Tarte: Maracuja Lip Exfoliant

Dry, chapped, flaky...words I never want someone to utter when referring to my lips.

I could never get myself to spend money on a lip scrub so I always went the DIY route: olive oil, honey, and sugar as well as the occasional tooth brush on the lips. The homemade scrub worked but it was pretty messy and I was always too lazy to make a new batch every couple months (sad, I know). The toothbrush method worked as well but it didn't always exfoliate my lips as much as I wanted it to.

So I was always back and forth: should I get the Lush lip scrub, or maybe the Fresh one, or maybe the Sara Happ one, or maybe my favorite from back in the day; The Body Shop Lip Scuff... ahh, it was just annoying really that I couldn't get myself to spend the money on any of them! Of course, put anything that has a panda on it in front of me and I'll justify the purchase. Ridiculous.

Anyways, a few months back, Ulta had their 20% off anything in the store coupon so of course I had to decided to pick up some new products to try. One of those items: Tarte's Maracuja Lip Exfoliant for $16! What? How? I don't know what I was thinking, well I wasn't thinking...I swear, that rare 20% off makes you feel like you have gold or something!

Not gonna lie, I mainly bought it because I thought the packaging was super cute and I like almost everything I have tried from Tarte, and again that damn 20% off...it made me do it.

So the verdict?





Eh. It's nice but not a must have for me.

Packaging: Love it. Compact tin, the lid stays on, travel friendly.

Scent: It has a nice mint smell. It's not too artificial or annoying.

Texture: Soft, gel-like balm with sugar granules.

Price: $16. On the expensive side in the lip scrub world.

This lip scrub was much nicer to use compared to my DIY scrub. It wasn't messy at all, the consistency of the scrub made it really easy to scrub over the lips without going all over the place. I also really liked the clean mint scent and the maracuja oil in the scrub did leave my lips soft after use.

The reason why this just wasn't for me was the fact that it was a bit too soft in texture to really exfoliate my lips. I did a decent job on the surface but it wasn't abrasive enough to really take off all the flaking skin. I found myself pressing the product harder onto my lips and in turn aggravating my lip line and causing some minor break outs. (The product didn't break me out but the constant rubbing I was doing with my finger I think is what aggravated my skin in that area).

Bottom Line: I would say that this is a nice product to have if you don't have really dry lips. However, if you don't have really dry lips, the $16 price tag isn't really worth it.