Canmake Melty Smooth Oil Gloss - Strawberry Red

According to the almighty news source Buzzfeed, ultra glossy lips is a trend of 2000s that "gotta go". How did I find out (without being a reader of the site)? One of their editors decided that my twin sausage from 8 years ago was a perfect illustration of the said trend and was nice enough to link back (no sarcasm intended). Hey, at least I got a few extra dimes off Google Ads that week (that is going straight to more lip gloss). 

To be trueful, I still love the whole glassy, zero lip line look (because the prospect of  inflated sausage is always better than inflamed A-hole) and am quite sad that all of my favorite American brands either stop making great glosses (the entire Sally Hansen lip range) or like Lancome, reformulated the gloss into something much runnier (the case of Lancome Juicy tubes). While I mourn over the waning availability of glosses, I am happy to see the emerging trend of lip oils. 

Let's pretend that this is totally new: Not all lip oil are created equal, sometime it's the same runny silicone oil mix that you could find at dollars store 10 years ago, sometime it's just gloss under a different name (Jill Stuart comes to mind) but sometime, you do get a lightweight oil gloss that gives the same shine but with no stickiness and a closer hug to the lips. And the best part? It's only 5 bucks!

Okay, the 500yens became 9 bucks once it crossed the pond, but what can you get for 9 bucks here anyway? I started to notice Canmake Melty Smooth Oil Gloss a few months ago. It's a product marketed as a non-sticky gloss and lip essense, made of mostly lip caring oils. Of course, I got one in sheer red (03 Strawberry Red) because I can't get enough of red tint.

It's hard to figure out the volume/weight of each Canmake lip or cheek product (they don't put it on their packaging or the site) but I eyeballed it to be around 8-10grams.

The Melty Smooth Oil Gloss is exactly what it claims to be: It's predominantly oil but encapsulated in a jelly formula. The texture is easily spread, hydrating, moisturizing and not sticky at all. Unlike gunky glosses that smooth away line by forming a mirror shine, Melty Smooth plumps away line from within...It just keeps my lips healthy and comfortable. Thanks to the oil jelly base, it stays on to the lips without slipping off,  drying out or evaporating.

The shade 03 is a cool strawberry red that's not loud or dramatic on the lips. It's not a special color but I just love the formula. It's one of the best lip glosses/essences I have tried in recent years (well I haven't gotten many glosses) and feels like more expensive jelly gloss from Paul and Joe. Anyway, I am definitely getting the clear one as soon as it's back in stock.

P.S. For those of you who are tired of the winter background. Hanami season is about to start (I mean on the blog). We have been having too many overcast/rainy days but the weather today was perfection. I got a bunch of glamour shots done this morning and now I just need more sunny afternoons for my afterwork swatches.