I will never have Angelina Jolie lips. I have made peace with that.
Written: May 22 '05 (Updated May 22 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The color is nice
Cons: Expensive, doesn't live up to its claims, weird smell and consistency, all hype
The Bottom Line: Hype!! This product claims to plump lips. It doesn't. It's an expensive tube of Witch Hazel and lip gloss packaged as a miracle lip plumper.
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| PattyTherre's Full Review: Sovage Lip Plumper SV-003 |
Sometimes I question my sanity. My lips are full enough and have always looked just fine. But with the new craze of people plumping their lips with collagen, Angelina Jolie touting her pout everywhere, and the aging process setting in (My lips look fine, it’s my brain that is getting thin, I think), I just had to try Sovage Lip Plumper SV-003 .
Of course I knew going in that it wouldn’t live completely up to its hype but I figured some plumping of my lips and a more youthful smile was worth the $55.00 I spent. I got mine on eBay a while ago when it was all the rage. Prices have fallen from $125.00 or more to $40 or less in a few years. That tells you something right there. If it worked as well as it said, there would be no need to keep dropping the price to get people to buy the product.
However, I didn’t know then when I know now so let’s look at what Sovage is and does.
The Official Word
This is from one of the many websites that sell Sovage Lip Plumper:
How Does Sövage Lip Plumper Work?
Sövage Lip Plumper works in two important ways: first, it produces an immediate increase in hydration, causing a noticeable yet painless swelling of the lips. Second, Sövage Lip Plumper exerts a profound influence on fat cells just below the surface layer of lip tissue (yes, it's subcutaneous fat cells that make lips full and plump) so, as your lips increase in size, they look natural and stay soft. No one but you will know why your lips suddenly look fuller, sexier, and more appealing... but everyone will see the difference.
The Packaging
The box is a medium to dark pink/orangey color. Inside, there are two tubes. One is clear (the astringent) and one is a reddish brown color (the plumper). There is an instruction leaflet telling us to use the clear astringent on clean, dry lips first then apply the plumper as you would any lip gloss. If you want to use lip gloss or lipstick over the plumper, wait five minutes, blot off any residue, and the apply your regular gloss.
The tubes have sponge tip applicators like many lip glosses and are easy to apply. They are very small for the price, a scant .333 oz a piece. Although the instructions say that there is plenty of product to last 60 days, using it twice a day, I beg to differ. It only lasted about 25 days for me.
Using Sovage
Those with cuts, sores, or chapped lips should not use this product. The astringent will burn and irritate your lips.
On clean, dry lips, you apply a layer of clear astringent. This is only Witch Hazel and alcohol (which you can buy for about $3.00 a pint). It stings a bit but is by no means painful on the lips.
After waiting a few seconds, pat the lips dry, then apply the tinted plumper just as you would lip gloss. The color was kind of pretty on me. It is a brownish, reddish but opaque color. The consistency is goopy. It is thick and sticky and you must be careful about applying too much or else you will have a sticky mess on your lips. Use this sparingly. The smell is not so bad. I can’t adequately describe what the plumper smells like but it does have a mediciney sort of odor mixed with cinnamon which is fairly strong at first. It didn’t bother me but it literally made my sister feel ill when she used it (her own) so, if you are sensitive to weird smells that don’t go away because they are on your lips, you may find this product pretty disgusting to wear.
My Experience
I did everything right. I used the astringent. I waited. I used the plumper. I didn’t wear lip gloss over it because it was a pretty color anyway and I wanted to see results fast and wanted nothing to dilute the plumper.
I felt slight tingling and warmth on lips when I used this product. It wasn’t bad, in fact, I figured it was the ingredients doing their job.
Now would be a good time to list the ingredients.
Ingredients:Sövage Pre-Application Astringent Ingredients: Witch Hazel (Hamamelis Virginiana) Distillate, SD Alcohol 40-B, Fragrance.
Sövage Active Formula Ingredients: Lecithin, Octyl Palmitate, Water, Glycolic Acid, Nicotinic Acid, Aloe Barbadensis Gel, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Vitamin E Acetate, Calendula Officinalis Extract, Polysorbate 80, Cetheth-56, Polyoxamer 401, SD Alcohol 40-B, Diazolidinyl Urea, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Fragrance.
I waited for my lips to swell, since the instructions say that one can see an immediate plumping of the lips and, then, will reach the maximum plumping within three weeks.
I am still waiting and I stopped using this product months ago.
I figure one day I will wake up and my lips will have responded to whatever magical ingredients that are in Sovage and I will be Angelina Jolie, if only for a while.
The Results
I did like the color of the plumper. It was very sticky and smelled kind of bad, but it did look pretty on my lips. It did NOT plump my lips. I used the product faithfully for three and a half weeks, twice a day as instructed. I checked out my lips in high magnification mirrors and in regular ones. No one mentioned that my lips had that “bee stung look” or that they looked fuller. No one mentioned anything because there was nothing to mention. The plumper did seem to smooth the tiny lines on my lips for a short while (a couple hours at the most after application) but that could be because the formula is so gooey and sticky that it glossed over my real lips and left a thick layer of stuff on them.
I think, if anything, using Witch Hazel and alcohol on my lips twice a day was extremely drying. I haven no idea why you need to use step one at all. Perhaps it is to get the lips tingling and feeling like something is happening when it’s not.
I saw no visible plumping of my lips when using this product. I feel as though I wasted good money for nothing – a practice that isn’t new to me. I expected, going in, that I wouldn’t get the dramatic results that the people at Sovage claimed I would, but I did expect to see some signs of temporary plumping.
This product failed miserably for me. I saw that City Lips has a decent lip plumper as do many other companies now but I think I will leave the plumping to others. My lips are fine the way they are and the money I save not buying into these over hyped products can buy me a whole lot of great lip glosses and lip balms which I adore.
If I get desperate for plump, big lips, I can always have that filling I need to have done. Novocain always swells my lips temporary. I won’t be able to talk without drooling, but it’s the price I have to pay for Hollywood lips, I guess. ;)
Buying Info
Sovage Lip Plumper is sold all over the net. The prices vary from $125.00 to under $40.00 for the exact same product. Shop wisely and compare prices. They’re falling every day and, if you want to try this, you and get it for as low as $36.00 right now. Next week, the price may be lower.
Sovage’s official website is www.sovage.com. At this writing, their price is $80.00. They do offer a money back guarantee for 30 days which not many other sites offer. I have no idea if they stand by that guarantee, however.
Sovage’s order line is: 1-800-406-3669
Conclusion
Hype, hype, and more hype. While some products temporarily plump the lips a bit, Sovage didn’t even do that for me. It was an expensive, tingly, weird smelling, sticky lip gloss. Buyer beware. It may work for some, but for me (and my sister who also tried it), this was just another ploy to make me open my wallet and spend a ridiculous amount of money on a product that was half Witch Hazel and half lip gloss.
I don’t recommend this product to anyone. If you desire plumper lips, there are many new products on the market that sell for a lot less that make the same claims. Many lipsticks and glosses come with ingredients that plump the lips added right into them.
And, really, would your life be THAT much better if your lips were a bit plumper? I realize mine wouldn’t have changed a bit. There’s a point where improving your looks becomes obsessive and I think I crossed that line when I tried Sovage. Still, if a product is inexpensive and plumps the lips and smooths lines, I won’t walk away from it. I just won’t be buying into the hype of these “clinically proven” magic formulas anymore.
Recommended:
No
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