Scientists have managed to develop life-saving antidotes for rattlesnake bites and mercury poisoning, but as far as I know, they’ve still yet to pinpoint a surefire remedy for the dull, grayish cast the human face starts to develop around 3 p.m. on a workday. That seems like one hell of an oversight to me. (Or maybe that's just because I've never been bitten by a rattlesnake — who's to say?)
Of course, there's caffeine, which can help to increase mental alertness, or a quick splash of cold water, which stimulates the body’s sympathetic nervous system and triggers its fight-or-flight reflex. That stuff might make you feel a little better (or, on the down side, give you heart palpitations), but there's no one true antidote for the effect a long day has on your skin.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
But there is the aptly named Dior Addict Lip Glow Color Reviver Balm — and I swear, your lip color isn't the only thing it'll revive. It's a bracing power walk around the block that flushes your cheeks in the brisk weather of early January in a tube, a quick fix for a late-afternoon slump that will make you look and feel more alive than a mediocre cup of office coffee ever could. It has the instant face-brightening effect that you always think a "pop of color" will have, only you put on that fuchsia lipstick and it's still just your same tired face but now there's lipstick on your sandwich.
With a sheer, dewy finish and a balmy, not creamy, texture that actually hydrates just as well as the unsexy heavy-duty balms you reach for when your lips are chapped beyond repair, this is a product that simply makes your lips look good. It comes in five satin shades (including the original, Pink Glow), two shimmers, and one soft, velvety matte — but you won't know what it really looks like until you put it on. Each lightweight tint gradually evolves in color after it's applied, which sounds like those products that claim to customize color based on your unique skin tone, but the Lip Glow makes no such promise: It just promises to enhance, and does it ever.
I'm partial to the new Matte Raspberry shade, which does something for my fair, occasionally sallow-looking complexion that no other lip color has in the past: given me the much sought-after effect of a natural, healthy glow, without looking makeup-y or like, yes, I did put on a bold lip hoping it would distract from how exhausted I actually look. (Which never works, by the way.) Sure, it can't save you from a wild snake attack — but I've always been kind of an indoor kid anyway.
Dior Addict Lip Glow Color Reviver Balm, $34, available at Sephora.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT