My mouth has had a rough week. I went to the dentist for a check-up and cleaning on Monday and ended up having some broken old fillings replaced. One of the anesthesia injections hit a blood vessel and muscle tissue inside my cheek (thanks, Mr. Dentist!) and my face is still swollen, sore, and bruised five days later.

Meanwhile, I happened to pass  a LUSH boutique and noticed that the Holiday 2016 collection is already starting to appear, including Sugar Plum Fairy Lip Tint. (Cue up the Tchaikovsky…) I felt like my mouth and I deserved a treat, so I made this impulse purchase.

This is a tinted balm, and its ingredients are:

Kalahari Melon Oil , Organic Jojoba Oil, Organic Castor Oil, Candelilla Wax, Orange Peel Wax, Sunflower Wax, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Glycerine, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Flavor, Rose Wax , Sweet Wild Orange Oil, Titanium Dioxide, Cetearyl Alcohol, Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), Tin Oxide, Citral, Limonene, Manganese Violet, Red 28 Lake.

Thanks to all those botanical oils and waxes, this balm applies smoothly and feels great as it’s going on. Temperatures are just starting to drop in my part of the world, so lip color that does double-duty with protective moisture is a big plus.

LUSH describes Sugar Plum Fairy as “magenta,” and that’s accurate. Here’s a swatch on my inner wrist. Can you see its iridescent sheen here?

Applied lightly, Sugar Plum Fairy is a cool-toned berry-plum with a subtle glow. A second coat makes the color deeper, brighter, and more opaque. This shade probably won’t suit warm-toned or olive-toned complexions, but for cool-to-neutral skin with blue undertones, it should be very flattering.

Sugar Plum Fairy colors and softens my mouth while lifting my spirits, which is all I could ask from a lip product. And the pigments cling nicely, so I don’t need to reapply for several hours. All in all, a smile-inducing cheap thrill, just when I needed it.

LUSH Sugar Plum Fairy sells for about $10 at LUSH boutiques and the LUSH website.

Product source: I purchased this item.

Images: top photo via LUSH website, second and third photos by TC.