was the perfect color for my cheeks. Just a nice healthy flush, nothing special, but nothing overdone. I love a multitasking product, but so often, the color just does not work on one part of your face. This one at least for me worked really well. I tend to have a reddish face so I sometimes shy away from blush because in my head I think it makes the redness worse, but this really just made me look healthy.

Chrissy then delivered the worst news: It was limited edition. Chrissy, being smart, bought two and told me if I could not find it, she would gladly give me one. I have such smart and nice friends. As soon as I could steal a moment away from the group I took out my iphone and searched for it. I found it at Neiman Marcus, and, I may have bought two and I could not be happier every time I pull it out to put it on.

*Above image used without permission from HERE

Jammin’

| Loni

So, I am in a bit of jam. I have my little cousins wedding in one hour, and my hotel room is not ready. Ugh, like a Girl Scout or MacGuyver, here are the products I am about to use in the hotel lobby to get ready!

This foundation stick requires no brush or sponge, just dab it onto your face and pat into your skin and bam, perfect canvas. 

This pot rouge in Raspberry, can go on lips and cheeks, making it one less thing to drag out of my bag

A dash of eyeliner (maybe, it is the afternoon)

This eyelash curler is amazing, I’ve gone through a bunch over the years and I keep coming back.  Using this makes it easier to skip the mascara- Also just noticed they make this in gold, super crush.

Also, CONGRATS Colleen & Shawn!!!!!

Run, run, run you wild rose

| Loni

Wild Rose Moisturizing Lip Butter Glaze

$14.00

More info HERE

This stuff gets so much hype and people tend to flip over these little tubes and pots. As a lip product junkie I too drank the Kool Aid after my friend Sabina had been toting her Guava one around and raving about the brand in general.

For the moisture part, these do the trick, they are just the right level of thickness without being gloopy. Which avoids that annoying aspect of gloss of having your hair gets stuck in it, which is a plus during the winter when I would be using such a heavy gloss like this and wearing my hair down. Anyway, this glaze unlike so many other does not dry out your lips, probably because its free of parabens, sulfates, sythetic fragrances, petrochemicals, phthalates, GMOs and Trisoclan.

So, in addition to having the moisture part down pat Koress has nailed the color. Its that perfect, berry thats not too obvious. Its a fuchsia color that is pretty deep and vibrant without looking clownish. I just dyed my hair super dark brown and this really pops against that dark backdrop. It’s a really nice wash of color, that says I tried, but not too hard.

What I like most about it though is how healthy it makes my lips look. The glaze really coats my lips and minimizes the fine lines I have been noticing more and more– likely due to the excessive diet coke and indoor air– but its does so without that overly glossy balloon lip look that I really try to stay away from.

Definitely, a good lip gloss, that achieves the holy grail here at One Product at a Time, that ‘pulled together effortlessly look, that totally says everything I did was an afterthought.’

*Above image used without permission from HERE

Mullein & Sparrow Lip/Cheek Balm

| Loni

Mullein & Sparrow Lip/ Cheek Balm

$14.00

More Info

So safe you can eat it

| Loni

Intelligent Nutrients Certified Organic Lip Delivery Antioxidant Gloss

$24.00

More Information

When Aveda founder, Horst M. Rechelbacher, set out to start a new personal care company after selling Aveda to Estee Lauder, he “shifted his focus to Intelligent Nutrients, a health and beauty company that lives to the highest standards of 100% food-based, safe, non-toxic and organic ingredients.” The product line is based around the idea that “much of what goes on your skin can be absorbed into it. If it’s good enough to go on your body, it should be good enough to go into your mouth. And conversely, if you wouldn’t put it in your mouth, don’t put it on your skin.”

“Lip Delivery Antioxidant Gloss is a USDA certified organic gluten-free lip-gloss combining powerful colorful antioxidant chemistry and nutritious food ingredients with a high Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (antioxidant) ORAC value. Lip Delivery Antioxidant Gloss is free from toxic mined or mineral pigments, heavy metals, synthetic colorants.” Also it does not contain, petroleum, synthetic oils, lead, toxic minerals, parabens, petrochemicals, plastics, artificial fragrance or flavors, synthetic colorants or silicones.

The gloss definitely moisturized, and the clear frosting color left a nice sheen. It lasted a long time and I did not find that I had to reapply often. The color Purple Mazie looks very dark in the tube but is a perfect light berry shade on the lips, not too overdone, but quite good for a low key day or when you don’t want to be obvious about your lip color. The taste though is like a blueberry muffin and I could do without that for sure. What I like best is that “every ingredient chosen to feed your lips with power-packed antioxidants and Intelligent Nutrients’ signature Antioxidant Intellimune® Seed Oil Complex to help battle oxidative stress and aid in fighting pre-mature aging”

* Image above and quotations used without permission from Intelligent Nutrients

 

Rosy Glow

| Loni

Blissoma Rosy Glow Lip Elixer

$6.99

More product information

Blissoma Rosy Glow Lip Elixer, immediately caught my attention when I was purchasing other things from the really awesome company Blissoma by Irie Star (See my other posts on Blissoma products here and here). Blissoma created the lip elixer because they “were sick of waxy stick balms,” Blissoma “thought up this fabulous idea – a liquid with all the nutritive, healing properties of a medicinal balm but with the light texture of a gloss.” Continue reading →