What is LipSense?
I demo and sell LipSense in person every weekend, and most people have heard of it because they either have a friend who is an independent distributor, a friend who uses it and raves about it, or they have been invited to participate in a LipSense party either at someone's house or most likely have been invited to a LipSense party on Facebook. But the resounding question I get more than any other is: WHAT is it?
LipSense is a revolutionary cosmetic product patented by SeneGence International. There is lipstick, and there is lip stain, but LipSense is neither. It is a lip color. Traditional lipstick is made primarily of mineral oil, petroleatum and wax. It does not absorb into your lips. It sits on the top of your lips like a pair of wax lips you would wear for Halloween and doesn't really do anything to attach to your lips or to moisturize them, which is why it wipes off so easily and why a lot of daily lipstick wearers find themselves with chapped lips or dry lips on a regular basis. Lip stain absorbs into the second layer of your lips' skin and dries them out similar to putting wood stain on an unfinished piece of wood. They can also draw attention to wrinkles and lines.
LipSense does neither. The three primary ingredients in LipSense are cosmetic grade alcohol, plant and fruit extracts and pigment. LipSense is gluten-free, vegan, kosher, non-GMO, contains no lead and no animal by-products. It is also not tested on animals. Due to the fact that the primary ingredient is alcohol, the application of LipSense allows it to dry extremely quickly and not budge once it is applied as opposed to regular lipstick which will smear, smudge and feather. When you apply the first layer of LipSense with the applicator, the color bonds to the top layer of skin on your lip at a molecular level which is why you can't just wipe it off with a tissue once it's on. Each coat will dry within three to five seconds. Repeat the layers two more times, and you have a perfect lip color that will last you between four and twenty-four hours depending on how you treat it, how you take care of it and what you eat during the day. 
It is a two-step process due to the fact that the lip color itself doesn't have any moisturizer in it to keep your lips soft and supple, which is where the lip gloss comes in. LipSense is manufactured without the lip gloss in it in order to allow the color to dry down quickly and to set without moving or budging so that you have a lip color that stays on all day. The lip gloss formulated by SeneGence International is specially manufactured and developed to work with LipSense and not against it. You can wear the lip gloss alone without the color, but you can't wear the color without the gloss. Regular lip glosses won't work with it because the majority of them contain oil or petroleatum which will work against LipSense and break it down. The two primary ingredients in the lip gloss that goes with LipSense are Vitamin E and shea butter but it is designed not to mix with the lip color or pick it up off your lips, so the color and gloss stay on your lips and don't come off onto your glass. It's not unusual for the applicator to pick up some of the color onto the tip during the lip gloss application with the more heavily pigmented colors like Fly Girl, Mulled Wine and Purple Reign, but the color won't mix into the gloss itself and you will be able to use the same tube of gloss over and over and over again with colors as pale as Cappuccino and as dark as Blackberry. It is completely vegan, gluten-free, cruelty-free, lead-free, and oil-free. The shea butter in the lip gloss is what moisturizes your lips and keeps them healthy. All of the LipSense products are made in the United States as SeneGence International has factories in California and the United States. SeneGence is also present in Canada and Australia, but all of the products distributed in the United States are made domestically and subject to FDA guidelines and regulations. 
Now, if you are reading this article for the first time and have never heard of or applied LipSense before, you’re probably thinking (as I did!) that this is the biggest bunch of crap you’ve ever heard. In fact, there are a lot of people that don't like LipSense at all for various reasons because it's so different from anything out there on the market. Last November was the first time that I finally gave it a try and bought one after being told by my best friend that I would love it. I heard from several other people that it was the answer to my biggest gripe with lipstick which was getting it all over my coffee cups, wine glasses and teeth. I finally bought my first tube and a Glossy and I purposely selected Plum because I remember distinctly thinking that there was no way the stuff was going to work and at least I had a color that I really liked. Even after I bought it, I still didn’t wear it for a couple of weeks! I wasn't shown how to use it from the distributor I bought it from, so I continued to use all of my old lipsticks until I had time to watch videos on YouTube about how to put it on. The first day I decided to try it, I put it on in accordance with what I had learned, made my cup of coffee and went to work.
The first thing I noticed after a couple of hours of being at work is that I didn't even feel it being there like I do lipstick (I could always feel when my lipstick was starting to wear off) and noticed that I didn't have any marks on my coffee cup other than a shiny lip print from my lip gloss. That day I had brought a meatloaf Lean Cuisine to work. Not highly oily, but not fat-free either. I also had a Diet Coke and a glass of water. By this time, I admit, I had forgotten about the LipSense and assumed that it just came off. It just doesn't feel like you're wearing anything after the gloss is absorbed by your lips. I pulled out my mirror and LipSense and fully expected to see bare lips.
As you can expect, I didn't see bare lips because here we are a year later and I'm writing to you all about my first day wearing LipSense. My mouth dropped open because I couldn't believe that the color was still there. All I had to do was reapply my lip gloss and I was ready to go again for the rest of the day. I only had the one color, and since I had quite a collection of regular lipsticks, I did switch back and forth, but it just wasn't the same. I kept thinking about how well my LipSense stayed on and how great it felt. I broke down and ordered a red. I think the turning point was when I selected four colors that I had to have! I decided to become a distributor after that. During the day, I'm an insurance adjuster and I inspect houses in the heat. This is the one product that I can wear year-round and know that no matter how much I sweat, it will stay on all day without having to reapply after every appointment. I can wear it swimming. The lip gloss protects my lips from the sun and the wind. I can eat with it on and only have to do a minor touch-up with a reapplication of the lip gloss. It's rare that I ever have to remove all the layers and start over again, but usually a sandwich with oil, vinegar and mayonnaise will do it every time!
There are so many things that I love about LipSense but one of the big things is that it is primarily cosmetic grade alcohol. It will not sustain any bacterial growth or mold growth. Have you ever noticed that your oil and wax-based lipsticks go rancid and start to smell and taste bad after a period of time? That won't happen with LipSense for a very long time, if ever. The expiration date on LipSense is seven years unopened, two years opened. And I know a number of distributors who have some older retired colors that are just fine. The FDA requires that all cosmetics have a shelf life attached to them and ours is two years even though I think it’ll last a lot longer than that. On average, a tube of LipSense will last four times longer than a tube of regular lipstick. If you use the same color every single day, you should expect to get about six months out of it. I just finished my first tube of Icicle which I use as a primer every day under my color and it lasted for about seven months.
To properly apply LipSense:
1) Start with clean dry lips. If you have just eaten, wash your lips off and dry them. If you wore lipstick the day before, wipe your lips off with makeup remover. Even if you just put Chapstick on that morning and you are putting LipSense on to go out that night, you need to take that off. Any kind of oil that is on your lips will prevent LipSense from adhering to your lips and the color will streak and not go on evenly. Makeup remover or soap and water will do the trick. Use a tissue, washcloth or paper towel to dry your waterline.
2) LipSense is a liquid and it has a small mixing ball inside the tube to properly mix the color since it is not a solid. Shake the tube very well and start at one corner on your bottom lip and apply a thin coat of color from corner to corner going in one direction. With your top lip, I recommend starting at the top of the bow of your lip and going down to the corner in one direction and then repeating in the other direction. Each coat will take about three to five seconds to dry, so to remind myself to allow enough time, I usually cap the tube and shake it again before applying the next coat. The first coat will apply fairly thin since that is the first coat that adheres to your lip. The second coat will go on more opaque and intensify the color. The third coat is necessary as it is what will help the color stay on for the length of time that is part of what makes LipSense so unique. It will take a little practice if you have worn lipstick or lipgloss for a long period of time, but it is important to apply LipSense in one direction for an even and uniform application with no streaking. Remember, your LipSense has no moisture in it so don't rub or press your lips together.
3) Before applying your lip gloss, your color should be dry to the touch. There are no rules to applying your lip gloss as you can go back and forth with your applicator and rub your lips together. It is very common to see a little bit of pickup on your applicator tip from the color that you just applied, especially if it is one of the more heavily pigmented colors like Fly Girl or Purple Reign. The color won't spread into the gloss in your bottle, but if that bothers you, you might take a little alcohol wipe and wipe off your applicator. It won't affect the functionality of the gloss.
Please note when wearing your LipSense and gloss that eating anything oily or drinking anything oily will possibly have an adverse effect on the LipSense and cause it to come off, especially in your waterline. I usually don’t have problems with coffee but I have heard some people have noticed that their LipSense will come off at their waterline if they use a lot of half-and-half since half-and-half has a lot of fat in it from the cream. One helpful trick to help your color stay on longer is to apply gloss before you eat as it will seal your color and protect it from coming off. If you don’t want to do this, just apply another coat of your color after you eat and concentrate on the areas that have come off, likely your waterline or corners. Even with the greasiest food, you should not have to reapply all three coats again.
Also, the lip gloss is not the same as the lip color. It will not stay on for 14 hours although it does last a lot longer than most lip glosses. I usually find myself applying mine after I eat, again one more time at the end of the day if I’m going to be going somewhere at night, but compared to the hourly application I had going on with my lip glosses pre-LipSense, it's not anywhere near the same rate of application. You can also wear it alone without the color which is a plus.
Now it’s the end of the day, you are tired, and you’re ready to take off your LipSense. Start with oil. You can use your Ooops! or coconut oil or baby oil. Put a very thin layer on your lips, rub them together, let them sit for a minute and then wipe them off. That will start breaking down the lip color. You will feel the lip color start to particulate...it almost feels like dead skin flaking off. That is not what is happening. What is happening is that the color is starting to break down and form little tiny particles that will wipe off onto a tissue. You can either repeat the steps with the oil or you can use make up remover to wipe off the remaining color. I do not recommend that you use alcohol wipes to take off your color as that is very harsh on your lip skin. New users to LipSense have mentioned that they have felt a tingling when they first put on their color, noticed exfoliation of the dead skin on the lips after using lip sense, and a little bit of a raw feeling after taking off their LipSense. All of this is completely normal. If you were a long time Chapstick or lipstick user, oil and wax in those products has combined with the skin on your lips to form a thin layer which will start turning into dead skin as soon as you start using LipSense. The alcohol will start breaking through that layer and
exfoliating your lips. You can hasten this process by using a store-bought lip scrub, making your own by combining honey, brown sugar, and a little coconut oil, or you can use a facial exfoliator as long as you make sure that you are being gentle and not rubbing too hard. The raw feeling can come just from the exfoliation process, so if you are noticing this in the first seven to ten days after you start using LipSense, use a mild lip balm (we make a Moisturizing Lip Balm that is fantastic!) or even just a little layer of coconut oil to moisturize your lips and help them heal while you are sleeping.
In summary, LipSense is a simply delightful product. It is one that I am so glad is available and that I am so proud to represent. It has solved so many problems for ladies that love to wear lipstick but are tired of the constant battle of wiping it off their cups and glasses, having people point out that it is on their teeth, and reapplying over and over again. This won't come off on your loved ones when you kiss them hello or goodbye. It won't rub off on your sheets or your clothes. If you haven't tried this, you're missing out on a wonderful product that could bring you a lot of joy as only makeup can do to us diehard makeup junkies!
Feel like giving LipSense a test drive? Please come and visit me at any one of my local events or contact me to set up a private visit to pick out your perfect first color! If you aren't local to me, contact me and let me help you pick your color out! SeneGence International and I give a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee so if you are not pleased with the product in any way shape or form, simply contact me to return the product for an exchange or a refund.
What are you waiting for? It's time to break up with your lipstick! Aren't you tired of THIS? (pointing down)
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