I bought Nivea Natural Volume from Sainsbury's. I was looking for a lip balm rather than a lip gloss, but as this is sold under the banner 'lip care', I felt it would be suitable. I much prefer lip balms available in a stick or tube because I feel it makes application, and the product left remaining after each use, far more hygienic than using a balm contained in a pot.

Nivea Natural Volume is currently selling for £4.07 from Boots, which is pricier than a lot of lip balms, but cheaper than high-end cosmetic lip glosses. Each tube contains 8ml of gloss, and is presented in a sealed shrink-wrap bubble, mounted on a piece of cardboard. The packaging is perhaps excessive in the strict sense of the word, but the cardboard allows product-information communication, and the plastic bubble means that it is tamper-proof, which is reassuring, considering some people's attitudes as to what constitutes a 'tester'.

The squeezable tube, with a screw-on lid, and angled application surface with a small hole for the product to feed through, makes it easy to apply the lip gloss. The gloss has a slightly sparkly orangey-coral shade to it, but it looks natural on the lips; it is not glittery. There is no tingling, like some volumising lip glosses can cause. This gloss won't make your lips swell, but the shine given to the lips boosts their appearance. Your lips are not left too sticky.

It would not be a useful product in terms of treating very chapped lips, but as an everyday maintenance balm, it is effective, and very flattering in appearance; more so than many cosmetic brand lip glosses.

The gloss has a slight fragrance to it, which is rather sweet, with a slight 'wet dog' edge to it. This is the only downside to the product. It makes it seem as though the product might be off, but I have had two tubes exhibiting this quality when they're brand new. It may be my nose interpreting its natural scent in an odd way.

I would certainly recommend trying this lip gloss.