Burt's Bees Lip Shimmers Review

My lips are the only part of my body I’d love to fatten. Alas, instead of a pair of ripe peapods covering my teeth, I sport two limp strands of spaghetti.

So for some 20 years now, I’ve nursed a serious lipstick jones, hoping a few grams of gooey pigment can endow me with what Nature refused. I used to be a sucker for those “free” samples you get when you empty your wallet at the Lancome or Clinique counters. Sorry to be so fickle, but these days I’m all abuzz with a new love: Mr. Burt and his magic bees.

Maybe it takes a hive mind to comprehend that lip color needs to be a sensory experience for the person wearing it, and not just for those who get to see it on you. These lip shimmers tingle. So they must be good for you, right? And since they’re tinted balms, rather than a rouge, they don’t dessicate your kissers down to two leathery strips.

The slender stick means you can apply it as frequently and blindly as lip balm, sans a mirror, without worrying you now look like Bozo instead of Angelina. I pair them with lip pencils, both Burt’s and others, and no one can tell I’m not wearing a regular lipstick.

They've been hard to spot, though. More places are carrying them as they catch on, such as Whole Foods, Sunflower, Sprouts and some drugstores, and I've seen them for as low as $3.99 apiece, which isn’t a lot of smackers for your smackers.

Favorite shades: Papaya, Raisin, Cocoa, all of them scrumptious.