Things to put on your lips - from balms to glosses and long-lasting lipstick - have to be one of the most widely used beauty products. Top three globally, for sure.
They're also the most emblematic. Type the generalised term 'makeup' into a WhatsApp message, and up pops the algorithm's suggested emoji: a tube of lipstick. Even the robots know.
Given that popularity, I'd guess you've already got a few favourites rolling around your handbag or makeup drawer. But there's always room for something new and exciting, isn't there? Especially when it'll set you back less than a good bottle of olive oil in today's economy.
Why this £13 plumping lip stain is my beauty buy of the week
Usually, with lip products, comfort works in inverse proportion to staying power. So matte lipsticks or stains stick around, but feel - and look - tight, drying, and unflattering on thinner or lined lips. Lip oils and glosses feel great and flatter well, but have to be reapplied at a rate most of us struggle to sustain.
So it's been a thrill to discover a product that is a true Jack of all trades - and I'll tell you why saying that is not damning it with faint praise.
I recently discovered the unedited 'director's cut' version of a famous phrase, which goes: "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." Who knew! It's not a diss. So I'll say with nothing but love and respect, this skincare-infused lip stain is a jack of all trades.
As in, it does lots of things well - plumps up lined or thinning lips with hyaluronic acid serum, adds a glossy wash of colour, dries to a cool, blotted-looking stain that feels like nothing's there, then lasts and lasts (and lasts) Since receiving my first sample, in Bordeaux Please back in December, this has barely been off my lips and has never left my bag. I now have one in every shade.
I deeply care about and consider what to include in this Sunday column each week, and this affordable crowd-pleaser feels correct for now. Probably because I'm a believer in the lipstick index - a theory that, during times of economic doom and gloom, sales of little treats, like lippie, rise. I'm also a big-time fan of little treats generally. The stuff of life, isn't it?
Obviously, the parameters of your disposable income are between you and your banking app, but there's no reason anyone's fun should be sprinkled with 'should I have spent that?' fear. Not when products this brilliant, at this price, exist. Sounds good? Great! Let's chat next Sunday.
