Is $33 Dior Addict Lip Glow Lip Balm Really Worth The Hype?

People who love Dior Addict Lip Glow really, really love Dior Addict Lip Glow. It sells for $33 on the Amazon website, where it has a slightly over four-star rating after 2691 reviews. That’s a pretty resounding declaration of love, but seriously, it’s a lip balm. Can a lip balm really be worth $33? This week Controversial Cult Faves investigates …

(Related: See more of our Controversial Cult Fave reviews.)

What It Claims

Dior Addict Lip Glow is, “A sheer balm that enhances your natural lip color while moisturizing and protecting the skin.” It comes in two colors: pink and coral, and theoretically, it is supposed to interact with your body chemistry to transform into the perfect color for your skin. According to the Sephora sales pitch, this will:

“Awaken and enhance the natural beauty of your lips with this unique balm. Formulated with color reviver technology, this silky lipstick reacts with the chemistry of your lips to create a special shade that will last all day. The addition of SPF 10 will keep you protected, while hydrating mango butter and loofah extract nourish for beautiful, luscious lips.”

I’m interested to try this product out, because I have really, really dry lips. The skin tends to peel off in hard little flakes, and no amount of exfoliating seems to help. I’ve tried a lot of lip balms, but they are short-lived and don’t seem to do too much to help. I like that this has SPF in it because I can never remember to keep sunscreen on my lips.

What It Looks Like

I am not personally in love with Dior’s packaging here. The hard plastic case is a pretty pink color that looks like rose quartz and says “DIOR” down the side, and it will photograph well on Instagram, but I’m not generally a huge fan of this type of clear plastic lipstick case. (I like my tubes retro and glamorous, like with the Tom Ford lipstick.)

Also, the little ball at the end is bugging the heck out of me. I like to stack my lipsticks on their ends in a drawer with the color stickers up so I can see which color I’m grabbing, but I can’t do that with this one because it’s on a little rolly silver knob thing.

Unfortunately, I caught the tip of the product on the inside of the tube when I was opening it, so there will be no sexy “virgin product” shot this time. Oh well.

There are a few darker spots on my lips, and I would guess that those places are where the skin is thinner (from being bitten off). Texturewise, this balm is not nearly as slick as I was expecting. It’s actually pretty hard for a lip balm, but it feels very good. It doesn’t slide around on my lips, and if feels like it would stay put for a while without wearing off.

I think I might actually love this. The color might not be particularly noticeable to anyone else, but I like the very slight oomph it gives. I don’t always wear makeup, and this feels like it would fit really well into my zero-effort beauty regimen. It feels like something I could keep in my handbag and slap on without having to use a mirror or worry about fading or how it’s wearing.

It’s really winning me over on the mouthfeel, though. It’s not sticky at all, and it feels very deeply moisturizing and conditioning. I sit here with my lips feeling soft and supple and wonder if this is what it feels like for people with normal skin on their lips. For the first time in months, I do not feel an irresistible compulsion to bite the dry flakes of lip skin off my mouth, which is gross and only makes the problem worse.

It also seems surprisingly long-lasting. After applying this, I went off and ate breakfast and had a big cup of coffee, and while it lost a little bit of its shine, it is still definitely on my lips. The pigment did not wear off, and my lips still feel nice and conditioned. By my calculation, it lasted a solid three hours, including eating, before I started to be able to feel the flakes coming back.

But because this product advertises itself as reacting to the wearer’s unique body chemistry to create the perfect color, I felt I could not adequately assess its performance with a sample of one. Luckily, I was able to convince another person to try it on for me.

Verdict

I think this product is great, but $33 is a lot of money for a touch-of-color lip balm. Blistex makes a touch-of-color balm that’s not quite as good but costs $3 and would occupy a similar place in your beauty routine.

I think a product like this comes down to lifestyle. If you don’t often wear makeup and are looking for something very low maintenance that will still make you feel like you look “finished,” I would recommend this. That’s how I roll, and I can see myself using this every day.

Also, if you have really dry, flaky lips and would not mind paying $33 for something that makes them feel a little better, this is also great.

But if you regularly wear lipstick or brush your hair in the morning, a zero-effort product like this is probably not going to be a game-changer for you, and it might be better to save the money for something that will make a bigger impact.

For all our Controversial Cult Fave reviews, click here! Got an idea of a famous product we should try? Tell us in the comments!