City Lips has been on a tear lately! In addition to the City Lips Plumping Oil that just launched a little over a week ago, City Lips has just introduced their brand new City Lips Defining Lip Liners!
City Lips Defining Lip Liner Packaging & Shades
The first thing I noticed when the new City Lips Defining Liners arrived is that they were packaged in an outer cardboard package in a beige/taupe color instead of the City Beauty midnight blue, so they really stood out to me! The Lip Liners tube is also the same beige-y color that reinforces, to me at least, the two neutral launch shades that go with lighter and darker lip/skin tones as well as with so many City Lips Lipgloss shades and many of my lipsticks:
- Blush: a soft, rosy nude that complements pink tones and lighter lip colors
- Willow: a rich, warm-toned nude that complements brown tones and darker lip colors
Another thing that I love about the new Lip Liners is that they come in a twist up package. Just take off the cap and turn the pencil at the joint as you would any twist up tube. In addition, I was surprised to discover that there’s a small sharpener on the bottom of the pencil. Just pull off the colored area to review the mini-sharpener that you use to gently sharpen the tip to ensure a precise application!
I often misplace my pencil sharpener that leaves me stuck using a lip or an eye pencil made from sharpen-able wood that actually hurts my lips or eyes until my sharpener shows up! City Lips must have had me in mind when they came up with this much more user-friendly packaging!
City Lips Defining Lip Liner Benefits
City Lips Defining Liners help prevent lip color fading, smudging and feathering. Importantly, the liners give your lips a smoother, fuller and more youthful appearance. They’re great for thin lips or to help disguise lip lines, those icky vertical lines above and below the lips.
Two key benefits about City Lips Lip Liner are:
- it is very creamy and go on so easily and smoothly
- it stays on forever till you take it off with cleansing oil
In fact, the lip liners did not budge when I tried to remove the swatches on my arm with soap or even with micellar water!
It was necessary to use my cleansing oil to make the lip liner swatches disappear on my arm. Same thing goes for when they are on my lips: cleansing oil is a necessity for removal. So if you want your lipstick or gloss to last longer without having to apply a longwear lipstick that can often be drying, applying creamy, non-drying City Lips Defining Lip Liner on your lips before your lipstick will make reapplying lipstick throughout the day either a thing of the past or at least far less often.
In addition, having a defined lip line is important to me because I have a weird lip line along my bottom lip right in the middle. Years ago, I noticed that my dad had the same weird lips, and I got his lips. Lucky me. What’s strange is that though you can see my lip line, above it my lip isn’t slightly colored like the rest of my lips. Instead, it’s the color of my face. So it looks like I have thinner lips than I actually have.
See what I mean? As a result, the question is where to apply lipstick along my bottom lip? Applying a lip liner helps solve the problem because it:
- prevents my lipstick from wandering around/feathering along that strange lip line
- helps my lips look fuller
Yet to be honest, I don’t always apply lip liner because, again, I am lazy especially when quickly swiping on lipstick for an “everyday” look. But liner does make a difference for me. In fact, I recently received an opaque shade of City Lips Plumping Lip Gloss that I hadn’t used in years, Pink Nude. I was unsure if the shade were too light for me because I think it is lighter than the natural shade of my lips. But with new City Lips Defining Lip Liner in the Blush shade that goes with my natural lip color, I love the look of Pink Nude for an everyday look. I think it’s worth it to take an extra 30 seconds at most to draw on the lip liner. What do you think?
BTW, here’s a photo of how Pink Nude looks on darker skin tones with the Willow Lip Liner! The shade looks different but beautiful!
How to Apply
Outline your upper lip starting at the cupid’s bow and moving outward toward the corners. Repeat on the lower lip, beginning at the center, although with my weird lower lip line, I don’t usually start at the center! Next, apply your favorite lipstick or gloss, and you’re finished.
Key Ingredients
Why does City Lips Defining Liner feel so darn good on your lips? Here’s why – the key ingredients:
- Vitamin E: Boosts hydration to help protect skin from environmental stressors, to soothe lips and reduce the look of dryness
- Synthetic Beeswax: Helps lock in moisture to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles for a smoother, softer look and feel
- Isododecane: Helps skin resist water, reduce color smudging and transferring to ensure longer lasting wear
From my experience, what City Beauty says about Isododecane resisting water and preventing transferring is true. I try to drink a lot of water, and so far, I haven’t gotten nearly as much transfer as when I don’t use City Lips Liner.
Full Ingredient List: Isododecane, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Synthetic Wax, Dimethicone, Synthetic Beeswax, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Hexylene Glycol, Water, Sodium Sulfate, Aluminum Hydroxide, Barium Sulfate. May Contain + / – : Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxide (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Red 7 Lake (CI 15850), Red 6 (CI 15850), Blue 1 Lake (CI 42090)
The formula has NO:
- Parabens
- Mineral Oil
- Phthalates
- Sulfates
- Fragrance
More Retail Info
Each tube of City Lips Defining Liner contains 0.23 g of product, and again, it’s fragrance-free. Like all of City Beauty’s products, it is cruelty-free/no animal testing and it’s manufactured in the U.S. It is covered by City Beauty’s 60 Day Money-Back Guarantee (minus shipping).
The regular price is $22/tube. But for the new product launch, you can buy a City Lips Defining Liner at 20% off ($17.60) from March 4 (today) through March 9, 2025 with the code LIPSCULPT. (And BTW, you can use the code for 20% off any product on the entire website as well during the launch!).
I have a lot of City Beauty products, but the City Lips Defining Liner has already moved into my pantheon of City Beauty Faves. I use it all the time now and plan to take advantage of the launch price to buy another Blush to have on hand!
