Duwop Lip Venom Verses City Cosmetics City Lips Lip Plumpers

Lip Venom by Duwop is a small glass tube of lip plumper with a cinnamon taste. It is a thick liquid that applies with an attached brush and it is not really glossy, but it is a noticeable sheen on the lips. You can blot it off and it still works. It was around long before the other lip plumpers, for several years actually and it has had a cult following for its cinnamon taste and tingly properties that made the lips taste better and more sensitive and responsive as it dilates the lips with blood. Sephora calls it one of its best products stating "Lip Venom is a spicy, tingly gloss that enhances the natural color and shape of the lips by increasing circulation with a blend of essential oils including cinnamon and ginger. The result: shiny, bee-stung lips". Lip Venom also comes in a gloss tube of many shades which has the venom in the gloss so is just as potent but not as concentrated and packs some nice pigment color. Lip Venom does sting at first, but the cinnamon scent is very compelling. Researchers find that cinnamon and vanilla scents are very attractive to men, so a cinnamon lip plumper that dilates your lips and makes them more sensitive has its merits. It does sting for a minute or two since it is dilating your lips. But I find in the category of lip plumpers that cause plumping via lip dilation, that this is less stingy than others such as Too Faced Lip Injection. Lip Venom is available at Beauty.com

PROS: Attractive cinnamon scent that not just plumps but makes the lips more attractive, full and ripe by dilating your lips. The stinging is not bad for the dilating variant. Makes for a nice gloss and makes your lips full and smooth. A little goes a long way; you do not need to use a lot of it to get results.

CONS: The little bottle is glass and can easily break, you don't get that much for the price, and any plumping that happens via lip dilation can sting. My lips were smoother but sticky enough that my hair stuck to my lips when I wore it, it is not emollient like some plumpers.

City Lips is a Good Housekeeping Seal product made by City Cosmetics. It comes in clear and six other shades, packing various degrees of pigment. City Lips has been somewhat dwarfed in the sea of lip plumpers out there, but is an effective plumper that does not sting like some of its counterparts. It costs $28 for a tube. According to Sephora, this is how the product works "Unique Oligopeptide technology helps enhance collagen production which helps to increase lip volume and reduce lip lines. The one-of-a-kind ingredient Celadrol increases cell turnover, draws in healthy nutrients to retain moisture, and enhances natural lip color. You can feel CITY Lips start to work instantly with its fabulous pain-free tingle. The result is fuller, softer, pouty lips."

You use the clear treatment at night before bed and the color treatments during the day. They do make your lips soft and full. I find them to be the least sting out of the lip plumpers I have tried. I actually found there to be no sting at all. But unlike Lip Venom, there is the long term benefit of increased cell turnover and it does address lip lines in the short term.

City cosmetics has several products for face and lips that do have remarkable results in terms of refining the appearance of the skin and concealing the aging process, but City Lips seems to not get the attention of some of the other lip plumpers. This is likely why it is on clearance at Sephora for $10 at this time. It is however an excellent lip plumper even for those who are very sensitive.

PROS: City Lips is one of the very few products that results in collagen production (what makes our skin stay up and not droop like older skin, also collagen is what plumps the lips in cosmetic collagen injections) and causes cell turnover without stinging. This is a perk for City Lips. I like the application brush better than some of the sponge tip applicators. This means that City Lips gives long term benefits as far as keeping the lip fuller with more collagen.

CONS: City Lips does not delivery the bee stung lip that you see with some other short term lip plumpers like Lip Venom that produces immediate results. While $28 is steep for a lip plumper, Sephora currently has it on sale for $10, which is very reasonable.