Updated July 22nd, 2023: A few updated comments about some products.
I am far too easily influenced by social media trends, I’m not going to lie. Whether it be makeup, skincare, haircare, fashion… ugh! I try to do my best not to make impulse purchases by putting stuff in my cart, staring long and hard at the price, and then exiting out of the page. For the most part, it works for me.
But I had one stressful day (week? two weeks?) at work and one weekend I went out and shopped until I dropped.
I bought a bunch of the really popular viral products that are running around all over Instagram and TikTok right now and wanted to give my ten cents on the whole thing. It’s been a couple of weeks (a month? month and a half?) since I purchased everything so I feel like I’ve had a good amount of time to test stuff out.
I should say right now that I definitely regret some of these purchases, and that I wish I had just, you know, not been so influenced and impulsive and waited to buy anything after thinking it through. And then other products I loved so it’s like… kind of a mixed bag overall?
Anyways, let’s begin!
Dior Addict Lip Glow Balm
Starting off first is the Dior Addict Lip Glow Balm in 08, Ultra Pink.
Now, I’ve always been a lip balm/lip gloss/lip tint kind of girl. I’ve never been a huge fan of just straight lip sticks, or matte lip products. I usually prefer either a gloss to keep my lips moisturized, a balm for some color, or a tint that leaves a nice after color even after I’ve wiped away the product because I’m eating or something.
To be fair, the Dior Addict Lip Glow Balm seems like something I’d normally purchase even without all the Dior being shoved into my face recently on Instagram. I actually had a friend buy me one of these products as a gift when I was living abroad, but between all the moving I did during my years abroad and all the packing and unpacking, I completely lost it somewhere along the way.
The Dior Addict Lip Glow Balm retails for $40.00 and comes in pretty packaging. I always thought the packaging was kind of wonky when I first got it, but I kind of like it now. I also like how it’s this perfect shade of baby pink – it’s very aesthetic… which I suppose is why people like it so much.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s a pretty product. The color leaves this very sheer, overall beautiful glossy color and finish on your lips. Very bright pinks like the shade I picked out look really good on my lips.
However, I couldn’t help but compare it constantly to another product I own – the rom&nd Glasting Melting Balm. They even have a shade that is pretty similar in color to their 08 Ultra Pink shade – the 02 shade Lovely Pink.
I coincidentally have both of those shades, and I found that while the Lovely Pink is stronger and more saturated in color, it’s also got more color payoff in general compared to the Dior product. The Dior balm really leaves a very sheer, light color on the lips, unlike the rom&nd one which is much more pigmented.
One of the things I didn’t like about the Dior product is that if you use too much, it does that thing where it gets really… sticky? Stringy? between the lips. The rom&nd one on the other hand never has that issue. I tend to be quite heavy handed with my lip products, especially the balms, so this is kind of annoying to me.
I also feel like the Flortte Nice to Meet Chu Jelly Lipstick also has a very similar finish to the Dior product – if anything, it is a closer match I would say as it has that very lightweight, sheer color to it like the Dior product does, whereas the rom&nd product is much more pigmented. I believe the Flortte jelly lipstick has a shade similar to this, I just don’t own it as I mostly purchased all of their redder/mauve colored shades rather than their pinky shades. However, I would say the finish is very similar if you look at the picture below.
Also the Dior product tastes like ass. If you ever get a little bit in your mouth? God, it’s actually disgusting LOL. Not that the rom&nd one is much better, but it doesn’t have nearly as rancid of a taste. The Dior product tastes crazy chemical to me. But this could just be a me thing, since I don’t feel like anybody else has this issue…?
Overall, I don’t hate it. But I honestly wish I would’ve just skipped it and bought something else. Like more rom&nd products. Or even more Flortte products. Because both are a fraction of the price at around like $7 – $12 USD per product I believe, depending on where you’re buying from.
In my opinion, it definitely wasn’t really worth the hype, especially at the $40.00 price tag. Do I think it’s a good product? I mean, it does what it’s intended to do, so there’s that. But for the price tag and the fact that you can definitely find better products elsewhere, I’d personally skip this and buy other products instead.
gisou Honey Infused Hair Oil
As some background, my hair is black and I color it every year or so black again, as I have a lot of white hairs due to early graying genetics in my family line. My hair is extremely thick – enough that it takes like an hour and a half for my hair stylist to cut it, style it, and thin it a crazy amount. Even thinned it’s still probably two or three times as thick as most normal people have. Right now I’m way overdue for a cut and a color, so consider my hair about like… three or four times as thick as normal people have?
It’s thick, basically. It adds like over 10 lbs to my weight, no joke. LOL.
Anyways I’ve basically perfected my skincare routine, so I’ve decided recently to move onto haircare. I’d like to get more into scalp treatments and other hair products to help prevent my hair from breaking and stuff as easily, and to keep it nourished during Winter months so that I don’t feel like a ball of static electricity just from wearing yoga pants.
Everyone’s been praising gisou lately so I wanted to take a look. I do love honey infused products, so I was pretty interested in their hair oil. I ended up picking up the mini product priced at $25.00. I thought about their lip oil but lowkey think lip oils are kind of useless so I skipped and tried this as it seemed up my general alley.
The hair oil has a really nice scent – it’s very subtle, but it has a faintly sweet, somewhat honey smell to it. I personally really like the scent of it.
That being said, I hate the packaging.
Why did they choose a dropper of all things? Because this oil is somewhat thicker, it clings to the edge of the dropper, and when you try to insert it back into the bottle, the oil gets literally everywhere because it just scrapes the edge of the bottle and will splash onto the rest of the bottle. And since it’s oil, it just… stays oily feeling forever, I feel like.
Also, this was definitely not built for thick hair. The bottle was full when I got it and I used at least a hefty portion of what was in it (as pictured) on my hair. At least like ten droppers full of oil. After a certain point, I didn’t bother with the dropper and just tipped the bottle over into my hand to get the product out. It barely felt like it did anything to my damp hair, and the next day my hair was not softer, it felt coarser than usual compared to when I use my other hair oil, and overall, I just felt like it did absolutely nothing for my hair.
On the other hand, when I use my regular hair oil (a cheap bottle of the Moroccan Argan Oil from OGX) after a shower when my hair is damp, my hair comes out super soft the next day and shiny as well. Then, when my hair is dry – usually the next day – if I use the gisou oil for my dry hair, it does do a nice job of softening up my hair and making it shiny, however it doesn’t help with any detangling or anything like that, which is whatever.
In essence, for me, this is a hair oil I could only use when my hair is dry, and as an oil to augment whatever my regular hair oil is, which is the OGX oil.
Which… feels kind of pointless, especially considering the mini version is a full $25.00. That being said, I’ll probably use through it much slower since I won’t use it often, but still… $25 dollars for a hair oil that only works if I use it in conjunction with a much cheaper (like $7/$8) oil to achieve a nice scent and some slightly softer hair that only lasts a couple of hours? Nah. Hard pass.
It smells good, yes, I will give it that, but the price is WAY too much for me to be using it as a side piece to my main dish. Definitely won’t be repurchasing this.
Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm
Not me casually reusing the same image. Heh.
Anyways I keep seeing this lip balm everywhere as well. I got it in Pink Sugar, which is kind of looks like a pink sugar scrub coming out of the packaging, but goes on pretty clear (on my lips it looks clear but it does give a slight pink tint to your lips) and without any granules on your lips. It gives this really, really nice gloss on your lips, and on top of that it’s actually moisturizing too.
On top of that, it has great staying power. I’ll put this on before bedtime and my lips will still feel hydrated and moisturized by the morning, if not still a little tacky from the leftover residue from this product.
Personally I’m always looking for lip balms and glosses like this to keep my lips moisturized. I usually use the Sakura Vaseline stuff that came out (I have like four backups of this) or the Too Faced Peach Lip Balm (of which I also have like ten backups because it’s discontinued and I go through them so fast) because both of them not only don’t have a nasty taste, but more importantly actually do an amazing job of keeping my lips plump and hydrated. This is really important to me considering I live in such a dry environment, so my lips get chapped REALLY easily.
That being said, this balm retails for $22.00 a piece which… compared to the Sakura Vaseline (like under $3 USD since I think it’s around 300 JPY) and the Too Faced balm (which I used to get on sale for like $8… until it got discontinued sob) it’s a bit… pricey.
Lowkey I actually kind of hate how much I like this product since it’s basically just a moisturizing lip balm in pretty packaging but UGH it works so I just… really like it!!! It’s definitely half the product working, but also just half the aesthetic packaging I like. And I mean I use it like every day, multiple times a day (I’m the type who always ends up wiping my lip product off by accident) and I still haven’t ran out yet after like a month and a half or so.
I actually ended up buying the cherry version of this product and it literally tastes like cherry candy. It also has a very reddish tint and it’s really beautiful on the lips!
Also, is nobody else reminded of the Bigelow lip balms from Bath and Body Works when they see this thing? Like look at this!
Am I the only one who immediately thought off these mentha lip balms when first seeing the packaging of these Summer Friday balms!? Or is it just me!?
I actually haven’t tried the pink one from Bigelow, only the mentha one (which I ADORED in middle school/high school) and lowkey ever since I bought this Summer Fridays one I kind of want to buy the Bath and Body Works ones… there’s one right by me… think I might have to pick some up this weekend just to see if they’re similar (not me completely ignoring the fact that these mentha lip balms used to leak EVERYWHERE because the packaging was such garbage) because boy do they SERIOUSLY remind me of each other lol!
Overall though I actually love this product and can’t stop using it LOL. It’s lowkey worth the $22.00 price to me. Although it seems obscene, it really is long lasting and moisturizes my lips. And quite frankly, since the Sakura Vaseline is not readily available for me in store, and the Too Faced product has been discontinued, I’ve really been looking hard for something I can pick up in store without having to wait for shipping and can just easily grab without having to think and plan ahead a purchase for it.
Anyways I’m still totally going to try the Bigelow mentha product and see if they compare. LOL.
Unleashia Glitterpedia Eye Palette in N*5 All of Dusty Rose and Satin Wear Healthy-Green Cushion Foundation
Unleashia has been all the hype recently. They kind of came out of left field for me I feel like? I had no clue this was a brand until I saw it trending all over the place on Instagram. I got lucky and managed to snag the palette and the cushion when they were both on sale on YesStyle. I got the palette for like $12?? And the cushion for only $11!
The Glitterpedia eye palette series has quite a number of different shade combinations. I’m not the biggest fan of Korean beauty glitters, so the full on all glitter palette immediately was unattractive to me. However, All of Dusty Rose is literally right up my alleyway.
To be frank, I wasn’t really expecting much out of this palette. Mostly because I’d had some flunks recently with popular viral makeup, so I just kept my expectations low for this.
However, I was totally wrong! This palette is GORGEOUS. The middle row left color, Mauve Wood, has become one of my favorite shades recently. It’s SUCH a gorgeous colored dusty mauve pink and looks gorgeous as just a plain all over lid color with a shimmer on top, or to deepen my crease. The pink shimmer on the right hand, middle row is ALSO super beautiful – the shade Veiled Bouquet. Both have become my favorite recently. I also adore the bottom row, left hand color – Las Coloradas. On the other hand, the top right corner shade, Rosy Nude, that very light brown colored shade, is a great setting color for my eyelids.
The eyeshadows are long lasting and don’t muddy together. Even better, they don’t crease on my eyelids like some other shadows do. The pigment is really good on this palettes, but they’re also not so pigmented that they’re unmanageable. Since I tend to be heavy handed, this is really important to me.
On the other hand, the cushion I was not super optimistic about. Mostly because I was worried the darkest shade – I believe it’s Bisque? – still seemed to light for me, especially now that I’m getting a lot more sun compared to Winter.
However, the cushion has almost a somewhat brightening effect in my opinion on my skin, so I actually ended up liking the way it looked. I also adore the packaging – it not only feels sturdy, but I adore the pump on the side that pushes the foundation up through the center of the cushion. The puff is nice as well, very soft and it’s easy to use to blend.
The foundation really surprised me. It is dewy, but instead of making me feel like my skin looked oily, it just really makes your skin glow. I loved the way it looked on my skin – very similar to my skin but better. I didn’t wear it long enough to give it a definitive judgment on the lasting power, but I really enjoyed the way it looked on my skin. Overall, I was impressed, and because you can get it on sale pretty easily – and even off sale it’s only like $17.00, I’d gladly repurchase the refill when I run out.
I liked the Unleashia palette so much I ended up buying another one in a different shade combination. Although a lot of the shade combinations aren’t my favorite, there were two other palettes I liked. I’m really into cool toned pink eyeshadow palettes right now, so I hope they’ll release a few more in that shade range that I can get!
So, overall, I’d say I had a pretty mixed bag experience with these products. Also, I really don’t get the obsession with lip oils. What are they supposed to do? I tried one from A’Pieu and they aren’t moisturizing at all, it just feels like they’re supposed to lock existing moisture in – which, if you live in a dry place and your lips are chapped, means it basically does nothing. However, it does look nice and have nice staying power. But then again, I could just use any other gloss for that and not have it be as sticky as the lip oil.
I see gisou and Dior trending with their lip oils right now, and just absolutely don’t get it. Can someone explain it to me? What’s the appeal LOL.
Also, hair claw clips are trending again, so I bought a bunch at a market this weekend and the pains of having extremely thick hair… nothing can hold my hair up… not even the gigantic oversized claw clips. :’)
This won’t stop me from buying a bunch on Aliexpress though HAH.
Overall though, I probably won’t stop being influenced by social media anytime soon. But at the very least I can say that out of the 5 products I tried, at least 3 of them were good! That’s 60%, which is a D-, so… technically still passing, right? LOL.
Anyways hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and thank you for reading!
{ Honey + Bunny } 
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