Urban Decay Big Fatty Lip Plumper

...normally a big fan of Urban Decay products. The Urban Decay website promises that this is the ultimate lip plumper which not only plumps your pout but also has a subtle gold sheen which enhances your new look. Promises, promises I thought to myself as I read it but what do you do? I simply couldn't resist the idea that maybe, this time, it might actually work.


I bought my Big Fatty Lip Plumper (gotta love the name!) from Boots.com ...
...about an hour although the Urban Decay website suggest that it should last for more than 3 hours - well not on me! There are no warnings saying that you cannot reapply as soon as you feel the effect wearing off and I tend to do that. So far I have had no problems or adverse reactions at all (well, as it is in essence an irritant I guess the swelling is an adverse reaction but since that's what I bought into I can't really complain). I do find that ... more

After my last venture into the world of lip plumping treatments I decided to save my money and stick to the old chilli and lip gloss trick. However, one day I found a review on DuWop lip venom by post-it-note which sounded really good. I decided (again) to give these products one more chance and went trawling through the internet to find the cheapest alternative. Now, if you're anything like me you'll find that one link leads to another which leads to another and eventually you're nowhere near where you expected to be! This is essentially how I ended up with completely different product to the one I set out to buy…

I must have been seduced by the bright colours, the name and big promises as I'm not normally a big fan of Urban Decay products. The Urban Decay website promises that this is the ultimate lip plumper which not only plumps your pout but also has a subtle gold sheen which enhances your new look. Promises, promises I thought to myself as I read it but what do you do? I simply couldn't resist the idea that maybe, this time, it might actually work.

I bought my Big Fatty Lip Plumper (gotta love the name!) from Boots.com as that was the cheapest alternative that I could find in a hurry (it was getting a bit late and I, of course, wanted to buy my new toy before I'd have time to think about it and regret it, you know what it's like). The price for the 2.5 g tube was £10 and this does seem to be the going rate, at least on the sites that I visited. There was also a £2.95 delivery charge which did seem a bit hefty but would become clear to me in due course.

A couple of days later I got a card to tell me that I had a package to pick up from my local delivery office so I trotted down as quickly as I could, thinking about the completely new look that I'd be able to achieve with this little tube of magic. I was a bit surprised when the package turned out to be bigger than the Amazon packages filled with books and DVDs that I normally received - could that really contain my 2.5 gram lip gloss tube? Turns out it could. When I opened it the tube was right in the middle wrapped in layer after layer after layer of tissue. I'm obviously glad that they were so careful with my order but this did seem a bit excessive as there just was no need for it whatsoever - no wonder delivery was so expensive! Had I been a bit less eager and maybe a tad smarter I would have gone down to Boots myself and picked up the lip plumper thus saved myself some money on the delivery charge and quite possibly saved a tree from being chopped down too…Rant over - this obviously did not affect my idea of the product although Boots.com will not be a regular shopping site for me.

The Big Fatty Lip Plumper tube had looked really funky on the pictures with a psychedelic orange, pink, yellow and purple print all over - very 70s. It's not quite as funky in reality as it looks a bit cheap. The print is not actually a print on the tube but a paper label - you know one of them that you can't help but pick at and peel off. Well, doesn't matter a great deal anyway, that wasn't why I had bought it after all. When I applied it I waited for the tingle that you always seem to get from this kind of product. And I waited. And I waited. And waited! Nothing! Nothing whatsoever! Surely if there's no pain there can't be any gain? After a while my lips did start to feel a little funny, it felt as if I couldn't close them properly. When I had a look in the mirror I noticed that they looked a lot redder and actually slightly fuller! Eureka - finally a product that has some effect!

The next time I tried it on I put on a lot more than I'd had the first time and did feel a slight tingle and also noticed the sweet, bubblegum smell - not at all unpleasant actually. Again, my lips looked slightly fuller, the little wrinkles were smoother and it looked as if I'd had a nice red lipstick on. The effect is not the "up to 20% fuller" that is suggested on the website, but I'm happy anyway as it is certainly more than I have experienced from any of the other lip plumpers I have tried. The gloss is pretty but unremarkable; I do in fact sometimes put one of my 'normal' lip glosses on on top of it and this does not seem to take away from the plumping effect. Luckily it's not sticky so you can walk outside without ending up with all your hair plastered to your mouth - definitely a good thing!

The lip plumping effect lasts for about an hour although the Urban Decay website suggest that it should last for more than 3 hours - well not on me! There are no warnings saying that you cannot reapply as soon as you feel the effect wearing off and I tend to do that. So far I have had no problems or adverse reactions at all (well, as it is in essence an irritant I guess the swelling is an adverse reaction but since that's what I bought into I can't really complain). I do find that the more I apply it the less effect it seems to have, as if my lips are getting used to the product.

I do think it is unusual to be genuinely allergic to these products but do be careful to use it only on your lips and not the skin around it as this causes irritation in some people. Unusually Urban Decay lists all the ingredients in the product - the ones I have used before have refused to do so as they claim what makes their product work is a super secret ingredient. In reality I think they all work (or don't work in some cases) in the same way, by irritating the lips thus drawing blood to them causing a small swelling. If you would still like to have a look at the ingredients just follow this link: http://www.urbandecay.com/products/GoldenSheenLipPlumper.cfm.

Compared to the other lip plumping products I have tried this is by far the best and a product that I would recommend to anybody. It does seem as if different brands of lip plumpers do not have the same effect on different people. I found that with the previous product I had tried which were heartily recommended by others but had no effect at all on my asbestos lips. The best thing would of course be if you could give it a try before you decide to buy it as it's not super cheap and may not have the desired effect on you.

Enjoy your new Big Fatty Lips!
 

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