What do you look for in a lip product?

I’m really fussy about scent and flavour, especially for lip products. If a lip product doesn’t smell and taste good, or have no scent and taste, then I won’t use it. There have been a few products I’ve given away or tossed because of their horrible taste, so now I don’t buy something unless I’ve at least smelt it. I don’t understand why cosmetic companies make products that smell bad, surely they must know that people either want products that are odourless or smell good. And the same goes for flavour. Either they should be flavourless or they should taste good.

The worst tasting product I’ve used would be Bloom’s Lip Plump. It tasted horrible, that horrible that Mr GlossQueen commented on it when he kissed me, and that was over an hour after I’d applied it. The taste was sour and awful, like stale sweat. I"m not sure why it tasted so bad, Bloom's products are usually really nice, so maybe I got a bad batch. I've since bought their Lip Plump Colour and it has no taste. It was after this experience that I started smelling all my products before I bought them. The best tasting products I've tried are Lancome's Juicy Tubes and Bonne Bell Lip Lites. They both have a range of great flavours that all taste great.

And of course, products have to pass the taste test for my significant other too. I have to admit, in past relationships I've never cared what my significant other thought of my make-up, but as Mr GlossQueen loves me wearing make-up and encourages my obsession, he now gets a say in what lip products I wear when he's around. I'll still use products he doesn't love when he's not there, but when he's around then he gets to help pick.

At the moment, Mr GlossQueen is 'over' chocolate lip products, and is liking peppermint and strawberry. He's okay with citrus, but since he's using a lemon lip balm at the moment (Arizona Sun Lip Kist), he'd rather I didn't use citrus balms. So when I get a new product I put it on and kiss him so he can taste it. This process naturally makes me buy heaps of new lip products cause the taste test is so much fun, hehe. One of his favorites is CO Bigelow's Mentha Lip Tints, but I used mine up (I know, can you believe I actually used a whole lip gloss!) and haven't got around to purchasing more yet. It'd be great if these were available in Australia, but as they're not I buy mine on ebay.

The downside to smelling lip products is that I often end up with them smeared on my nose, which is never a good look. Nevertheless, I will continue to smell and taste products before I buy them, and make sure I have a tissue handy for any accidents. So if you ever see a woman in the cosmetics department smelling and tasting lip glosses, come on over and say hello! And if I've got lip gloss on my nose, please let me know.