Vincent Longo Baby Balm Lipstick

My Vincent Longo collection seems to grow every single time that I do some more cleaning, I cannot believe how many products I bought from this line and then put away and forgot about.  Baby Balm Lipstick was one of the later releases in the Vincent Longo line and started to become popular just as I was moving away from this product line.  This is a hybrid product that is half way between a lipstick and a lip balm, creating a sheer wash of hydrating color that sticks on the lips like a traditional cream lipstick.  This is a very typical sheer lipstick formula, there is nothing in this formula that will change your life but it performs very well among the other brands on the market.

"An ideal lipstick and unique, gloss meets protective balm formula.  Moisturizers combine with pigments to provide a sheer veil of color rendering the lips naturally sexy.  It's extremely comfortable, emollient texture restores, heals, and prevents the lips from aging.  Vitamins C and E paired with soothing Apricot Nut Oils protect and repair lips from free radical damage.  High shine polymers provide a long-lasting delicately glossy finish and a sheer veil of color.  A balanced mix of waxes and lightweight oils create a thin protective lip barrier for a very comfortable feel." 

This lipstick is creates a great finish and feel on the lips, however it is not all the different than any other sheer lipstick.  I own this lipstick in Sheer Contessa, a sheer medium berry shade.  Vincent Longo suggests the following as an application technique: "Sheer color lipsticks last longer when applied over defined lips.  Use our Lip Pencil in a coordinating shade to shape and contour your mouth.  Beginning in the center of your lips, use VL Brush #35 or #36 to paint a thin layer of color.  Completely paint lips up to and including the lip line.  Blot and paint a second layer of color."  I tend to use this product in a slightly lower maintence way, I use it on clean, bare lips for a very sheer flush of berry tint.  I agree that the lipstick would last longer with the matching lip pencil but this type of application would give a much more pigmented look than I want from a sheer lipstick.  If I am going to use it as Longo suggests, I might as well use a traditional satin or cream formula.

I get about two to three hours of wear from this product, I do need to reapply almost every single time that I eat or drink something.  The formula is very hydrating and I love the soft, cushy feel of it on the lips.  This product can truely be called a lip balm with a small hint of color, a hydrating lip gloss will give you many of the same effects as this product.

The shades that are offered in this sheer lipstick formula are...

- Honey Cafe - sheer neutral nude
- Positano - sheer warm medium nude
- Sorrento - sheer warm medium orange
- Sheer Contessa - sheer cool medium berry
- Amorosa - sheer cool medium pink
- Fawn Nestle - sheer pink nude
- Fresh Carnal - sheer flesh tone
- Le Cameron - sheer light blue pink
- Love Berry - sheer medium blue pink
- Soft Saturn - sheer warm peach
- Tawny Mauve - sheer warm mauve

I like the finish from this lipstick however it is not a very unique formula, almost any sheer lipstick formula would perform similar to or exactly the same as this product.  There aren't really any unique aspects of this product, I like the sheer color that it produces and the hydrating benefits that it provides but most sheer lipsticks provide similar benefits.  Amorosa and Love Berry are pretty sheer pink hues but they aren't very different from the pinks that I have already bought from Clinique's Almost Lipstick line.  Since Vincent Longo products are getting harder to find, I don't know that I would expand all the effort to find this product when I could use the Clinique Almost Lipstick or the NARS Sheer Lipstick formula.

photo courtesy of Vincent Longo