I don’t know what led me to this GAWD forsaken article but I wish I HADN’T seen it. Because it’s just the kind of thing I despise the most in this fake world of makeup and glamour. Lipstick. Lip gloss. YUCK…

AFTER years of watching her teenage daughter and niece slather their lips with shiny glosses, Gina Stallcup, a teacher at a junior high school in Windthorst, Tex., has stopped wearing her old waxy lipsticks.

“With lip gloss, you can get color and shine all in one,” said Ms. Stallcup, 41, who wears Avon and Revlon.

Isn’t that special?

During a visit to Manhattan last Sunday, the pair stopped at a Victoria’s Secret on 34th Street, where Ms. Hemmi bought the brand’s new lip gloss, Beauty Rush, which was introduced in February.

“It’s good and glittery,” Ms. Hemmi said of the shade she picked, Piece of Cake, a pearly hue so oleaginous that it could be mistaken for an oil slick. “It’s really glossy.”

An oil slick? On my lips? eeeew. Don’t yah just love the names of the colors? or shades as they call it…HUES. These products are so thick and slick your lips can actually stick together. GROSS.

Beauty Rush is one of a new breed of cosmetic called “ultra” or “high” gloss. Shinier and more lubricious but less gluey than previous products, the new glosses are designed for women who want their mouths to look perpetually wet. With ingredients like mineral and castor oils, these glosses, which resemble liquid vinyl, are poised to become the beauty trend of the summer. Victoria’s Secret Beauty, for example, expects to sell 15 million tubes of Beauty Rush gloss this year, according to Christine Beauchamp, the company’s president and chief executive.

Liquid vinyl?
I don’t know what’s so attractive about this wet look…this goes beyond wet. It’s more like a shiny coat of armor. I feel bad for the men who have to kiss these lips: They are literally stuck with this slime on their mouths (and elsewhere heh) for hours.

Once shunned by women as sticky, messy, short-lived and pungent as air freshener, lip gloss has become one of the fastest-growing cosmetics, according to some beauty executives and industry researchers. Americans spent more than $200 million on high-end lip glosses in 2005, up from less than $50 million in 2000, according to Karen Grant, the senior beauty industry analyst at NPD Group, a market research firm that tracks department store makeup sales. During the same period, prestige lipstick sales declined to $279 million from $312 million, she said.
[...]
“Heavy lipstick is not a modern look,” Ms. Carullo said. “Gloss is like lingerie for the lips.”

Americans waste more money than anyone else. I cannot imagine spending even two bucks on a tube of anything, nevermind the going prices for some of these “prestige” lip covers. Lingerie for the lips? Is this woman in love with this stuff or what??

The advent of super sheens like Juicy Gelée is creating a competition among cosmetics companies to see which brand can concoct the glossiest of them all.

“We tried to do the glossiest, wettest finish,” Ms. Carullo said, referring to Estée Lauder’s new line, called High Gloss.

To ensure utmost luster, researchers tested each shade in a “gloss meter,” Ms. Carullo said. This is a hand-held machine that bombards lip gloss samples with light rays and calculates how much light bounces back.

Oh how fucking pathetic does it get??? No wonder this shit costs so much. Uuugh. A handheld device that guarantees…shine??? Go away those who fall for this bogus bullshit.

In the 1990’s, as Americans embraced more casual clothing and grooming habits, lip gloss gained a wider following, Ms. King said. And as women become more active in trying to stave off the aging process, they are buying shinier glosses because wetter, dewier lips suggest younger lips, she added.

More casual clothing and grooming? Today’s women? Not so. They wear more crap on their faces than women of any previous generation, all while trying to look natural. They still look made up and it’s obvious we have a ways to go when it comes to the level of confidence…And wetter dewier lips are not the look of the young…they get this look by wearing- you guessed- lip gloss!

Ms. Papaleo of Lancôme said that at a time when some women choose to pad their pouts with injections of collagen or Restylane or with topical plumpers, the new extreme glosses offer an inexpensive and noninvasive way to call attention to the mouth.

For others, high-shine glosses also provide a kind of tactile entertainment.

Danielle Teplitsky, newly graduated from high school in Port Washington, N.Y., is the owner of about 150 glosses, she said. Last Sunday, she stopped at Macy’s in Herald Square to slick on the new Pink Lollipop gloss from Lancôme.

“It needs to be shiny and it needs to taste good,” said Ms. Teplitsky, 17, who likes to reapply gloss about every 20 minutes. “But most of all it needs to make my lips look pouty so my boyfriend will look at me.”

Exactly. Women of all ages use this fake face paint, all sticky and slick, thinking it draws attention from their boyfriends/husbands. Men will look irregardless of what makeup you wear. Trust me on that. I can’t speak for them, but I bet a good many men prefer the real thing- the honest look vs. the made up, I can’t leave the house without my makeup LOOK.

As for lip gloss- spare me the spit and shined look anyday. I prefer a tube of lipbalm that doesn’t promise me the world and everything else except some sun protection. And it costs less than $2.00!! Keep it simple.