The $10 Lipstick That Works Magic On My Chapped Lips

Some days, when I'm feeling particularly saucy, I wake up 10 minutes earlier than usual to do a full face of makeup and swipe on a vibrant, bold lipstick. But those days are rare — and not just because of my tendency to sleep in.

The problem with bright liquid lipsticks, I've discovered, is that any hint of flakiness shows immediately — and blame it on my lack of water intake, but my lips are chronically chapped. Two hours without Chapstick and my perfect statement lip dries out and turns into a weird, prune-like pucker.

This is how I entered the market for a nude lipstick that actually moisturizes my poor, parched lips — a shade that masks imperfections while still making me look and feel put-together. A "my lips but better" color, as the makeup reviewers of the Internet say. Well, I'm here to say that I've found my MLBB, and the name honestly says it all: the Sexy Mother Pucker.

Soap & Glory's cult lipstick might smell strongly like dessert, but it's one of the few formulas I've found that leaves my lips feeling creamy, smooth, and perfectly, evenly flushed. The warm mauve-brown hue, called Cinnamon Beige, eschews any hint of girly pink while giving my face some warmth — even when it's rainy and cold outside and I haven't put on any makeup. In short, it makes me feel sexy and mature, without having to try too hard.

The best part? I can swipe the Sexy Mother Pucker on my chapped lips and not look like a crazy person. Somehow, magically, the formula fills in any lines and blurs out my dried specks of skin, leaving smooth, supple-looking lips.

Sure, I could always benefit from a lip scrub or eight solid glasses of water a day. But as a normal human being who can't always take the best care of herself, this little golden tube has become my daily go-to when I don't want to deal with the hassle of reds and purples, as much as I love them. I'll scrub off my red lip mid-day, reapply this before dinner, and head out of work looking as fresh as I did in the a.m. Bonus? It even photographs well — and this was before the undereye editing I requested to hide the evidence of too many late nights.

Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Lipstick in Cinnamon Beige, $9.99, available at Target.