I thought the lip oil would finally fix my constant dry lips

Buying into the hype at the beauty festival

I remember walking through that Beauty Kurly Festa and seeing the Merrythode booth. It was loud, people were everywhere, and they had this roulette event going on. I somehow ended up with a Bling-Chu Lip Oil in my hand. I wasn’t really looking for another lip product because I have a drawer full of half-used tubes at home, but the way they were handing out samples made it feel like I was missing out on something essential. I walked away with a reusable bag and the oil, thinking maybe this would be the one that actually keeps my lips hydrated through the workday.

The reality of wearing it to the office

When I first put it on, it felt really thick. That’s probably the Jojoba seed oil they talk about, which supposedly locks in moisture for eight hours. In practice, it felt less like an eight-hour treatment and more like I was wearing a layer of honey that caught every stray hair whenever the wind blew. I tried to use it during my morning commute, but by the time I sat down at my desk, my hair was stuck to my chin. It wasn’t the ‘glossy morning skin’ look I had imagined while standing at the booth. It just felt sticky.

Dealing with the constant reapplication

I kept it on my desk, thinking I’d use it periodically. The bottle is small, and I think it cost somewhere around 15,000 won or so—I didn’t really track the exact price at the event—but it’s definitely cheaper than the high-end stuff I usually see at the department store counters. The problem is that it wears off so quickly. I’d drink a cup of coffee, and it would vanish, leaving my lips feeling even tighter than before. I found myself reaching for it every thirty minutes, which made me wonder if I was actually hydrating anything or just creating a habit of constantly reapplying a glossy layer.

Trying the lip patch as a fallback

I also had this Bling-Chu lip patch in my stash from the same brand. It’s shaped like a giant lip mask. I started using it at night before going to sleep because I was frustrated with how the oil was performing during the day. It’s definitely easier than scrubbing my lips with a rough towel every morning, but it’s a bit annoying to keep it on while I’m trying to check my phone or watch something in bed. It slides down if you aren’t perfectly still, and for someone like me who tosses and turns, that’s almost impossible. I woke up with the patch stuck to my pillow more than once.

Looking at my growing pile of tubes

I don’t know. I still have the lip oil sitting next to my monitor, and I’ll probably finish it eventually just because I don’t like throwing away things I’ve paid for. It’s not that it’s a bad product; it’s just that it never quite lived up to the mental image I had when I bought it. I see people online talking about how great it looks for photos, and they’re probably right about that. But for just sitting in a cubicle and dealing with dry winter air, it’s just another thing I have to worry about maintaining throughout the day. Sometimes I think I should have just stuck with a basic balm from the pharmacy downstairs, but I guess I fell for the packaging and the event atmosphere at the time. I’m not even sure if I’ll buy it again once this one runs out.