Volumelip: a lipgloss to rave about

April 28, 2010

3 Comments

What it is: Annabelle‘s Volumelip gloss

The good: I’ve been going crazy trying to get my hands on a tube of this — for number of reasons! Not only are these babes paraben-free, they also feature adorable packaging. What I didn’t expect was the soft, silicone-tip applicator… I’m not quite sure what I was expecting (perhaps something harder?) but I know this for sure: it’s awesome! The angle and “springiness” makes spreading out the gloss easy, not to mention comfortable. (Nothing irks me more than good packaging ruined by a hard, sharp applicator.)

More good: The two shades that I’ve been test driving, Sweet Tweet and Cherryoké, are pretty darn fabulous. Sweet Tweet is a milky pink pearled with gorgeous gold microshimmer, whereas Cherryoké is a brilliant vivid fuchsia-leaning-coral. They’re marketed as being sheer, but despite that: these tubes deliver just the right amount of colour! It’s definitely enough to be noticeable, but not so much that you have to panic about bleeding and fading all day long. While they are sheer, they’re not tinted-lip-balm or lip-treatment sheer.

Cherryoké (left,) Sweet Tweet (right)

Even more good: I didn’t expect this last bout of awesomeness, but it was pleasantly surprising! These are literally, completely, 100% scent free. Give that a moment to set in — no awful synthetic stench, no waiting for a light scent to fade into nothingness, no plasticy or minty odour. Just… nothing.

It’s absolutely brilliant!

Sweet Tweet. Very light, but sheer enough to be easy to wear. Your lip colour, but toned down a tiny bit with some pearl.

One last bit of good: The stick factor is very, very minimal (imagine wearing Vaseline,) but these feel lovely and plush on my lips. Ooh, and the colour doesn’t patch or streak. And the formula isn’t drying! It’s not as moisturizing as a good lip balm, but it doesn’t strip my lips in the least.

(Okay, so that was three last bits, not one. I guess I lied.)

The bad: The only complaint I had was that the adorable tubes are quite hard to squeeze. However, Annabelle has already reworked the packaging so that it will look the exact same, but feature a much softer plastic. In other words? No complaints whatsoever!

Cherryoké. I’m in love! It’s perfect — MLBB, bright, fresh, natural-looking, glitter-free…

The verdict? Once these hit shelves in my area, I’m guessing they’ll feature the soft tubes. And if they do, my sister and I plan on picking up the rest of the line — I kid you not. As far as semi-sheer glosses go, this is as good as it will ever get. I honestly cannot think of a single change I’d make to these, from the formula to the packaging!

The only thing I can imagine Annabelle doing with respect to these glosses is adding shades, because these glosses kick the crap out of my old favourite gloss (also an Annabelle) and pretty much every other medium-to-sheer gloss I’ve tried. Honestly.

Hey, old favourite? (Annabelle Flash Dance; right.) Meet new favourite! (Cherryoké; left.)

[Yes, I’m feeling indecisive today. How did you know?]

If you (for some crazy reason) will only ever buy one item I rave about… make it this one. The packaging is perfect, the formula is perfect, the two shades I tried were perfect — hell, even the price (just $8.50 CAD) is perfect!