The Morning Muse

On Friday, I was running errands at the department store, and I decided I needed a treat. I gave myself a $10 budget and was surprised by how many products in the makeup section fit my budget! I figured that because I wanted something cruelty-free (not tested on animals), I would be very limited in my selection, but again, I was wrong.

It turns out that Covergirl, one of the biggest department store makeup brands, is now cruelty-free. That significantly expanded my selection, and I decided to try some tinted lip balms that caught my eye.

I have never been a big lip makeup kind of girl because I find that when I wear lipstick, it affects the balance of my face and makeup. I like to focus on my eyes with eyeliner and usually dramatic volumizing mascara, but that doesn’t mean I’m not on the lookout for something that works.

This is why I was interested in the tinted balms. I liked the idea of getting a little colour without committing to the boldness and drama of a full lipstick.

The range is available in five beautiful colours, and they retail for $5.88 USD or $8.97 CAD from Walmart. There is also a clear one for those who just want the moisturizing and hyaluronic acid benefits!

I was undecided between the “Bliss You Berry” and “Made for Peach” and “Life Is Pink” colours. In the end, as someone with olive-toned skin I knew that the peach and pink had the best chance of looking nice!

I picked “Life Is Pink” in the end because it looked a little like an old favourite lipstick, and I was excited to try a bold colour in a more “demure” format that I could maybe get away with wearing on a daily basis, even at work.

I was happy that the colour on the packaging is an exact match to the colour of the product, so no surprises there. You get the colour you select!

What did surprise me was the shimmer I got in my swatches!

I will say that once it’s on the lips, the shimmer doesn’t present as shimmer so much as it does as a little bit of extra shine and glossiness. But personally, I prefer a more matte look, so if I could have made do with the shimmer, I would have.

The product and texture are a lot more substantial than tinted lip balms you might buy from the Baby Lips range or other similar ones from Burt’s Bees and the like. It’s a lot more like a soft, balmy lipstick, but it’s not as pigmented, so even if you choose a bold colour, you can create an understated look (at least with the shade I picked).

Overall, I’m a fan, and I like that this makes lip tint and lipstick a little more approachable for someone who’s not typically a big fan of lip products. If I had to pick a “next” shade, it would be the “Bliss You Berry,” just to see what kind of nighttime look I could come up with.