What’s in a Lipstick? (with video)

18 November 20217 November 2020

Have you ever wondered what’s in a lipstick? Obviously there’s the colouring agents that make it red or pink, but what’s all the other stuff? Let’s talk lipstick science. The video is here on YouTube, scroll down for the blog post version… What makes a good lipstick? First let’s talk about what a lipstick is. I mean, I think we …

Lip Balm Review: Nuxe, Bite, Laneige, Chapstick, Burt’s Bees…

20 March 2018

I have large lips so they tend to dry out quickly, so effective lip balms are one of my obsessions. I’ve been trying out some products to try to keep my lips moisturised overnight – here’s a review of:

No Frills Budget Options
- Chapstick Cake Batter
- Chapstick Dual Action Hydration Lock
- Nivea Pure and Natural Lip Care with Chamomile and Calendula
More Fun Options
- Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask
- The Face Shop Lovely ME:EX Dessert Lip Balm
“Natural” Lip Balms
- Nuxe Rêve de Miel Baume Levres
- Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask
- Moogoo Tingling Honey Lip Balm
- Burt’s Bees Moisturising Lip Balm with Mango Butter

No Frills Budget Options

Chapstick Cake Batter

Chapstick Cake Batter (around $4 for 4 g) is a limited edition lip balm from Chapstick that’s now part of their regular collection. I’m a huge fan of their menthol-free lip balms, and having it in a delicious vanilla flavour just takes the cake (ha!). It’s also reasonably hard so it lasts quite a while. This has been a staple of my routine for a while. The only complaint I have is that if my lips are dry and aren’t hydrated, it doesn’t work so well, so I put some face moisturiser or toner on my lips first – I’d much rather have both steps in the one product though.

Ingredients: Petrolatum, Paraffin, Mineral Oil, Octyldodecanol, Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacryladipate-2, Medium-Chain Triglycerides, Arachidyl Propionate, Phenyl Trimethicone, Beeswax, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Isopropyl Myristate, Flavor, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Benzyl Benzoate, Cetyl Alcohol, Triacetin, Titanium Dioxide, Methylparaben, Saccharin, Alumina, Propylparaben, Polyhydroxystearic Acid, Silica.

Chapstick Dual Action Hydration Lock

Chapstick Dual Action Hydration Lock ($5.25 for 4.4 g) (now rebranded as Day & Night) would’ve potentially answered my prayers above, but it fell short because it still ended up being a two-step product, and while it was better at hydrating my lips than the plain Chapstick, the lack of humectants was still noticeable. I did really like the design of the double-ended tube though!

I find it a little strange that it’s been rebranded from a two-step layering product to a separate day and night use product – I think they weren’t really sure where they were going with the product, which may be why there was that lack of humectants. Interestingly the Moisture Lock end has sunscreen ingredients in it, and in the US it’s labelled SPF 12.

Hydration (Night) Ingredients: Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Jojoba Esters, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Beeswax, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Tocopheryl Acetate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Butter, Octyldodecanol, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Tocopherol, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Flavor, Rubus Idaeus (Raspberry) Seed Oil, Glyceryl Stearate.

Moisture Lock (Day) Ingredients: Petrolatum, Paraffin, Isocetyl Stearate, Octyl Methoxycinnamate, Oxybenzone, Beeswax, Isocetyl Lanolate, Isocetyl Myristate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Lanolin, Carnauba Wax, Mineral Oil, Cetyl Alcohol, Tocopheryl Linoleate, Methylparaben, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Fragrance, Propylparaben.

Nivea Pure and Natural Lip Care with Chamomile and Calendula

I’ve been a fan of Nivea lip balms ($4.49 AUD for 4.8 g) for ages (see e.g. , and they all tend to work really well for me. My lips just seem to love heavy occlusives! This version is unfortunately discontinued, but I really liked the fragrance – it was very floral and soapy, which was great for making me snack less.

Ingredients: Octyldodecanol, Microcrystalline Wax/Cire microcristalline, Hydrogenated Polydecene, Cetyl Palmitate, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Polyisobutene, Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate, Myristyl Myristate, C20-40 Alkyl Stearate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Glycerin, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax/Cire de carnauba, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Beeswax/Cire d’abeille, Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Extract, Calcium Carbonate, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Water/Eau, Neohesperidin Dihydrochalcone, BHT, Fragrance/Parfum, Titanium Dioxide, Blue 1 Lake.20

How Can You Plump Up Your Lips?

20 June 2017

Fat, bee-stung lips are more popular than ever. How do you get there if you weren’t born with them? Here are your options, from least to most drastic…

Hydrating Lip Care

Your lips dry out faster than the rest of your face because the skin there is very thin, and there aren’t any oil glands to produce natural sebum to moisturise them. Just like skin, lips are less wrinkly when they’re well-hydrated and moisturised!

Use lip balm (with SPF during the day)

One dermatologist (Joshua Zeichner) made the media rounds for saying that occlusive lip balms makes your lips lazy, but this seems to be just his opinion rather than a widespread one in dermatology, and isn’t supported by the current evidence as far as I can tell. The only reliable way for your lips to get oils on them is by using lip balm.

It’s also important to protect your lips from the sun – in the short term sun exposure can lead to dehydration, but long term it can reduce collagen, which is the protein that keeps your skin and lips plump. Collagen goes down with age, but it goes down a lot more with sun exposure!

My favourite lip balm brand is Hurraw which have balms based on plant oils, but I’m also quite partial to Chapstick limited edition Cake Batter balm and their Dual Action Hydration Lock. Revo has some cute round balms that I found much more effective than eos. Nivea has some great lip products too, especially the Repair and Protect balm which I think has been reformulated recently. Chapstick, Nivea and Hurraw all have SPF versions. Sun Bum has some nice SPF lip balms, but no plain ones.

Other balms I’ve heard a lot about but haven’t tried personally: Nuxe Reve De Miel lip balm (though I can’t seem to find it stocked in many places anymore), Dr Bronner, Paula’s Choice.

Be conscious of your water-drinking habits

There’s a tiny bit of evidence that drinking water can affect your skin hydration if you don’t drink enough, but did you know that drinking water can actually dry out your lips? Wet skin loses water faster than dry skin, so flooding your lips with water too often can make them dry out faster. It can also wash away the oils, so make sure you reapply lip balm afterwards.

The Lip Lab Custom Lipstick Service Review

8 August 20177 April 2017

The Lip Lab is a chain in Australia where you can get your own custom lipstick made to suit your specifications. There are a few similar services overseas (Bite Beauty is a big one in America), but this is the only brand in Sydney as far as I know. There are 15 Lip Lab branches across the country so far.

I was invited to the lovely bright airy Lip Lab store on Oxford St in Paddington to get my dream lipstick shade made. I’ve been in love with nude shades recently, so I wanted to get a sheer satin nude that was would essentially be the lovechild of Marc Jacobs No Angel and the discontinued-in-Australia Revlon Lip Butter Pink Truffle (“they’re not the same, they’re similar“).

The Lip Lab’s Shauna made my lipstick for me. After listening to my description and peering intently at the lipsticks I brought with me, she measured out drops of various pigments onto a plate and mixed them with the shea butter-containing base with a palette knife to create my custom shade.

Rimmel The Only 1 Matte Lipstick: Swatches and Review

8 August 201717 February 2017

Here’s the sequel to Rimmel’s The Only 1 lipsticks which I loved: Rimmel The Only 1 Matte. Much like the original, they mix intense colour, easy application, and excellent staying power, and even feel moisturising… almost (let’s face it, matte lipsticks never truly feel moisturising!). There are 9 shades available, and all 9 shades are coming to Australia. Here they are:

Trendsetter (7oo) – warm pinkish brown nude
Salute (200) – nude pink
High Flyer (610) – dusty mauve
Leader of the Pink (110) – medium pink

Eccentric Cosmetics Matte Liquid Lipsticks Swatches and Review

1 August 2016

I love the look of matte liquid lipstick, but my lips are very prone to drying out so I’ve been hesitant to use them. When I heard that Eccentric Cosmetics had a line of matte liquid lipsticks that didn’t turn your lips into the Sahara, AND came in little sample vials, I had to get my hands on some!

The 1.2 mL sample vials are very cute and fun-sized – about 4 cm/1.5 inches tall, and contain a doe foot applicator. They’re not a good investment in terms of price per mL, but I’ve never ever finished an entire lipstick in my life, and I have terrible luck with lipsticks that look great in swatches but not on my lips. If you’re anything like me, this is a great opportunity to try a whole bunch of colours before buying the full sized product.

All of Eccentric’s matte lipsticks have the same ingredients listed, so I’m guessing a lot of the variation is due to the batch or the specific pigments in each.

Ingredients: Cyclomethicone, Isododecane, Dimethicone, Castor Oil, Sorbitan Olivate, Candelilla Wax, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin May Contain: Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide, Iron Oxides, Manganese Violet, Synthetic Flurophogopite, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Yellow #5, Orange #5, Red #6, Red #7, Red #21, Red #27, Red #40, Blue #1

Here are the individual shades:

Potala Palace – Deep burgundy red. Potala Palace s a very flattering vampy shade that would suit a lot of skin tones. It leaves behind a bright pink-red stain that’s the same as those “mood lipsticks”, from the Red #27 in the ingredients.

The formula is amazing – it goes on quite liquid, spreads easily and dries quickly to a matte. It takes 1-2 thin coats for opacity, although if you put on thicker coats it will flake and crack a little. It’s comfortable throughout the day although it does transfer a little, especially when eating. The best thing is that it doesn’t dehydrate your lips as you wear it, which has happened to me with way too many matte lipsticks, where it looks great at the beginning but you flake and dessicate throughout the day.

Taj Mahal – pinkish-red. This is scarily fluorescent in the tube but goes on as a vivid red that’s bright, but not unwearably bright. It has the same great formula as Potala Palace.

I swatched all the colours in a three hour marathon session with natural lighting and the camera on the auto setting, hence the slight variation in lighting (I’ve adjusted them a bit in Photoshop to try to even out the colours, but some colours do weird things regardless). I ended with Taj Mahal and as you can see, my lips were in great condition. I wore Taj Mahal for the rest of the day through two meals – here’s what my lips looked like afterwards:

NYX Butter Gloss and Intense Butter Gloss Swatches and Review

3 October 201615 July 2016

I’m currently in love with NYX’s Butter Glosses. I know I’m a little slow to get on this bandwagon, but I’ve never been a fan of sticky glosses and these have the syrupy, stringy texture of honey so I was hesitant to try them. The delicious vanilla scent eventually won me over though!

NYX Butter Gloss Swatches and Review

NYX Butter Glosses are lightly tinted glosses that leave a natural finish on your lips. They come in a clear screw-top tube with a doe foot applicator, and NYX have done an amazing job matching the colour of the plastic on the caps with the colour of the actual product so it looks a lot like opaque packaging when new.

The Butter Glosses have a pretty stringy and sticky texture which worried me a bit, but after application, the texture is a lot less sticky and shiny. They remind me a bit of a tinted lip balm, like Revlon’s discontinued Lip Butters that I loved. They also have the moisturising power and low maintenance of a lip balm, but on the flip side they also have the staying power of a relatively long-lasting lip balm (a few hours without eating and with minimal drinking). I’ve found them very handy for layering on top of drying matte lipsticks halfway through the day, when your lip skin decides to leave the nest in highly unsexy flakes that only get worse when you try to apply more lipstick.

Burt’s Bees Lipstick Swatches and Review

21 November 201820 April 2016

Burt’s Bees have launched a new line of lipsticks. I’ve never had much luck with “natural” lipsticks – the ones I’ve tried don’t glide on well and end up patchy, or have poor pigmentation, or some other issue – but these are surprisingly nice!

Burt’s Bees Lipstick Swatches

There are 14 shades available – I tried 7 of them:

Nile Nude – pale caramel nude
Blush Basin – light dusty rose
Tulip Tide – pastel lilac
Fuchsia Flood – rose pink
Scarlet Soaked – deep bright red
Juniper Water – plum
Russet River – maroon

There’s also Sunset Cruise (orange-rose), Iced Iris (pale warm pink), Suede Splash (caramel brown), Lily Lake (purple-toned pink), Magenta Rush (magenta pink), Brimming Berry (berry pink) and Ruby Ripple (dark red).

They all have a glossy lip balm-like finish.

Ingredients: Diheptyl Succinate, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Capryloyl Glycerin/Sebacic Acid Copolymer, Cera Alba (Beeswax), Candelilla Cera (Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax), Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Behenyl Alcohol, Oleic/Linoleic/Linolenic Polyglycerides, C12-18 Acid Triglyceride, Lanolin, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Cera Carnauba (Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax), Moringa Oleifera Seed Oil, Rubus Idaeus (Raspberry) Seed Oil, Sorbitan Tristearate, Glyceryl Caprylate, Aroma (Flavor), Tocopherol, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil, Lauroyl Lysine, Citric Acid, Linalool. May Contain [+/-]: Mica, CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), CI 75470 (Carmine), CI 77491/CI 77492/CI 77499 (Iron Oxides)

What I liked about Burt’s Bees Lipsticks