Dior Dior Addict Extreme Lipstick - Review

I've stated before I'm not a lipstick girl. I'm not. Really. But, I've also stated that I am a big fan, and easily sucked in to purchasing products with nice packaging. This has led me to pick up expensive lip products in the past, and it's happened again. Dior got me with their new Dior Addict Extreme lipsticks. At $30 a piece, they had better make me look perfect, right? And they had better wear nicely on the lips, with no drying or odd wear patterns?

I can happily say, I'm becoming a convert. Dior makes a great lipstick, and I'm falling in love with this formula. I never thought I could say that regarding a lipstick, but, things change.

Sephora says:

This long-wearing lipstick goes the distance, resisting fading while adding bold color and beautiful shine. The expert formula combines waxes, radiant oils, and hyaluronic microspheres for ultimate comfort and a lip-plumping effect.

So, the packaging. Sleek? Check. Very highend in appearance? Check. Picked up fingerprints easily? Check. Kinda awkward? Check. I love the way this lipstick looks, but the packaging, while gorgeous, has it's quirks. I would think, as most people tend to, that the silver band on the tube indicates where you pull to remove the cap. That is not the case. Instead, it's just the silver, logo-laden, knob at the end of the lipstick. That's it. It can be tricky to open, especially if you have large fingers. The cap is Lucite with a black core, and Dior embossed into one side. The end has a black sticker with the product name, color and color number in silver. The tube itself is shiny silver.

The color I selected, Silhouette, isn't particularly bold. A nude-pink, it wears easily as a my lips but better look. The color isn't particularly special, but that's my own fault for picking it, and I don't hold it against the product in anyway. The lipstick, even in the tube, looks like a tinted balm, however, one swipe of the lipstick across your lips, and you see noticeable color. What I really like about this formula is how non-lipstick like it feels. It doesn't feel like a lipstick, long-wearing or otherwise. It feels like a balm, slightly thin, not sticky, and just a bit slick. I can feel it on my lips for up to 4 hours (light eating and drinking included). Towards the end of the wear time, I can feel my lips just starting to dry out, but a fresh application takes care of that. I don't feel like my lips are tight or peeling because of this lipstick at all (which has happened with other long-wear lipsticks, usually the two-step process ones, though).

So, are these worth $30? If you have the money to spend, sure. Would I go in to debit buying them? Nope. The only way this answer would change is if they lasted longer, ie, all day. Since they don't, I'm not jumping over the moon with happiness. I do like the feel of the lipstick, and have already added a few colors to my "must look at closely" list for the next time I'm in Sephora. I got Silhouette during the 15% sale, so I paid $25.50, which is still a bit high.

Physician's Formula Happy Booster Lipstick - Review

I honestly squealed when I saw a display of new Happy Booster products last month. No, really, squealed. After somewhat composing myself, I decided on one of the new blushes, and one of the lipsticks, I <3 Nude.

 The packaging is like the rest of the Happy Booster line - metallic hot pink with silver accents. The name of the product is printed on a sticker on the bottom of the tube.

The lipstick it's self is 3 different colors in a single tube. The outer ring is a bright peach-pink, the middle ring is a soft pink, and the inner core (which is hard to see once you've used it), is heart shaped and is a soft pinky peach. So, with a name like "I <3 Nude," where's the nude? No, really, WHERE? It's a bright peach-pink, and on my complexion, reads almost orange.

Physician's Formula says:

• Rich color glides on with luminous shine and all-day comfort for a happy glow.
• Lip boosting formula with collagen boosting peptides smoothes lips so they look plump, healthy and luscious.

Misnomer aside, the lipstick isn't bad, but it's not great. I consider it a lipstick/balm combo, not a true lipstick. It's somewhat sheer, and feels a bit like a slick balm. A few passes, as indicated above, build up the color intensity nicely, without weighing down my lips. The color is only slightly glossy. I would say this lipstick wears off by the 3 hour mark, or so, and should not be considered long wearing, despite the fact that my list started feeling dry after about an hour. I didn't notice any plumping effect (good, since plumpers usually irritate my lips terribly). My lips didn't appear smoother.

The scent is a strange floral with a bit of almost tea scent. Like the powders, if you've smelled those. Not unpleasant, not really my favorite, though.

Because Physician's Formula is rather expensive for a drugstore item, I don't see this lipstick being a great budget find. I believe this retails for $8.99 or so.

Overall, if you want a bright peach-pink that you reapply over the course of the day, this is for you. If you want opacity or a high-shine finish, however, keep looking.

Clinique Chubby Stick Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm - Review

I'm not a lipstick gal - I love balms and glosses (sheer colors that I don't need a mirror to apply, essentially). When my mother gave me a giftcard for Macy's, my original plan was to save it until gift-with-purchase for a line and then use it, but... that didn't happen (who was I kidding?). I was intrigued by these, as I usually find lipsticks to be drying, or poor-wearing, or uncomfortible. Clinique is a line that doesn't seem to get much love from the makeup-loving blog world, but I've always been reasonably happy with my Clinique choices, so I jumped on these Chubby Sticks.

These retail for $15, and they are available anywhere Clinique products are sold. From Sephora: "This gorgeous lip color treats lips to mouthwatering moisture and a hint of shine." We'll cover this claim in a bit.

The color I selected is "Mega Melon," which Sephora describes as a "sheer peachy-pink," a totally up-my-alley color. In reality, I found this color to be peachy with a hint of nudeness to it. Not the pink I was expecting.

As you can see, this isn't exactly sheer (I think of sheer being like a dazzleglass, or even many lipglasses from MAC, where my lip color heavily influences the color that the product appears as on my lips). Infact, I'd venture to say this is not a lip balm at all, but a cleverly marketed medium-finish lipstick. As such, it's not a bad lipstick. I didn't find this product to be balm-like at all. While not exactly drying, it was not moisturizing, either. It would benefit from a thin layer of a true lip balm underneath, or a sheer (or clear) gloss over top. The coverage, as indicated, is fairly good. My natural lip color isn't muted, it's pretty much gone when wearing this. Shine is next to nil with this, as well. These are not matte, but, again, not shiney either. The finish reminds me of what you get from an EOS-type balm. Satiny, maybe?

The Chubby Stick had a life span of about 2 hours on me, without anything over it. And really, at 2 hours, I was okay with it being gone. It seemed to slighly emphasize the lip-lines without just bleeding into them. I like moisturzing lip products, especially this time of year (winter), and Chubby Sticks just don't provide it. Do I like this product? I guess so. I'm not planning on returning it, but I sort of wished I'd waiting until my CCO got them or until a gift-with-purchase deal was available. I can't say I'd recommend this at this time, but maybe when I don't need the moisturizing I need now, this product will be better.