Essence Cosmetics Juicy Bomb Glossy Butter Balm ($3.99) is a new budget-friendly is a new lip balm with a formula that promises to melt into lips leaving behind smooth, glossy, plumped up lips. As a MAC Squirt Plumping Gloss Stick fan girl I was so prepped for an affordable dupe and I was sure that Essence wasn’t going to disappoint me especially because I really love their cutesy makeup options plus the Juicy Bomb Shiny Lipgloss formula is awesome so a balm formula had to be just as good.
Not so much!
Wow. This stuff takes me way back! Like back to the days when our gateway drug into the world of makeup was an array of lip balms we could find at CVS. Especially the cheap, cheesy sets that would be available during the Holidays from Color Cosmetic Company (or some such weird brand) that packaged up a ton of items into one Holiday Gift Set. Back then they seemed a must have but as we grew up we realized how truly bad they were. This is just not formulated the way I expected it to be and it tastes like a child’s lip balm with a weird fruity plastic flavor. I mean, I gotta give Essence ten out of ten for bringing back to being an eight year old kid and being wowed by flavored Chapstick. But as an adult, well, this stuff just isn’t my deal.
Essence Juicy Bomb Glossy Butter Balm is a new formula based off of Essence’s Juicy Bomb Shiny Lipgloss which by the way is awesome. Essence Juicy Bomb Glossy Butter Balm is available in six shade selections and is 0.08 oz in size priced at an affordable $3.99. The balms come in a lightweight plastic barrel but user beware they don’t retract. Only swivel up what you need otherwise you’ll end up with a mess when you can’t swivel it back down.
I got the shade Time to Playa which is a Barbie pink shade. It’s actually quite pigmented. I can’t complain about the pigment or the price however, the formula just isn’t it. This is a heavier, waxier lip balm that does have a nice shine but isn’t the melty formula I expected it to have. I think it’s way too heavy and feels a bit uncomfortable to wear. I feel like I smeared plastic on my lips for some reason. I seriously couldn’t stand this stuff on my lips it felt like it was clumping up the more I wore it. It just isn’t very pleasant. And the flavor, jeez, the flavor…it has an overpowering perfume-y plastic cheap fruity flavor that tastes bitter. It also stinks when you remove the cap.
I’m not sure what I was expecting with this one but I think I was looking forward to a more melty, glossy texture that we’re seeing from some of the Maracuja Juicy Lip dupes out there. But Essence Juicy Bomb Glossy Butter Balm def isn’t that. At $3.99 it’s affordable but I’d skip it unless you’re feeling nostalgic and want to re-live your first cheap lip balm experience.
Essence Juicy Bomb Glossy Butter Balm is available now!
Where to buy
Essence Juicy Bomb Glossy Butter Balm are a new melty lip balm available in six shades which are 0.08 oz each and $3.99 each. Each balm comes in a very light plastic barrel that’s not retractable. I did not like this formula at all. It has a very weird fruity plastic scent and tastes like fruity plastic perfume. The texture is an waxy balm that felt like I was smearing plastic on my lips and looked like it was caking up and falling into my natural lip lines through the wear. It was pigmented and did have a nice glossiness to it but the wear was incredibly unpleasant and as soon as I applied it I immediately wanted to remove it.
- Awful flavor and fragrance.
- Feels heavy and waxy on lips.
Essence Juicy Bomb Glossy Butter Balm is a nice way to take a trip down memory lane but the formula probably isn’t one anyone will like!
