Review: Kanebo Super Essence Lip Prism Pearl Gloss

Quite a mouthful, huh?

Kanebo is a Japanese brand that has several sub-brands that are very popular (Lavshuca, KATE among others). I picked this up because it was on sale on the Sasa site and it looked interesting. I paid $3.80 for 7 grams of product (or about 1/4 of an ounce). Not too bad and I actually prefer my tube glosses under 1/2 ounce or else I'll never finish them.

Again, we're dealing with interior lighting here, but I've done my best to show the swatches/colors accurately. Kanebo was not kidding around when they said this was a "prism" gloss. I don't know if you can tell just by looking at the tube, but there is tons of very very fine shimmer that creates an almost holographic effect in the gloss. This is the gold color. When I ordered from Sasa, this was the only option but they now also have a blue color in stock.

I have no idea what any of this means

Can you kind of see the effect of the gloss here? Also, note how I completely destroy the packaging trying to get the gloss out; wish it had the same packaging as the mentholatum balm!

The gloss has a rounded applicator with a fairly small opening. Not the best or worst packaging by any means though I do prefer a slanted tip. Now, you know how I mentioned that Kanebo wasn't kidding around with the "prism"? Well, wait till you see a swatch of this thing!

This is the gloss squeezed out onto my hand without rubbing it in (so this is probably not anything like it would look on the lips). The first thing I noticed about the gloss when I did this swatch was how thick and sticky it is. The gloss pretty much stayed the same shape above until I did anything with it. It's not the consistency that it will drip down your hand (or lips in most cases) after application. This seems like it would have great staying power. Because I had interesting experiences with some other products (cough mentholatum cough), the next thing I did was bring it up to my nose. No smell at all.

Here's the gloss blended out a bit on my hand. I also tested this out on my lips. No odor or taste. Sticky at first, but then becomes less-so and a rather nice consistency actually (and you can't feel the shimmer at all between you lips - a definite plus!). This was nearly impossible to remove on my hand. Regular dish soap didn't do anything, so I had to resort to using some olive oil which worked! I doubt I'll be wearing this alone, but it should be great over lipstains and/or lipstick. It's moisturizing enough and adds a bit of oomph too.