by BR Kellie
I remember the first lip oil I ever bought. It came in a long plastic tube, with a little rollerball at the top. It said it was strawberry scented. It looked like it would give me the glossy, pink lips of my teenage dreams. Purchasing it, I felt so grown up, like it was my first tentative step into adulthood. On arrival home I ripped off the plastic and applied it, sure I was about to morph from a pimply, awkward girl to some put together, mature version of myself.
The first thing that hit me? The scent. It was strawberry alright, but not in that fresh, sweet, delicious way that strawberry's have. This was that awful, chemical, manufactured in a lab, puke-inducing strawberry scent. Then came the feel... like an oil slick on my lips. It didn't sink in, either. It just sat there feeling yuck. As for having pretty pink lips? The colour didn't show up at all.
It was a fail, and for years I side-eyed any product that had the words 'lip' and 'oil' on it. Until recently.
You see, lip oils have become impossible to ignore. Every brand worth its salt is coming out with one.
Who knows what kind of oil was in the product I purchased during my youth, but these days lip oils use the good stuff as ingredients. We're talking jojoba, apricot, evening primrose, coconut, and meadowfoam seed oil. Not only that, some formulations include ingredients like hyaluronic acid and peptides to put some extra, er, pep in your pout!
So what makes a lip oil different from lip balm? Well, balm often uses beeswax or patroleum jelly as its base, which sits upon your lips rather than goes deep, so you don't get the intense hydration that a lip oil can provide. Not only that, an oil will give more shine than a balm, so it can create a more polished look.
How does lip oil differ from a gloss? They both give a lovely shine to the lips, but lip oil wins when it comes to lip-loving ingredients. There's also less of that lip-smacking stickiness with an oil. That being said, you can find glosses infused with oil on the market if you'd like the best of both worlds!
Lastly... can we talk about colour payoff? It's gotten SO MUCH BETTER. There are colour-free lip oils on the market, but if you prefer a hint of tint, you can find that too. Some formulations give even more opacity (my favourite is the KOSAS lip oil), so it's like a really light on the lips lipstick that makes your lips look lush!
Lip oil, you've changed... for the better! I don't know that I'll ever buy a balm again*!
So, are you a fan of lip oils? Are they something you'd like to try? And does anyone else remember the awful rollerball variety of my youth? Chat below!
*Lies. I'll buy both balms and oils. The more the merrier, right?
I've never used lip oils before, but I want to try them, especially the tinted lip oils.