A balm that's not a bomb. Really!

As I said to a good friend of mine the other day: Get thee to a drugstore PRONTO and go straight to the Revlon display and check out the following product:

Revlon Beyond Natural Protective Liptint (SPF 15)

Now, I know most of you, if you're like me, despise when a lip product is in a container that does not allow for you to see the actual color. Even worse is the absence of testers, and even worse than that is if there was nobody at that display before you who just couldn't take it and tore the safety seal off the tube to see what's inside. If you're faced with the road-block of no testers or tampered product, don't fret, ladies. I can tell you right now that you must try the shade "Berry" before all others. Even if the sticker on the end of the tube looks "meh" to you, trust me.

I purchased "Berry" after reading some online reviews of this product, but of course I was still greatly skeptical. Because, let's face it, online reviewers generally don't share your coloring, their lips are more/less pigmented than yours, etc. etc. Now, what I'm about to tell you might see ridiculous, but please pay attention.

When I got to my car (is there ANOTHER location to try on new lipsticks for the first time?) I had what some may call a religious experience. It was as if angels came down, through my sunroof, and poured pure sunshine onto my lips. This, my friends, is Revlon Beyond Natural Liptint.

When I put this product to my lips, it had the ability to glide like satin on the very first swipe. And as if that weren't good enough, it simultaneously deposited gorgeous, rich, but not too rich, color evenly across my upper lip, and then did the exact same thing on my lower lip. After rubbing my lips together, I couldn't help but close my eyes and quietly utter "yes."

The shade "Berry" was just as good, if not identical, to a color you would find at the Bobbi Brown counter. Yeah, I said it, Bobbi Brown. THE color guru. It's not too brown, it's not too orange, it's not too pink, and there's NO drugstore-magenta in this baby. It's a deep, gorgeous pinky brown neutral that would go perfectly with a brown/beige/taupe eye. I was only wearing powder, mascara and blush the day I put it on and it literally lit up my whole face. And even though this product looks like a lip balm, it's not as sheer as a balm, but not quite as opaque as a lipstick. It's somewhere in between the two, which, in my book, is a land called "Perfect."

The color, combined with the texture, the moisturizing properties, and the staying power make this a 4 star product for The Recessionista. Really, this is the product that Neutrogena WISHES it had.

Oh, and I got mine for $4.99 on sale at Rite-Aid, but I can easily justify the $8 price tag for a product that rivals the much-coveted Vincent Longo Lip Stain (SPF 15) which costs $23.