November 2007
Do lip plumpers have pucker power?
30 PERCENT PLUMPER? No. Although Clinique fattened lips a bit more than some others, the change was barely visible.
The claim. Some products say they deliver "an at-home answer to lip-enhancing injections"; make lips "look up to 30 percent plumper";
or produce "wickedly plump lips" or "perfectly plumped lips" or ... Well, you get the idea: At least a small part of the user's
anatomy will look like Angelina Jolie's. (Bet you never thought you'd see her name in Consumer Reports.) It's not always clear what ingredients in the best lip plumpers are supposed to cause plumping. A couple of the products
cite spheres of collagen.
The check. Twelve female staff members tried six products: Anew Clinical Plump & Smooth Lip System (Avon), Clinique Full Potential Lips
Plump & Shine, DuWop Lip Venom 2nd Sin, LipFusion Lip Plump, Sally Hansen Lip Inflation Extreme, and Wet n Wild MegaPlump
Lip Gloss. The lip plumpers cost $3.60 to $36. The women assessed their lips immediately after application, one hour after,
and four hours after. We also took before-and-after photos that were examined by trained sensory panelists.
CR's take. Kiss these products goodbye. Some of the best lip plumpers occasionally caused lips to bulge very slightly, but any change
lasted less than an hour. A typical comment: "I wonder if the tingling made it seem like something was happening when it wasn't."
