My favorite lip gloss is the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector. I love the smell, I love the taste, I love the texture-I basically like everything about it. Many of you have suggested that the Sephora Colorful Gloss Balm is a less expensive dupe for it-so I picked up a few shades and put them to the test. Keep reading to get my verdict!
Let’s start with the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector. I’ve been using this for quite awhile now, and have picked up every shade it comes in, which should say something about my love for this product. It retails for $25 for .4 oz and comes in 8 shades. The product is contained in a soft-sided plastic squeeze tube with a soft, foam covered slanted tip. It’s described as a non-sticky melting gel formula that has a slight vanilla scent. The product is sheer on the lips. Here are a few of my favorite shades swatched on the back of my hand:
Next we have the Sephora Colorful Gloss Balm. It retails for $10 for .32 oz and comes in 20 shades. I bought the shades Warrior Princess and Girl on Fire. The product is contained in a soft-sided squeeze tube as well, but the tip is just a soft(ish) plastic tip with a fairly good sized hole at the tip to dispense the product. The two shades that I purchased came out opaque and quite shiny. The gloss is strongly scented of a fruity/vanilla scent, basically a sweet candy-like scent. It claims to be moisturizing as well. Have a look at the two shades I have swatched here (I apologize for the sheer awfulness of this picture, but you’ll get the idea):
So now let’s compare the two products to see how they match up. Let’s cut right to the chase-they don’t. IF you’re looking for a less-sticky-than-others gloss (but it’s still a bit sticky) that goes on fairly opaque and has a strong sweet scent, then you’ll love the Sephora Colorful Gloss Balm. I’m not really a traditional lip gloss fan anymore, so for me this isn’t what I wanted. To be fair, I didn’t try all the shades, so perhaps there is a dupe for the colors out of the 20 shade they show. But even if the colors matched, one of the most favorable points about the Clarins Lip Perfector (I had to shorten the name) is that it is not sticky at all! It truly does what it says on the label-it’s a natural lip perfector. The balm/gloss will give you the perfect “your lips but better” look, and it’s what I reach for all summer long. There is ALWAYS one in my purse. It’s also incredibly moisturizing, so it can double as a lip balm in a pinch.
One more negative about the Sephora Colorful Gloss Balm-it does stain the lips. For me, that’s a drawback, because that’s not what I was looking for in this product. You can see it really well when I wiped off the swatches I had put on my hand here:
You can watch the products in action in the video I made to go along with the post here, or just click on the picture below (if your browser shows it):
Final conclusion-the Sephora Colorful Gloss Balm is NOT a dupe for the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector. I wish it was, since I could buy two of them for less than the price of one Clarins Lip Perfector, but it’s not.
So what’s next? Is there another product you’d like me to test out and/or compare to find a dupe for another high-end product? Let me know in the comments!
Shop the winner here:
The best shade selections are available at Nordstrom, which, as you should know by now, is holding their annual Nordstrom Anniversary Sale (early access) RIGHT NOW!!! If you are a Nordstrom Cardholder and can shop the Early Access Sale, then get busy! Stuff sells out at light speed!
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