Covergirl Oh Sugar! Lip Balm ($7.99 at Bed, Bath & Beyond) is a brand new formula that's part of Covergirl's Spring 2016 collection (see my post about the entire collection here). The store display seemed to compare these to the Fresh Sugar Lip Balms...not directly, but in a vague sort of way, saying things like, " Try vs a $20 lip balm" and "A fresher idea: vitamin-infused balm at a much sweeter price". I've been using Fresh's Sugar Lip Treatment for about 10 years now, so I was really excited at the possibility of this being a dupe. Let's take a closer look... |
I really like the packaging of the Oh Sugar! lip balms...it's simple and clean. Granted, it's not as luxe as the Fresh Sugar lip treatments, which come in a metal tube, but these look a bit more upscale and grown-up than other drugstore balms like Baby Lips.
I found out pretty quickly once I opened these up for the first time that you can't really go by the color on the outside of the tube...it's not a close match to the color of the actual product.
Oh Sugar! lip balms contain avocado butter and grapeseed oil so my first thought was that they'd be super moisturizing. They do have that similar soft, melty texture like the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments do...they seem to sink into your lips vs. sitting on top and they don't feel waxy at all. That's great, but at the end of the day, they just don't provide the level of moisture that the Fresh balms do. I have really dry lips, so I tend to need a lot of hydration and these just weren't enough for me. They didn't dry out my lips, but they just sank in and seemed to quickly disappear. In that regard, they sort of remind me of Baby Lips...they're very lightweight and don't stick around for too long.
Scent-wise, these smell like lemon-sugar which I was relieved about at first because the Covergirl balms I've tried in the past, such as the Lipslicks, had a terrible, perfume-type scent to them. At first swipe, these made me think of the Fresh lip balms because that lemon-sugar scent hit me, but after a minute or two, these sort of morph into more of a waxy scent...it's hard to describe. But basically, the initial lemon-sugar scent doesn't stick around for long like it does with the Fresh balms. Still, the scent is a big improvement over their past lip products, and it's not offensive to me at all.
In terms of color, these have a good amount of pigment for a balm, and the color is buildable. I was able to darken the color on my lips quite a bit just by going back and forth several times. Here, I've swatched 7 of the 10 available shades. I didn't buy the lightest shade #1, which looked almost clear, the darkest shade #10, or one that was in-between Soda and Jelly, which was #8.
Overall, these were a little bit of a letdown for me because the marketing on the display made me think they would be a dupe for the Fresh Sugar Lip Balms...but for me, they just weren't as moisturizing. That being said, they do feel lighter on the lips, which some people might prefer, especially if dry lips aren't an issue. They also come in really pretty shades and add a nice shine to your lips. I do like them better than Baby Lips, because they add more color but still have that lighter, non-waxy feel to them. I also like that they're lipstick-shaped instead of flat, because it makes them easier to apply.
Have you tried these yet? What did you think?