If this is intensive I'd hate to try out a mild one! (Blistex Intensive Moisturiser Hydrate)

Member Name: missixty

Product:	Blistex Intensive Moisturiser Hydrate
Date:	14/02/08 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's quite cheap and easily available in most stores

Disadvantages: It doesn't do what it's supposed to

The thing I long for, and am still on a quest for, are soft lush lips. Unfortunately the reality is, with the long harsh winters here my lips are constantly dry. They are not so extreme to be flaky but they are always dry, chapped and feel rough to the touch - not what a girl wants and not what a guy wants to kiss!

I tend to buy a lot of lip balms and the like, mostly because I either lose them, or because (and this is usually the case) my daughter claims them as her own 'make up' and I never see them again. When my lips were particularly bad I decided I needed something a little more than just your regular chap stick. Browsing the shelves I spotted this product. I had heard of Blistex and thought they were supposed to be quite good, and I chose this because of the "Intensive Moisturiser" title as it sounded just what my lips needed.

Now, nearly every review on the net I have read of this product has given it full marks and has raved about it. On top of this Glamour magazine have rated this fourth best in their top ten lip balms, higher than Lush, Philosophy,Estee Lauder, Laura Mercier, Kiehls and MAC! Lush comes in at around twice the price of this product, whilst Philosphy, Kiehls, Laura Mercier and MAC are around four times the price, and Estee Lauder is well over ten times the price at a whopping £30! So it is safe to say if we rely on this information that this is quite a bargain.

This is the point when I start to doubt myself. Why don't I love this product? It must be me because everyone else has had great results. I find it hard to believe that it is better than all those products as I wasn't wowed by it, all it has done is saved me shelling out on any of them, as if they are not as good as this then they are definitely not worth their price tags.

I'm just not sure why I haven't had as great an experience as other people, like I mentioned my lips were in need of intensive moisture but they weren't horrendously bad and flaky so it's not like they were too bad for anything to help.

The product itself is a cream consistency and is easy to apply via the slanted tip of the tube, which you use to massage this into your lips. I tend to apply it and then rub my lips together to further massage it in. Upon application it tingles, much like the lip plumping glosses, although it doesn't give that effect to your lips. It doesn't leave a gloss or anything behind, which makes it useful for both sexes. My boyfriend quite happily borrowed some when his lips were getting a bit dry.

The product smells slightly medical and there is a definite menthol smell. The taste is vile. I definitely don't recommend getting any of this in your mouth (a risk, seeing as it is on your lips after all!) as it tastes chemical and really indescribably bad. The benefit of this is of course you're not going to keep licking it off like you might with a nice tasting one.

The thing that makes me not love this product, to be honest, is that it hasn't sorted my lips out and that is essentially it's job. My lips remained chapped and rough despite constant useage. Since buying it, although not impressed by the results I have applied it several times a day for over a month now. My lips haven't improved at all. It's no better than using any other lip balm or Vaseline or even just a regular moisturiser. I'm not even sure it's any better than not using anything at all!

On the plus side of things at £2.25 I've had a lot of use age out of it, like I said applying several times a day and I still have a little bit left around a month later.

Blistex say that this contains five moisturise to penetrate the lips, seal moisture in and keep them soft and smooth. As I have said, on my lips at least, it hasn't made them soft and smooth or sealed moisture in. Blistex are very secretive as to what these moisturisers are, and even a thorough search around the web has revealed nothing further. So I can't even tell you what or how this product is supposed to work. I managed to find a list of ingredients which include Paraffinum, Petrolatum, Lanolin and Glycerine which may be some of the moisturisers it says it includes. Lanolin is usually quite good, and I presume Petrolatum is similar to petroleum (but I could be wrong) and I can't personally see glycerine being of much use (I use it to make mixing medium for eye shadow, it's not very lip balmy!). As well as this it contains a whole load of different Alcohol products and Acid products which to me make me think they would be very drying.

One plus side people are talking of is that the product contains SPF 6, but a SPF of 6 is almost as useless as wearing none at all and doesn't give a great deal of protection to the lips.

The product comes in a cardboard package that makes it seem like you are getting a bigger product than you are. I was quite surprised how tiny the tube was when I got it out. That said, no need to complain as like I said it does last well.

At £2.25 for a tube, this stuff is not going to break the bank and it does have a lot of positive reviews but it is something I personally won't be buying again, so on I go with my quest to find the perfect lip balm. I currently have a new one winging it's way to me in the post as we speak, which I'm very excited about trying out. Review to come, of course!

Summary: Cheap enough but just doesn't do the job