A Headache is Definitely NOT Groovie
Written: Oct 23 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Does a fair job of preventing lipstick "feathering."
Cons: Stinks, literally.
The Bottom Line: Buy it only if you don't mind the artificial, cheap scent and don't wear glosses.
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| thatsmytake's Full Review: Benefit Degroovie |
Why yes, my fellow cosmetic junkies, I have indeed been retired from my prolific stint as an Epinions cosmetics reviewer for quite some time now. But I thought I'd pop back in, quite uninvited, for a review of a remarkable product. Unfortunately, it's remarkable only in the sense that it gave me a frighteningly sudden and persistent headache that's lasted all day. I'm hoping to spare someone else the mad dash for Ibuprofin, and the bitter realization that the very last of the blessed little caplets are inexplicably gone, as they always are when these things happen.
Benefit is not a cosmetic line I'm normally drawn to. The line just seems too, well, "kitten-ish" for my 30-something self. I work for a well known cosmetic line, and a young co-worker of mine (lets call her Ginger, she looks like a Ginger) urged me to try Benefit's "De-Groovie" lip product. She swore it would totally and completely solve the problem I had just begun experiencing... my lipstick feathering and bleeding, insidiously seeping into tiny microscopic crevices around my mouth!
I'd never had this problem with lipstick before. I don't smoke, don't tan, and have no visible lines around my mouth, not one. In fact, I had heretofore thought of "feathering" as an "old lady's" lipstick problem, and didn't think I'd have to worry about it for, oh, say, another seventy years or so.
So imagine my surprise when my favorite lipsticks and glosses suddenly began looking blurry and fuzzy around the edges. Especially darker or brighter colors, and glosses. Lip liners did not seem to be helping. Was I limited to wearing only matte lipsticks from now on? That seemed depressingly limiting, given the plethora of lipstick formulas that had always been mine for the wearing.
Nonetheless, I questioned Ginger suspiciously about her "De Groovie" recommendation. After all, at her age, why would she have to use such a product? She is only twelve years old, for God's sake. OK, she's twenty-three, but that's so young it might as well be twelve. But Ginger swore she'd "always" had the problem of lipstick feathering, even though she, too, had no visible lip lines.
I should also add that Gingers lips are always vivid and very, very glossy. And her lipstick line is always magazine-crisp, which she attributed to the virtues of De-Groovie, of course. That's all it took.
So off I went to Benefit, to shell out twenty-some dollars for a small black mirrored compact of the stuff. I didn't mind the small size, because this is the sort of product that I knew would last forever before needing to be replaced.
"De-Groovie" is a tiny pan of WAX, that comes with a tiny applicator brush. You apply it only to the edges of your lips, not the entire lip. It feels "stiff" on the skin at first, but then warms up from contact with the skin, and feels pretty natural on. The package said to brush it on in vertical strokes, but I notice that when the Benefit makeup artist uses it, she brushes it on horizontally while smiling. The wax is supposed to sink into your lip crevices and "fill up" any lines, so that lipstick cannot creep into them. Cool concept, I thought.
I have a sensitive sense of smell. Many perfumes bother me, and many cosmetics contain way too much perfume for me to deal with. So I smelled this product before I bought it. It smelled, uh, strong, and not pleasant. Kind of like a cheap men's cologne. Or an old fashioned mustache wax. But I thought (stupidly) that the scent would not linger as I'd be using such a small amount on my lips. Wrong. Linger it does. Not all day, but for quite awhile.
Your upper lip sits right below your nostrils, so make sure you'll be able to tolerate this noxious odor before buying. Now I ask you, why would a cosmetics company use a very strong fragrance in a LIP product? How completely stupid.
The first time I used this product, it was with a creamy lipstick. It worked beautifully, no feathering! So I resigned myself to the nasty smell.
But the second time I tried it, the smell gave me an IMMEDIATE headache that lasted all day. I mean I brushed this stuff on my lip, inhaled normally, and SLAM, instant pounding temples. Not fun, and sure as hell no "Benefit!" Removing it immediately would have helped shorten the duration of my headache, I'm sure, but I was late for work, and did not have time to wipe it off and re-do my lips, so I left in a hurry, with "De-Groovie" firmly in place, and a few choice words for Ginger.
This time the product did not work so well. I think it was because this time I was wearing a clear gloss over my lipstick, and glosses feather more noticeably. It held back feathering for about an hour, but then my lip line started to "fuzz" and after two hours there was definite seeping into fine "groovies."
Verdict? If you're not at ALL sensitive to fragrances, and not at ALL picky about how things smell, and if you don't ever wear glosses, this might be a product that you'll like. It does stop feathering of regular creamy lipsticks and lip liners.
But if you like to wear gloss, and DON'T like getting headaches from overly perfumed products, pass on "De-Groovie." You'll be feelin' much groovier without it.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
thatsmytake
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Reviews written: 84
Trusted by: 64 members
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