We all remember the nasty photos of Britney that came out last year immediately after a trip to the Restylane clinic. Oh, you mean you don’t keep up with the manic craziness that is her life on a daily basis? Weird. Ok – I’ll give you the run down. The paps snapped Brit in her car leaving the clinic attempting to cover the ridiculousness that had become her plumper, duck billed lips. Normal side effect? Or botched procedure? Let me tell you, if that’s the result I’d rather avoid both. Lip plumping glosses have been around for a while now but one of our readers had one she wanted us to give a try: City Lips Instant Lip Plumper (advanced formula). So we put it up against one of the hippest brands on the market to see how they compared. I now call to the ring our two contenders – City Lips vs Urban Decay. Let’s keep this clean ladies, and most of all, big, plump and beautiful. Fight!

Gourmet meals, delicious sangria, stolen kisses. These are just some of the wonderful things our lips get to experience in the span of our lifetime. They also happen to be right smack dab in the middle of our face so we, women especially, go to great lengths to make them look fuller and more beautiful. You see, if we do that, there are a lot more stolen kisses in there, which tend to lead to the gourmet meals and sangria. You get it? It’s all interconnected.

Artificially enhancing your lips used to be an uncommon occurrence but has now become a regular procedure for women all over North America. I can name at least three different types of procedures to get this done and I would never even consider it. Voluntarily sticking needles in your face? Where do I sign up?! But the appeal still remains and that’s why companies like City Lips have come out with products like their advanced formula Instant Lip Plumper. It’s for wimps like me who may want to enhance their precious smackers, but aren’t willing to go through a clinical procedure for it.

The science behind it is actually pretty simple. The formula contains Collagen peptides and pure HA plumping spheres. When the spheres hit your lips, they suck in moisture and expand, making your lips look plumper and fuller.

On to the contenders:

City Lips Instant Lip Plumper (Advanced Formula). Their packaging actually explained a little bit of the science which I enjoyed. If something is going to make my lips numb (which it claims it doesn’t), I want to know why. I have the clear version and upon application, it worked in the shine department. Unfortunately, it went on like glue and didn’t really smooth out during the process. It was thick and sticky and didn’t feel great on my lips. It actually did numb them somewhat contrary to the claims on the box, and I don’t think it made a big enough difference in the plumpness category to be worth a purchase.

Urban Decay Big Fatty Lip Plumper. Their psychedelic box claims that I’ll experience up to a 20% fuller pout, results within 10 minutes, and noticeably pinker lips. The colour is clear with gold flecks in it and offers a pretty nice shine. It felt great on my lips, not too thick, but enough so that I could smooth my lips together easily and comfortably. I thought for about 15 seconds that I had a clear winner until the burning started. Burning and tingling were there for about 5 minutes and while my lips weren’t falling off with the pain or anything, not necessarily pleasant. Plumpness seemed non existent at both 15 minutes and half an hour.

So, the verdict is in. I have one word for people considering purchasing a lip plumper: bogus. If you’re not committed enough to go for the real deal, skip this part too cause you’ll just be wasting your money. As a gloss, Big Fatty was the better of the two…you know, once that nasty burning stopped. City Lips had the better pitch, making it sound all legitimate and scientific, but dropped the ball when it came for results.

For this pillow lipped Angelina incarnate however, I prefer to feel the burn in other ways.