City Lips is a popular lip gloss sold by the brand City Beauty. The brand claims that this product can deliver “deep hydration for instant plumping” and “[smooth] out the appearance of lip lines and wrinkles.”
But does City Lips actually contain ingredients shown in studies to hydrate and have plumping effects? Does it contain any unhealthy ingredients? What's the best dupe? And is City Lips better or worse than popular lip balms like Ogee Tinted Sculpted Lip Oil?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in City Lips to give our take on whether or not it's likely to improve appearance of the lips, and whether or not it's healthy.
We'll also discuss the best dupe, and compare City Lips to other popular lip balms to pick our winners (and losers).
Key takeaways:
- Contains a number of ingredients we consider unhealthy
- Mostly positive customer reviews
- We do not currently recommend City Lips
Ingredient Analysis
City Lips contains up to 67 ingredients depending on the color:
Sodium hyaluronate is the sodium salt of hyaluronic acid, which was shown in a 2018 medical review to significantly reduce wrinkles and increase skin hydration.
Sodium hyaluronate has a lower molecular weight than hyaluronic acid, meaning it can penetrate deeper into skin and may be more effective.
Jojoba seed oil is an anti-inflammatory and skin hydrating ingredient.
Unfortunately, while there are some research-backed active ingredients in City Lips, this product also contains a number of inactive ingredients that may be questionable from a health perspective.
Carmine is a dye that was found in a medical review published in the Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety journal to be “considered toxic for rats, pigs and humans.”
Benzoic acid is a preservative, and while preservatives are necessary in some formulations, we recommend using preservative-free skincare whenever possible. This ingredient may be irritating to skin.
Blue 1 Lake and Yellow 5 Lake are artificial dyes.
As we documented in our Tula skincare reviews article, some artificial dyes are clinically shown to cause skin irritation and negative health effects.
Overall, we believe that City Lips is likely to improve skin quality and reduce wrinkles, due to the inclusion of sodium hyaluronate, however we don’t currently recommend the product because of the inactive ingredients highlighted above.
What's the Best Dupe?
A YouTube creator named "Graceful Beauty" has a video on the best dupes for popular cosmetics that includes City Lips.
A dupe is a cheaper alternative to a popular product that's thought to have similar effects. We've timestamped the below video to start at the point where she discusses the City Lips dupe:
City Lips vs. Popular Lip Balms
Here's how City Lips compares to other popular lip balms in terms of potential effectiveness and healthiness, in our opinion:
Ogee Tinted Sculpted Lip Oil
One of the healthiest lip oils/balms we've reviewed to date on Illuminate Health, this product contains research-backed active ingredients and is free from any unhealthy ingredients.
Of note, this formulation contains naturally-derived beeswax, which is clinically shown to improve skin moisture content and enhance skin barrier repair.
Winner: Ogee Tinted Sculpted Lip Oil
Laneige Lip Balm
Contains fragrance, which is unhealthy but not as much so as multiple synthetic dyes.
Laneige Lip Balm only has one ingredient we consider unhealthy, whereas City Lips has multiple.
Winner: Laneige Lip Balm
Carmex
Contains an ingredient which may have negative aesthetic effects, but none we consider as unhealthy as synthetic dye.
Winner: Carmex
Our Clean Lip Balm Pick
Dr. Bronner's Organic Lip Balm is our top healthy lip balm pick.
This product has the healthiest formulation of any lip gloss we’ve reviewed. It contains hydrating natural ingredients like organic avocado oil and organic jojoba seed oil.
However it's fragrance-free and contains no additive ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.
City Lips Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Likely to reduce wrinkles
- Contains hydrating ingredients
- Great product design
- Highly favorable online customer reviews
Cons:
- Contains artificial dye
- Contains a preservative
- Expensive
- Brand website charges for shipping
