Glow Recipe Launched A Lip Treatment — & Here’s Our Honest Review

Having already rebranded watermelon as the ultimate skin-care ingredient (for masks, moisturizers, mists, and more), Glow Recipe has now set its sights on a totally new product category: Lip care.

This year, the K-beauty brand made its foray into the world of makeup-meets-skin care with the arrival of Watermelon Glow Lip Pop, a category-defying lip treatment that exfoliates, softens, and tints lips in a matter of swipes.

Co-founders and frequent flyers Christine Chang and Sarah Lee were inspired to create the product after years of struggling with dry, parched lips on flights — a beauty dilemma their fans also shared with them. Ahead of its launch, I gave Glow Recipe's first-ever lip product a go, and here are my unfiltered thoughts:

To start, it's important to know that I’m not really a winter lipstick person — mostly because I don’t love how it feels like it’s just “sitting” on my lips, coupled with the fact that it gets everywhere/pulls a disappearing act whenever I take a sip of water (which is often) or snack at my desk (also often). This is partially because my lips get dry very easily — especially during the winter — which doesn't exactly set them up for success when layered with a coat of matte red paint.

When I looked closely at the Glow Recipe tube, I could actually see the tiny flecks of coconut sugar on the surface of the balm. But when I swiped it on, they didn't feel gritty or scratchy; instead, the tiny granules dissolved on contact while gentle AHAs did the real resurfacing. The result? Born-again, moisturized lips thanks to the intensely hydrating coconut and watermelon seed oils. Not only did my lips feel smoother, but the dry patches also looked visibly better after a week. I even found myself skipping my usual hard-core lip scrubs; turns out, an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.

But I haven't even gotten to the best part: The other half of Lip Pop's magic is the fact that the formula reacts to the pH of your lips to leave a subtle pink stain on your lips; a few swipes gives you a just-bitten effect, but you can layer it on for a more saturated hue. I prefer using Lip Pop as a primer for lipstick, which I can now wear in the winter since scaly patches and dryness are a thing of the past. While I wasn't a huge fan of the scent and taste myself — I don't personally like watermelon-flavoured anything — I'd make an exception for this, which tastes a lot like a Jolly Rancher.

At $29, it's pricey for a tiny tube of lip balm, but if you're serious about taking care of your lips (or stan Glow Recipe), then I say it's worth the trip or click over to Sephora.