Review: Maybelline Baby Lips (Color Lip Balm)

Do you notice a stark shift in the two pictures?

Did you notice that while in the first picture dear baby was right on top of my list, sitting juxtaposed to my Estee Lauder & Clinique, and in the second its just lying upside down in my vanity drawer-kind of like an inverted chicken-a stance in which most teachers would love to see their students?

Ok! Now lets not be so mean to the baby and see what it claims to introduce us to and how it fairs along the way, shall we?

1st up, the company claims that Baby Lips is the next generation of lip balm -adult strength care for baby soft lips in vibrant translucent colors.

Hmmm, now before I begin, lets take a look at the swatches

What do these swatches indicate?

The first picture indicates the color pay off in a single swipe and also the non-uniformity of application= the single swipe formula for wonder color doesnt work, you will need to 3-4 swipes for any color to show! What it also indicates is that you will not get a smooth 'cover it all' effect in a single swipe. therefore chapped lips mean more swipes!

The second picture indicates the color pay off after 3-4 swipes and your reaction, because finally it will have some translucent color and also will apply evenly to your lips :)

The third picture shows you the "shine" which the company is marketing=so it does have shine, no doubt.

Now what you need to know before we move ahead,

1. I own Baby Lips in Coral Flush

2. It has SPF 16 and not SPF 20

3. It claims to stay for 6hrs moisture and not 8hrs

4. It costs INR150 and not INR125 (price for baby lips which have no color)

Moving ahead, how it looks on my lips:

 My lips are pigmented and true to its word baby lips has a bit of translucent color to it.

This is how it looks atop my Maybelline Color-sensational Chestnut Ccream Lipstick (748)

 Now this lipstick itself is MLBB (My lips But Better) but as you can see-the certain shine to it is thanks to baby lips in coral flush!

To Summarize:

PROS

1. It has translucent color

2. It has shine 

3. Is not heavy and waxy

CONS

1. Has been launched in India with the 'chapstick' sort of packaging and not the international transparent lipstick case

2. Does not last as long as 6 hours, for me it lasts for one gym session (almost)

3. costs INR 150

Overall I would say:

I have seen a lot of people go ga-ga over Baby Lips and I too wanted to buy it-if only for the super cute packaging. Unfortunately in India, it has been launched in the same old package with the addition of baby lips written all over.

As per its claim of being the "next generation", then just because its called baby, does not mean that it is the next generation of anything. A lot of products before this have been launched by various companies which have color, balm and SPF. So what new? The fact that it has SPF16 and not 15 like all other drugstore balms?

To me, it is somewhat in between a balm and a gloss, not falling in any category per se. I have difficulty wearing it under my lipstick, because the color pay off of a lipstick gets affected! Therefore, I end of wearing it over the lipstick, that's also only if I want a certain shine but dont want to wear a heavy gloss. Now what that does is-it does not help the case of chapped lips-cause there would then be no moisturising barrier between the lips and the lipstick!

As such it does not really help the case of ladies like me who are in the habit of wearing lipsticks. 

For school goers and young ladies in high-school maybe it can pass off as a new fad but even then i wonder why teenagers should prefer this balm over any other colored balm available in the market. That too when this one costs 150 and they might as well buy 2 regular lip balms for 200!

Final Verdict:

I feel I'm being over-critical about this new launch but the only thing which attracted me towards the product was the packaging (which unfortunately has not been the same as that in international markets). I'm not tempted to go out and pick up the rest of the balms in this series. It's not all that magical. 

I would have been a happier customer had maybelline not created a whole new marketing gimmick and the price for the balm would have been a lil less :)