I like to think of myself as generally being “smart” when it comes to social media ads. While admittedly, I’m usually pretty curious, I don’t think I’ve ever actually fallen for a product that appeared in my Story stream – until last week.
It had been a very long day. The clock was nearing 3am on a Tuesday and I was completing my daily unhealthy habit of scrolling through my feed in the dark, when we all know that “tuning off before bedtime is recommended for a healthy sleep cycle!”
Just as I thought I was going to put my phone down (but not actually), THAT Instagram ad popped up. Again. It seemed to follow me everywhere and had been haunting me for weeks, hitting all the checkmarks from a marketing perspective. As usual, it seemed way too good to be true. “Bye bye, lip balm” was the line that really got me.
I’ve been aboard the vicious cycle of applying and reapplying lip balm for far too long, to the point that my lips never feel hydrated unless they’ve been freshly doused in a thicc layer of Burt’s Bees, Caudalie (highly recommend btw!), Elizabeth Arden, Dior, or just good old fashioned Blistex… I have way too many chapsticks to count and a product that promises to hydrate your lips and do some sort of voodoo work on them, to the point that they learn to rehydrate themselves even when you’re not wearing it (?) seemed fake. Curious, I did a quick google search and found out that this stuff is big in Japan. Apparently, what makes it so great is a bacteria that no other lip balms use – Multi Flora – which targets the microbiome in the lips. I obviously have no idea what that means but ultimately, I decided to cave. I even fantasized about loving it so much that I would write my first ever online beauty review to join the ranks of the countless existing 5 stars.
The lip treatment comes in five different shades and looks a lot more like a lip gloss than a lip balm, with bold packaging and inventive shades to choose from. I read that the bestseller in Japan was the black color, so I decided to go all out (yes, it also comes in clear).
Here’s what the black shade looks like:
The Verdict
I’ve been using this product for about five days now. Here are my thoughts:
1. When first applied, the shade I got gives off major goth vibes which was initially worrisome but you just have to trust the process. Once it absorbs, the color really sheers out and just leaves your lips looking deeper and fuller (but I must say that the goth look is growing on me).
2. It is much less creamy than traditional lip balms and feels more like a thick gloss. It passes the no-hair-sticking-to-the-lips test with flying colors, and lasts much longer on the lips than any gloss I’ve had – and I’ve done my rounds. I was initially disappointed by the size of the tube but a little goes a long way in this case.
3. It may be magic. I haven’t reached for it all day long and yet, my lips feel softer and more hydrated than ever.
Against all odds, my lips may really have “learned” to hydrate themselves and I am absolutely shook. While I wouldn’t take this as a lesson to fall for every Instagram ad you see (definitely a bad idea), I do highly recommend giving this one a shot.
I hope you try it for yourself and when you do, make sure to let me know what you think. I’m starting a UZ cult, it’s official.
Vanidy Fair 