How to get the best lip gloss while avoiding the over-priced hype

Choosing the right makeup is difficult for many people. From the rightshade, to the quality and the price of the product, there are a lot of factors to consider. I put all of these to the test by buying lip glosses from three different brands: high-end brand Yves Saint Laurent, mid-range Fenty Beauty, and lastly Almay that is sold at your local drug store. I wore each of these three glosses everyday for three days and compared them according to four of the most important qualities in a lip gloss: how they look, how long they last, the look of the product packaging and the price. This way we can find out whether the higher prices of high end brands are really worth it.

Let’s start with the mid-range brand: Fenty Beauty’s Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer in the “Diamond Milk” colour. It is sold for $23.00 at Sephora. This product was  sheer enough to match my natural lip colour which is what I really look for. This gloss also looked very wet, which is the goal for lip glosses. It was very long lasting and didn’t smudge. The hexagon shaped packaging is very unique and its doe-foot shaped applicator makes it easy to apply. I think this gloss is set at a good price and is worth it because it gives you that perfect wet look.

At the most economical end is Almay’s Goddess Gloss, which I bought the shade, “Halo,”, sold for $10.99 at London Drugs. This was not a very good product. The gloss was not natural looking and had a clumpy glitter look. The gloss stayed on all day but moved around on my lips and made the gloss look uneven. The applicator was very rough on my lips and made it look like I ate a pack of glitter then licked my lips. The gloss is set at this price for a reason. While this product may save you money, it just isn’t going to get the job done. Cheap or not, it isn’t worth it.

At the high end of the spectrum is  Yves Saint Laurent’s Glaze and Gloss. I purchased it in the colour, “Copper Me Up,” sold for $36.00 at Sephora. This product was a very luxurious lip gloss. It has a very wet appeal and a hint of pink to it. I normally don’t like glosses with colour in them but this one made me change my opinion on colored glosses. The packaging has the elegant, high-design look that says, “I paid a lot for this lip gloss” but the product was not long lasting and smudged a few times while I was going about my day. For a high-end product like this, that should not be happening. While it has a great look, the quality does not live up to the brand’s reputation or its price point.

This test shows that shelling out for the top brands and highest cost products may not guarantee you the results you want. I would not spend so much money on high-end makeup products as they’re not worth it, but it’s also true that extremely cheap products that make you think you’re getting for a bargain may not be worth it, either. In the mid range you’ll find competitive products at reasonable prices. They are are probably your best option, with the fewest flaws. The Fenty Beauty lip gloss was overall my favourite and I would buy it again.