Product Junkie: The Search for a Lip Mask Dupe

Written by Tamara Styer

Winter won’t be over any time soon, and I’m running out of lip treatments. My favorite products for making my very dry, cracked lips smooth and plump are currently Bite Beauty’s Agave Lip Mask and Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask. Since I’m out of both (yes, I even cut the tube in half and scraped out every last bit of product), I’m on the hunt for a drug store dupe. I couldn’t find an ingredient list for the Laneige, so I’ll be choosing the Agave Lip Mask as my number one fave, and we will work to find a dupe for this lip-smoothing bad boy.

Since I'm out of my faves, which are both thick and stay on all night — and all day, for that matter — I’ve been using a tube of Hempz Ultra Moisturizing Herbal Lip Balm. Is it just me, or does this stuff seem to wear off fast and make your lips even dryer? At first I thought it smelled quite reminiscent of cat urine, too. But, alas! Since it is all I have for now, I’ve been using it like crazy. Some days I think it works well, but I find myself applying it dozens — nay, hundreds — of times a day!

It suddenly dawned on me this morning that I have a thicker product that might work well in the interim of not having my beloved Agave Lip Mask. I’ve been slathering Burt’s Bees Coconut Foot Cream on mes pieds with great results. So without hesitation, I swiped this thick stuff right on my lips! I was pleasantly surprised with the immediate moisturisation (it's a new French-y sounding word I just made up) and the softened texture of my lips. Although, once the strong fragrance started to migrate to my taste buds, I dove into the world wide web of ingredient lists.

While both the Bite Agave Lip Mask and the Burt’s Bees Coconut Foot Cream claim to be 99% natural, I found that Burt is using several more fragrance ingredients than Agave Lip Mask. I mean, obviously… it’s for your feet, so they want you to smell like flowers. But I’m guessing that isn’t something you’d want to be ingesting all day, or even letting your delicate lips absorb. But my lips are looking softer, pinker and plumper as I type this. Perhaps I can ignore the perfume-tongue this is giving me while I take a closer look at a few key ingredients.

The Burt’s uses glycerine as its first ingredient, while the Bite uses lanolin. Although both products contain lanolin, which I just learned is an oil produced by sheep to keep their wool coats waterproof and deodorized. Uck. But, apparently it’s super good for your skin. According to one online article, it’s a cruelty-free winter skin wonder! And have you heard the ongoing craze about the 100% lanolin nipple cream? Makeup artists are touting this particular brand as a holy grail lip balm, also great for moisturizing heels, cuticles and more. And as my Burt’s Bees Coconut Foot Cream is beginning to give me a perfume headache, as well as some mild nausea, I’m thinking the nipple cream is the way to go, as it is free of preservatives, parabens, fragrance or taste.

That’s right dear readers, you can always count on me to test out a product on myself while writing a lengthy — albeit conclusive — product article. So, for today, I’m going to wash this foot cream off my lips, as they are beginning to tingle (it was an innovative experiment, no?) and head to the drug store where I will find an $8 bottle of nipple cream, making sure to give the check-out dude lots of awkward eye contact during our transaction. It's not exactly a dupe, but hopefully my lips will thank me for the purchase until I talk myself into finally shelling out for that $26 Agave Lip Mask. It really is the best.   DM

Product photos courtesy of the brands.
Review by Deitra Magazine, copyright Deitra LLC 2019, all rights reserved.