{"id":29680,"date":"2014-10-23T21:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=29680"},"modified":"2014-10-23T17:33:07","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T09:33:07","slug":"artisanal-or-luxury-tinted-or-sheer-the-lip-care-industry-is-exploding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/23\/artisanal-or-luxury-tinted-or-sheer-the-lip-care-industry-is-exploding\/","title":{"rendered":"Artisanal or luxury, tinted or sheer, the lip care industry is exploding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"shutterstock_153412280\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NEW YORK\u2014Artisanal or oozing with luxury, lip balms are having a moment.<\/p>\n

Joining cutesy offerings intended for kids and go-to standards around for years are newer lip scrubs, colour tints and balms that ask buyers to put their money where their mouths are for good causes.<\/p>\n

The world market for lip care products is projected to reach $1.7 billion by 2015. In the United States, lip treatments were valued at $534 million in sales last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely an explosion in popularity. It\u2019s sort of the Angelina effect,\u201d said Erin Flaherty, beauty and health director for Marie Claire magazine, referring to the lip-endowed Angelina Jolie.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoisturized lips look plumper, so it\u2019s a cheap and easy way to make your lips look bigger and sexier,\u201d Flaherty said.<\/p>\n

Balms and other treatments come in a range of price points, from $1 or so at the drugstore all the way up to fancy Creme de la Mer\u2019s The Lip Balm at $55. High end or economical, consumers are interested year-round.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s looking for a little bit of fun,\u201d said Tad Kittredge, a spokesman for Burt\u2019s Bees in Durham, North Carolina. \u201cIt\u2019s a healthy alternative to candy or gum as a treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flaherty\u2019s magazine recently asked about 20,000 readers about lip balm and other beauty tools, tricks and tips. She said 48 per cent cited lip balm as their must-have beauty solution at the office. Hand cream was a distant second.<\/p>\n

Asked for the one beauty product they\u2019d want on a desert island, other than sunscreen, 36 per cent said lip balm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen wear a little bit less makeup now than they used,\u201d Flaherty said. \u201cThere\u2019s more of an emphasis on great skin and looking effortless. And a lot of women are intimidated by lipstick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s our liptacular look at treatments for the mouth:<\/p>\n

Tint\u2019s around but clears are popular, too<\/h6>\n

Treating lips with some bonus colour is definitely happening, Flaherty said. But she finds it telling that 35 per cent of respondents in Marie Claire\u2019s \u201cmost wanted\u201d survey picked the clear, medicated Maybelline New York\u2019s Baby Lips Dr. Rescue as their favourite product launched between October 2013 and October 2014.<\/p>\n

Flaherty likes the Sugar balms from Fresh for sunscreen and tint. She\u2019s also a fan of Dior\u2019s Addict Lip Glow Sheer. It reacts to the wearer\u2019s pH balance for a customized, long-lasting flush.<\/p>\n

Burt\u2019s Bees balms, now iconic after more than 30 years, come in about 10 flavours, but the original beeswax balm with vitamin E and peppermint oil remains the most popular, Kittredge said.<\/p>\n

Fashion designers do lip balms<\/h6>\n

As in nail polish, fashion designers are fond of lip balm collaborations.<\/p>\n

Rachel Roy is among the latest, according to Flaherty. There\u2019s a limited edition set of four for EOS, the company that brings you those unique egg-shaped balms. Not the first designer to team up with EOS, the Roy-inspired balms are intended to evoke\u00a0travel\u00a0with flavours called Indian Summer, Orange Blossom, Aloha Hawaii Strawberry Kiwi and St. Barth\u2019s Sunrise Pink Grapefruit.<\/p>\n

Some designers have struck out on their own with branded balms, including Anna Sui\u2019s in a distinctive rose-motif tin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that you\u2019re seeing designer collaborations in lip balms proves just how much of a moment lip balms are having,\u201d Flaherty said.<\/p>\n

Lip balms and the luxury market<\/h6>\n

Plenty of balms are available at drugstore checkout, but luxury treatments have reached the lips.<\/p>\n

The geisha-inspired company Tatcha offers a touch of gold with its Camellia Nourishing Lip Balm\u2014actual gold. There\u2019s a hand-laid, 24-karat gold leaf that sits across each $36 jar. The idea is to drag a finger across the balm and the leaf, which crushes on contact and offers an added shimmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of a bridge between skin care and cosmetics,\u201d Flaherty said.<\/p>\n

Eco chic and lip balms<\/h6>\n

Many lip products tout natural ingredients and lots of beauty companies give back to good causes. But newcomer Zoe Mesnik-Greene, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Washington in Seattle, has taken that a step further.<\/p>\n

She debuts her Fair Trade lip balms Nov. 1 as a way to help children in Peru, India and Burkina Faso receive surgery on cleft lips and palate birth defects, using small-scale farmers for certain sustainable ingredients she sources in those countries.<\/p>\n

About 5 per cent of each $4.99 balm goes to the non-profit Smile Train, which provides the surgeries.<\/p>\n

Why lip balm? Mesnik-Greene said 7 of 10 people use lip balm every day and have three or four products at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey pull it out between one to 12 times a day, so why not a product that is so accessible and so affordable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lip scrubs and plumpers<\/h6>\n

In addition to balms, other lip treatments have multiplied.<\/p>\n

Fresh sells a Sugar Lip Polish with brown sugar crystals for exfoliating. At the higher end, Kaplan MD has its Lip 20 Mask for $48, instructing users to let it sit on the lips for three to five minutes for a tingling sensation from papaya enzymes.<\/p>\n

Lip balms and men<\/h6>\n

Stewart & Claire, a Brooklyn-based newbie founded by Kristin Donnelly, sees hope in guys and balms. About 30 per cent of her customers are men and one of their favourites is a floral called La Nuit, with jasmine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the way that coffee has gone very specialty and ice cream has gone very specialty, more micro lip balms are following suit,\u201d Donnelly said.<\/p>\n

She blends natural ingredients into Mint Julep and Old Fashioned flavours. Her Autumn balm was inspired by Indian Chai and includes ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to think about it like a perfumer where you have top, middle and base notes,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to do something more grown up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u2014Artisanal or oozing with luxury, lip balms are having a moment. Joining cutesy offerings intended for kids and go-to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fashion-and-beauty","mauthors-leanne-italie","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}