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 “smoothing out the appearance of lip lines and wrinkles.”
But does City Lips actually contain ingredients proven to have these effects or are these just marketing claims? Does it contain any unhealthy added ingredients? And how do real users rate it?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we review the ingredients in City Lips based on medical studies to give our take on whether it’s actually likely to improve lip and skin quality, and if it contains questionable ingredients. We’ll also share a real user review of the product including before-and-after images and explain what retailer has the best price for this product.
Ingredient Review
City Lips contains up to 67 ingredients depending on the product. It does contain some ingredients proven to improve skin quality.
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. We consider this one of the most effective skincare ingredients.
Jojoba seed oil is an anti-inflammatory and skin hydrating ingredient.
Unfortunately City Lips contains a large number of questionable additive ingredients.
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 ingredient, and while preservatives are necessary in some formulations, we recommend using preservative-free skincare whenever possible. This ingredient may be irritating to skin.
City Lips also contains a large number of artificial dyes, including Blue 1 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake among others. As we documented in our Tula skincare reviews article, artificial dye may cause skin irritation and negative health effects, and we recommend avoiding them entirely.
Overall we do believe that City Lips is likely to improve skin quality and reduce wrinkles, due to the inclusion of sodium hyaluronate, however we don’t recommend the product because of all of its additive ingredients.
City Lips Real User Review
One of the most popular reviews of City Lips comes from a YouTube creator called Hannah’s Southern Creations. She shows how to properly apply the product, and shares before-and-after images. This review focuses more on the aesthetic effects of the product rather than the health effects:
Our Clean Lip Gloss Pick
The lip gloss product we recommend is Burt’s Bees Lip Shine.
This product has the healthiest formulation of any lip gloss we’ve reviewed. Like City Lips, it contains hydrating natural ingredients like sunflower seed oil and beeswax. The main difference is that it’s free of artificial dyes.
It’s also much cheaper than City Lips. Burt’s Bees’ lip gloss currently costs $7 for 0.5 ounces (oz) which equals $14 per ounce. City Lips costs $35 for 0.16 oz, which equals over $175 per ounce.
Interested consumers can check out Burt’s Bees Lip Shine at this link to their Amazon product listing.
Burt’s Bees’ gloss does contain carmine. We have yet to find a lip gloss product without any questionable additive ingredients. If we do, we will update this section to recommend it.
Where to Buy City Lips for the Best Price
City Lips is sold at a variety of online retailers. Here's a price breakdown at the time of updating this article:
Walmart: $63 (third-party seller, link)
Brand website: $35 (plus $6.95 shipping, link)
Amazon: $35 (free shipping, link to official Amazon listing)
City Lips is currently 17% cheaper at Amazon than on the brand's official website when factoring in shipping fees.
City Lips Real Customer Reviews
As referenced above, City Lips is sold on Amazon which is a more objective resource for customer reviews than a brand’s website in our opinion. The product has been reviewed over 1,400 times and has an average review rating of 3.8 stars at the time of writing this article.
The top positive review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named “Samantha O’Dell” who claims that it looks great and remains intact even through meals:
“If you want all day beautiful, shiny, moisturized lips, get this gloss. I have several colors of city lips but Sun Diego is my favorite for a touch of color and shine. This gloss last for hours even with eating and drinking.”
The top negative review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named “Loni” who claims the product does not have the advertised plumping effect:
“I got this for the advertised plumping but it makes no difference at all. I have seen some that say they can tell its working because of a tingling sensation, I didn’t get any of that. The color Sun Diego is nice but it makes lips shiny like it’s the 90s which is not a look I love. I was planning to use this for the initial plump and then use a lipstick or something more matte over it, but there’s no point because there is no plumping result.”
City Lips Pros and Cons
Here’s a quick overview of the pros and cons of City Lips in our opinion.
Pros:
- Likely to reduce wrinkles
- Contains hydrating ingredients
- Great product design
Cons:
- Contains artificial dye
- Contains a preservative
- Extremely expensive
