So, I just had the opportunity to do something totally fun and relaxing. Albeit, time consuming. But nonetheless, very fun and very gratifying for me.  I love natural cosmetics and body care, and in the past year or so I have really developed a consciousness for not putting any types of chemicals on my body.

I still use typical cosmetics, like mascara and foundation that may have chemicals. What I’m talking about are the things I slather on my body repeatedly throughout the day, that can have a high toxic load when you keep introducing them to your body. I’m talking about lotions, hand creams, lip balms, and other body care products that are either exposed to large parts of your body, like body lotion, or things you apply and reapply all day long.

Lip balm is a great example of something you apply and re-apply, and that’s why I figured I wanted to try to make it myself and see if I could come up with something good. It does take a little preparation and having the right tools, which you have to order most likely online.

I needed little squeeze bulbs that could suck up small amounts of liquid and measure mililiters, bees wax ( this is just one ingredient, some people don’t even use beeswax), some essential oils of my choice, a carrier oil, which I chose to be fractionated coconut oil since I love it’s skin-friendly properties,and I added a little capsule of vitamin E as an extra antioxidant.

I added the vitamin E also because it has natural properties that can help protect against spoilage.  Basically, you have to heat the beeswax over the stove in water, but in a jar. Once it starts to melt, you have to add your carrier oil. 

Then, you mix it all together, and add your essential oils and whatever other ingredients you want, like a flavoring oil or a scented oil that is safe for consumption. I did not add anything like that because I wanted a truly, 100% natural product in the end.

Oh, you also have to buy the little push up tubes to put the mixture in. It hardens very fast, so as you’re transferring it to the containers, you have to make sure you have it liquified at all times, or else you’ll have a caked mess on your hands. I had to reheat it several times, as the beeswax congeals very quickly.

All in all, I’m happy with the product. It’s a bit too emollient though, or too oily. I like mine a little stiffer and less oily. So next time I make the lip balm I’m going to scale back on the carrier oil and use a little more beeswax to make it a tad bit waxier.  FUN though!

We were talking last time about the popularity of lip plumping agents like Lip Venom, Lip Fusion, Idol Lips Lip plumper, and so many others that help to enhance, plump up and define your lips unlike any other lipstick or lip balm out there.

These lip plumpers are designed to really add volume to the lips by doing one of a few things -they can simply irritate the outer layer, causing a little bit of swelling temporarily, or they can have hydrating agents in them that really get deep down to hydrate the lips deeply and “plump” them up with moisture infusion.  Here are some more ideas for getting poutier, prettier, fuller lips quickly.

Sally Hansen’s PM Lip Plumper is a less expensive version of a lip plumper.  Price compares at $10.49 for .5 oz..  This product benefits your lips by volumizing and plumping as you sleep with a 24 hour time-released retinol.

Sally Hansen’s PM Lip Plumper boasts of a retinol and peptide complex that is collagen enhancing and is time released to work all day although you apply it at night.  This product boosts moisture and makes lips appear fuller with more volume all day.  Their product is irritant free.

There are many products available if you are not happy with the appearance of your lips without resorting to surgery.  You could try experimenting with any number of topical lip plumpers until you find the right one for you.  Even with injections, the results are not permanent and eventually you will need more collagen.

When using topical lip plumpers, open your mouth as wide as possible so the product will absorb well into all the cracks and crevices of your lips.  If you choose a lip plumper with drying ingredients in it, make sure it contains moisturizers as well.  Make sure you drink plenty of water to keep yourself well hydrated to avoid dry cracked lips.

Lipliners can help to visually define the outline of your lips and make them appear fuller.  Another tip is to apply a shiny gloss to the center of your lips and this also will give your them a fuller look .

Most women would like to have full, sexy voluminous lips.  Unfortunately, many of us women have lips that are thinner and less defined than we would ideally want.  Another factor is that as women age, their lips tend to draw in and become thinner in appearance.

If you’re not ready to have collagen injections because it’s too costly or too invasive of a procedure, you could try some of the lip plumpers available today.  The question is do lip plumpers applied topically really work?

Most lip plumpers work by using a menthol or camphor type of ingredient in their formulation.  This will cause a slight irritation of the thin skin of the lips causing the lips to swell slightly and appear fuller.

To maintain this appearance, you will need to reapply the lip plumpers throughout the day as the fuller appearance is temporary.  Not all of the lip plumpers rely on a slight irritation to get the desired results.  One of the more intense lip plumpers is the LipfusionXL-2XMicro-injected  Collagen + HA .

LipFusionXL is a non-injectable therapy that states it will volumize your lips with an overnight application topically used.  Ingredients in their product include pure active collagen combined with HA  which is hyaluronic acid.

LipFusionXL, with their combination of collagen and HA, states it will produce results of instant and long lasting firming and plumping.  It is designed for topical night time use.  LipFusionXL had some good reviews with customers stating their results were worth the price.

LipFusionXL is expensive at approximately $50.00 for .29 oz., but when compared with collagen injections, if it is effective, does not seem so costly.  It is less expensive and less painful than injections.

Lip plumpers come in sheer varieties that will work like a lip gloss to wear under lipstick or alone with no color.  Other lip plumpers are opaque or totally clear with some shimmer in them, and come in many different colors and are more like a lipstick type of a look.  to be continued…

Of all of the cosmetics we usually purchase, in the wintertime especially, the product we probably use the most is lip balm.   The reason our lips are so vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather is that the skin on our lips is so thin therfore we see dryness and cracking there first.

Winter’s cold outdoor air together with the often dry heat of the furnace in our home and from the heaters in our cars causes us to continually apply lip balms to prevent dryness and chapping.

There are multitudes of different lip balms to choose from and many of them are inexpensive and easy to find.  Carmex is inexpensive and comes in squeezable tubes, jars or sticks.  For ease of application and spreadablilty, I prefer the Carmex in the tubes.

The Carmex in tubes comes in different flavors and many have SPF added to their formula.

Another popular and inexpensive brand of lip balm is produced by Burt’s Bees.  Burt’s Bees lip balm is manufactured from coconut oil, sunflower seed oil, beeswax and other ingredients.  All of their ingredients are natural.  Their lip balm comes in either a stick or in a tin.

Chapstick is one of the other popular, inexpensive and widely available forms of lip balms.  There are many different variations of Chapstick lip balms, each with it’s own ingredients.  Among the varieties are the flavored types , the medicated and many have the SPF added too.

The most familiar Chapstick is in the stick form but it comes in a tube and other forms also.  If you’re looking for a lip plumper, then there are a ton of great ones that you can buy, but most of the really good ones are only available in cosmetics stores like Sephora or online.

Another classic brand that is very familiar and also makes lip balms is Vaseline. Their lip balms usually come in tubes and are often featured with different flavors.  Again, the Vaseline brand of lip balms are low cost and are available almost anywhere that you shop.

There are many more low cost and more expensive lip balms out there that are used as therapy for dry chapped lip prevention.  The choice is yours according to what you find to most effective and convenient and your personal preference.

I went out on a limb, as I occasionally do in the lip balm department, and instead of buying the usual Burt’s Bee’s honey lip balm or just plain old mint flavored Burt’s Bees, I decided I would try Nivea’s Essential Care lip balm, which promised to infuse my lips with moisture. I also picked it because I read the ingredients and didn’t see some of my “no” buzzword ingredients like parabens and other harmful chemicals, which surprised me since Nivea isn’t exactly known as a natural products company.

So, I gave it a road test.  Here’s my review of this lip balm. It will be short, since there are not an abundance of observations you can make about such a simple beauty staple.  It came in a white stick form, a little thicker and less convenient to put in your purse, but it wasn’t bad size-wise.

The stick was not waxy at all, which is good, because there’s nothing I hate worse than feeling like I just rubbed a dry crayon on my lips with some of these lip balms.  It was quite emollient in fact, but that can also signal that a product will wear off your lips or sink in very quickly.  It does have jojoba oil and shea butter in it, which are great ingredients for any part of the body with skin on it.

That’s exactly what did happen. While it felt great going on, and was slightly oily, it really wore off fast, leaving my lips dying for more moisture – seemingly more than usual, which makes me wonder if this is one of those lip balms that actually dries you out more in the long run. Sorry Nivea, I just didn’t like this one.  I think you guys make great cellulite treatment products, but you have a way to go on this Nivea Essential Care lip balm.

Ok, so I must say that I’m pleasantly surprised by the “cumulative” effect that this City Lips lip plumping and enlargement product has had on my lips.  I’ve been using it now for a little over one month (I can’t remember, it may even be six weeks, but it’s definitely been over one month).  I can tell that it has made my lips a little bit fuller. It’s probably not really all that visible to the naked eye, but I’m so used to looking at my mug in the mirror every morning that I could detect a difference about 3 weeks into using the product.

City Lips is a higher end lip plumping product that advertises plumping your lips, and having an even more plumping effect over time, so the results are “cumulative”. I thought this was probably a bunch of bunk, but it does appear that the longer you use it, the better results you get.

Now don’t get me wrong, you’re not going to get voluptuous model plump lips from using this product, so don’t expect anything totally dramatic like you’d get in a doctor’s office with injections ala Jessica Biel.

However, it does add a nice definition, more pigment, and a nice plumpness and softness to your lips.  I do use the lip enhancing product religiously every morning after exfoliating my lips, and again at night after my shower and after lip exfoliation as well, so I used it to it’s fullest.  I ordered 2 three packs to get the free shipping, and because the three packs were by far the best package deal.  They are expensive, but one tube lasted me this long, and it’s past the 4 week mark.

I don’t use it overly liberally though, just a thin coat, and I open my mouth wide so it gets into all the lines for maximum plumping.  What I really like about it too is that it slightly flushes your lips to a deeper red, but it doesn’t sting or burn like many other lip plumping products do, and it doesn’t dry your lips out.

Don’t expect this to act as a great long lasting moisturizer though. It looks glossy for about ten minutes, then it sinks in and gets to work, basically disappearing, after that time.  If you’re looking for a lip plumper that’s also a long lasting gloss, I’d recommend Lip Fusion or Cushy Lips.

One drawback though is the packaging. I know a lot of people used to complain about the wand applicator before, not being able to reach the bottom of the tube and scrape out product, and therefore wasting product. They repackaged it, and now it’s a tube with a brush attached that you have to crank up to get the product out. Not crazy about that either, because you can’t even tell if you’re getting every cent out, but oh well, it’s last me this long…

I was on a mission a few weeks ago to research what the best lipstain or liptint was, that did the job of lightly and naturally staining, or tinting the lips, for hours, without totally drying them out like most other stains, even the higher end ones I tried, do. I came up empty handed, but I did see one promising one that’s only like $7 from the Avon company Mark, which is still made by Avon, but is geared more toward the younger women crowd with more “fun” trend products and colors to appeal to teens and twenty somethings.

It’s called Glossblossom by Mark, and it is supposed to do something pretty cool, although of course there were some mixed reviews on what it does, although I must say a fairly impressive amount of the reviews were positive.  It is supposed to go on clear, then “blossom” on your lips and create the perfect pink shade for your complexion. Some of the lip plumpers on the market do that, they go on clear and make your lips turn a deeper color, but it is because they make them fill with blood and plump up, and they also irritate the top layer, making them appear red for a while.

Well, first of all, I’m skeptical that a product can know what your complexion is and therefore become just the right shade of pink to match your skin tone, and second of all, I thought it must be some sort of plumper formula, maybe with cinnamon or some other irritant, which is usually drying, to be able to “gradually” make the lips a stained color.

A lot of reviews on Glossblossom said that it turned their lips a perfect shade of pink, but there were a few women who said they were naturally very pale and that Glossblossom actually made their lips too dark of a pink color and looked bad with their skin tone. The majority of women though liked the pink color that it turned their skin, so that wa s good sign. I did read several reviews of Glossblossom that cautioned users to put on a good moisturizer or extra lip gloss with the product because it did dry their lips out fairly quickly.

The problem with most lip stains seems to be that because they absorb so completely into the lips due to their thin, liquid nature, they tend to dry out the lips as well. There is not a great formula yet that can make the lips a deeper but natural looking color, but also not make them appear dried out and even chapped after you apply it.  If anyone has tried a great lip stain or lip tint – one that also plumps the lips would be great- that gave them naturally pretty results and also didn’t dry the heck out of their lips, please share that with us here.

I think I wrote about my embarrassing experience with a lip plumping pump a while ago. It’s a pump that is designed to mechanically puff your lips up and plump them by introducing suction (and hence a little bit of trauma) to them, to make them get puffier and fuller.

It’s a good concept, however, if you use it too often of a little too exuberantly, you could very well end up with bruised lips, which don’t go away very quickly and are pretty obvious. Then, to prevent people from thinking you’re in an abusive relationship or that you didn’t actually get punched in the mouth, you have to figure out how to address it!

There is a new product out that uses the pump idea with a lip gloss that is designed for lip plumping as well, called JolieLips, which I’m sure is supposed to somehow infer that you will get lips like the infamous Angelina Jolie if you use the product. It’s a little bulb-type pump that you put on your lips, according to instructions several times a day, and gently – need I say GENTLY again – use the suction devices to pull your lips out and plump them up.

Suction definitely works naturally to plump lips, but it’s very temporary, and you can easily end up with bruised lips when you first start to use it, until you figure out what kind of pressure you should be applying when plumping them. I think for someone who doesn’t mind carrying around something that could easily be construed as some sort of bizarre sexual device all day in their purse, and then taking the time to hid away and suck away at your lips, it’s a good product, but I don’t know many women who are willing to go through that kind of hassle and potential embarrassment just to get temporarily bee stung lips!

Since I don’t really have long reviews for either of these products, I figured I’d combine them into one review. They are really simple products, and they are just body care, so you can only go on for so long about the nuances of such products since there’s no real visible outcome as their is with cosmetics

The first product review is for a lip balm that is meant mostly as a protective emollient against the sun’s rays, for those days at the beach or when you’re on vacation in a sunny destination and walking around in the sun a lot. It’s by Pharmaca, that company I had talked about previously that my mom and I explored in depth when we were vacationing in Berkeley California to see my sister. It’s a natural products shop, and it has all kinds of nutritional and treatment supplements based on herbs and naturopathy, and it also has all kinds of natural beauty and self care products that are based in a non chemical formulation.

If you’re aiming to go more natural, this place was like heaven for you to shop in. One of the products I found there was a small lip balm stick, just the size of a chapstick, called ginger SPF lip balm. It was pure white, so you could see that it had zinc in it to protect your lips, but it also had soothing ginger in it which also happened to smell great if you like those kinds of more earthy scents like I do. It wasn’t the best as far as moisturization goes, since the zinc in it made it too hard to rub off on the lips, but it was a great sun protection factor for your lips. They didn’t burn or get chapped at all when I was in the sun all day.

The second review is for Body Shop Vitamin E body butter. There’s really not much to say about this product. It’s highly emollient, and it’s actually light enough to absorb into your skin. Overall, I wans’t impressed by the laundry list of chemicals I found in the ingredients, and I won’t be buying it again as I thought they tried to base their products mostly on natural ingredients. Oh well, I’ll probably still use it here and there for heavy moisturization needs, it was my free gift with purchase after all.

I wrote recently about how I had gotten a whole bunch of Avon makeup and cosmetic products from Amazon (free shipping if you spend over $25 by the way).  And Avon products are so well priced to begin with, you get a ton of bang for your buck.  However, as I’ve mentioned before, some of the Avon products are the epitome of the saying that you get what you pay for.  I’m not a big fan of their lip tints of lipsticks for example.  They don’t stay on very long, and they also tend to dry your lips out.  Their color concentration isn’t all that great either.

However, they make a great lip balm.  The Care Deeply line puts out a clear lip balm with aloe in it that’s only a buck and works great.  It’s highly emollient, so a little goes a long way, and it makes you realize that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get an effective lip balm.  I had tried out the Slick Tints before, which are tinted stick lip balms, and those weren’t really all that effective as a balm, but they did add a nice color to the lips.

Glazewear liquid lip color is one that I’ve tried.  While the color is nice, you can tell instantly that as soon as you put it on, it’s not going to stay on long.  I think that it wore off after a few sips of water actually, and it also made my lips dry out quickly, unlike some of the better, higher end lip glosses that I’ve tried.  One trait I do like about the Avon product line is that they offer so many cool, modern colors that are relevant to what is in at the time, I just wish the quality of some of it was better.

Oh, by the way, Patrick Dempsey’s wife now has some products with them – her name is Jillian.  I think she may be a makeup artist by trade.  Their website has some useful makeup tips also if you want to check it out, it’s a good read for some new ideas to spice up your makeup application routine and maybe try some new techniques or colors.