I think I’ve mentioned several times before that I’ve suffered from severely dry/cracked lips for a while now. And by a while, I mean the last decade. For real. I cannot remember ever consistently having the problem until I got pregnant with Ezra, but ever since, it’s been a real (literal) pain. They peel, sometimes in chunks (sorry for the vivid image), bleed, and hurt like the Dickens. Not to mention look a fright (can you tell I’ve been listening to British books again?).
They’re definitely worse in the winter, but it’s pretty much a year-round problem. Even when I drank a gallon of water a day back in the fall (I’m still drinking between 60-90 ounces now), they were a little better, but I still dealt with pretty much constant dry patches.
So, when my savvy friend, Alissa, whom I’ve known for over a decade and whose impeccable taste in products I’ve always admired, told me about LipSense, I was intrigued.
Lip Sense is essentially a color stain that bonds with your lips, which means that it stays on for hours–even through sweating, eating, showering, etc.–but it comes paired with a Shea butter based gloss top coat that not only provides a nice sheen to your color but actually repairs your lips in the process of wearing it.
Let’s just say I was skeptically hopefully. Because I’ve tried pretty much every lip product out there–drugstore, spa, medicated, organic, homemade–with very little improvement, and it just seemed a bit too good to be true.
Except that it was Alissa recommending it, and Alissa–a meticulous personality and a careful researcher–would not recommend something she didn’t love and which didn’t work for her.
Long story short, I’ve been using my Lip Sense products for about 2 months now, and I love them!
Alissa set me up with a starter kit, which includes a tube of color, a tube of gloss, and a special remover, and then, because she knew I struggled so particularly with dry lips, she also hooked me up with the LipSense Moisturizing Lip Balm, which…drum roll, please…WORKS!
I was honestly shocked at how well the balm works. Like, my lips felt smooth and soft as a baby’s you-know-what the next morning.
Like a doofus, I sometimes go days without applying because I foolishly think that my lips will stay moisturized without adding extra moisture (huh?), but every time they start to dry out again, I just head back to the balm, and, sure enough, smooth lips within hours.
Yeehaw!
Couldn’t be happier with that.
Add that to the fact that the LipSense color + gloss combo actually does what it says: goes on easily and actually does stay on for hours (I average between 4 and 10 hours of wear, depending on my activities) IF (and this is key) you use it correctly, and I was pretty dang excited to have found something I loved that was so low-maintenance.
And pretty!
Wanna see?
I have two LipSense colors, but my fave is definitely Plumeria, which is a deep, pinky-red.
{Look, Mom! No unsightly peeling or lumps!}
I think I was getting ready to teach Combat in the above pic, and my participants were probably wondering why I was so dolled up for an exercise class, but, honestly, why not? It didn’t budge through all of the sweating, yelling, mike-adjusting, and water breaks.
{Oh, don’t mind me…just hanging out in my giant van, listening to a book, and wearing lip gloss whilst waiting for my children to get done with piano practice}
One thing I will say is that, since my lips were so dry/jacked up when I started using this, it stung quite badly when I first applied the color. There is some cosmetic grade alcohol in the color (see below for more info). As soon as I used the balm for even one day, though, the stinging went away completely.
Again wearing Plumeria (and gazing pensively out of an Anthropologie storefront window…naturally).
I asked Alissa for the low-down to help you understand more about the technical side of LipSense, and she sent me a paragraph, not knowing how much of it you’d want to know, but I honestly thought she expressed it so concisely that I decided to share the whole thing!
In her words:
A) I have heard of LipSense but my interest ends with the giveaway
B) I have heard of LipSense but would like to know more
C) I have not heard of LipSense, but my interest ends with the giveaway
D) I have not heard of LipSense, and I would like to know more
Disclosure: if you express interest in knowing more, Alissa will follow up with you about this. She’s NOT pushy, is very efficient and helpful, and will happily return/exchange anything that doesn’t work for you.
Fine print: open to U.S. or Canada only. Giveaway ends Monday, June 29th at 11:59 PM