Life Style

"I’m a not-so-closeted makeup addict. I love testing, trying, buying and applying! This guilty pleasure began early on in life while in boarding school. A two-mile walk got me to a CVS, which was about as thrilling as it got. So, naturally, I went bonkers and I bought every moisturizer, shampoo and eyeliner possible.

The therapeutic euphoria of perusing the isles of a drugstore remains as strong, 10 years later. My roomie has to interrogate my Walgreens joy rides as if she were questioning the whereabouts of a rebellious Tween. “Where were you? What did you buy? How many? How much? Didn’t you just buy a lip balm? What is Witch Hazel and why?” But I thank her for it, because without her policing, I would be broke and homeless with a ton of moisturizers.

But I digress… Let’s talk lippies!

During my last therapy session at Walgreens; I landed on the Neutrogena section. I love me some Neutrogena. Maybe it’s marketing, maybe it’s the truth, but I feel like their products will actually protect and help my skin, versus clogging my pores.

So, when my eye caught this gem, I knew I had to reach out to Beauty Banter about it:

Neutrogena Revitalizing Lip Balm. The product description from Neutrogena: “This sheer tinted balm with patent-pending ion_complex™ instantly moisturizes lips, leaving them looking fuller and more defined.” Ok, I believe that’s fancy talk for ‘this is a lip balm’. But in all seriousness the tint is great and subtle, and it does go on smoothly.

“In just one week, it helps improve lips’ texture and restores the look of rosiness, so lips look naturally beautiful even after you take it off.” I’m actually going to call truth on this one, my lips were chapped like a cowboy on Monday afternoon and by Friday, I didn’t even need lip balm! 

“SPF 20 helps protect lips and keeps them looking healthy.” TOTES! Love the SPF factor! Neutrogena does a great job at sneaking in SPF into their lippies, making it worth the extra $ versus my $1.99 chap stick. We gotta protect those lips so we don’t end up with the mouth lines of a 90 yr old Atlantic City Casino regular.

• Truly hydrating. I applied only once or twice a day and it really did save my lips. I mean, this is not Elizabeth Arden 8-hour cream repair style, but it goes beyond what your average tinted balm does.
• Moisturizing: My lips are always chapped; pretty sure I sleep with my mouth open, so I look like I’ve returned from an expedition to Siberia every morning. I don’t need a lip salve, I need a lip saver. This one saves my lips.
• Lasts long: Nothing news-breaking, but it stayed on my lips thru a diet Pepsi
• SPF 20!
• Fab Colors:
Sheer Shimmer: delicate shimmer, so you don’t look like you put your disco lips on for breakfast. Which is, depending on your lifestyle, either a good or a bad thing. Tip: Put a dab on your bottom lip for a subtle lip plump.
Healthy Blush: Sold out in all the Walgreens I visited… so I’m guessing its fab L
Sunny Berry: Bright yet not overwhelming pink red color; stands out for sure; perf for beach!
Petal Glow: Favorite! It’s a dark pink- lavender shimmer (looks great on blondes and pale folk like moi).
Soft Caramel: I have way too many pink undertones for this color to ever look good on me, but it would work for olive skin complexions. Looked good on my friends.
Fresh Plum: dark terra cotta red; great for going out when you rock heavy mascara and cat eye look, but want something other than a shimmer as a lippie.
• Flavor: a very subtle, pleasant hint of fruit can’t but barely detectable.
• Texture: Smooth, light… feels similar to Nivea lip care
• The tube: the tube is flatter, more oval shaped, so more precise application and not as noticeable if put in back pocket. It’s nothing special in terms of design, but it’s a subtle sophisticated black tube. It also won’t roll off your desk, makeup counter, etc.
• Peeps agree: 4.8 out of 5 rating on Neutrogena

• The tube: While it looks sleek and sophisticated, It’s also hard to locate in your purse
• The taste: Ok, it’s got SPF 20; so if you get some in your mouth it does taste like sunscreen, but I’d rather that than lip lines, for sure.
• Expensive: retails at $8.99. If it didn’t have the tint, I wouldn’t pay that much. I would just go back to a personal favorite and beautybanter.com discovery: EOS lip sphere
• Other comparable products:
 - Burt's bees tinted lip balms: $7. Tried it… definitely not a fan of the color I bought… a bland Flintstones-vitamin orange. (Hibiscus). Also, no SPF
BOTTOM LINE: I’m a believer! They provide a lot of color for being lip balms and would look great for a day at the beach and girls night out. From one drugstore Junkie to another, I highly recommend"

Thanks to our fabulous reader Laura Healy for writing in with this wonderful product review! We, too, are believers! xo, Beauty Banter.