Review - Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Polish in Dolly

Note - I received this product as part of a Sephora Beauty Insiders Points Perk a while back, along with two other Buxom products, which I will be reviewing separately. All three products are available for purchase in full size separately. 

When I have the opportunity to try out a gloss that is at a bit more of a drugstore price point for free, I jump at it. I'm not too much of a gloss person, so if I'm going to spend my money on it, it better either a shade I can't find anywhere else or have a flawless texture. *End rant*

Dolly is the original shade in this range and described as a "shimmering muted plum" which basically hits the nail on the head. Its plum, but neither encroaching on berry or red territory an had a very fine sparkle to it - not overly glittery at all. It was quite neutral toned and wearable; an office friendly shade.

The Big & Healthy Lip Polish range is for plumping. While I've yet to come across a gloss that actually makes a discernible difference in the size of my lips, it still does have the tingle to it that most products of the like do. It wasn't incredibly uncomfortable, however.

The texture was pleasant, neither too sticky or heavy, but it wasn't super thin either. It felt nice and didn't gather at my lip lines, as I have a problem with glosses doing that on my lips for some reason. It also packed a decent amount of pigment.

The fragrance of this is...odd. It actually had nearly the same fragrance/taste that the Lorac Lips With Benefits gloss did, which made the whole thing seem even weirder. For lack of a better description, this gloss kind of smelled like waffles...Erm...weird. It did linger as well, and it wasn't the worst fragrance I've encountered but all I could smell for the duration of wear was, well, waffles.

The wear time was what really got me about this product. With glosses that have such a good strength of pigment like this, I usually get far better wear time. With this one, not so much. At about an hour and a half in it was basically gone. This also dried out my lips something fierce! As with many lip plumpers, this one caused my lips to peel during the wear, and in addition, I feel like this just drew any kind of moisture out of my lips as a whole. Not cute.

Overall;

Pros:

- Great pigmentation

- Very versatile shade

- Good consistency

Cons:

- Strong fragrance - Smells like waffles! 

- Short wear time

- Drying

I don't hate it, but I'm not in love with it either. Maybe someone who has better luck with plumping formulas (i.e. if they don't make the top layer of the skin on your lips peel off!), then it may be okay, but for the short wear time alone I couldn't constitute spending almost $20 on it. Being that it is such a classic shade, its also probably quite dupeable (I just don't own enough glosses to even try to find one!). Maybe if you're obsessed with waffles and want a gloss that smells like them? But, erm, its a nope for me.

5/10