Yahoo News I compared Home Bargains £1.99 'lip sleeping mask' to my £21 Laneige version to see if it's a dupe
I remember the first time I swiped my card in Selfridges and handed over £21 for a little pot of the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask. I felt that little jolt of unspecific energy that lies somewhere between 'wahoo' and 'I am an idiot'.
I'd heard great things about the product and, in a cold winter snap, felt like I could really do with it. I can be funny with lip balms, like Goldilocks with the bears' porridge; this one's too sticky, this one tastes weird, this one disappears within the hour.
The Laneige balm was technically a 'lip sleeping mask', designed to go to work overnight, with ingredients to nourish, soothe and sleiuce off rough, dead skin. When I'd seen people wearing it, it just looked like the a plumpy gloss, adding a sheen over lip lines while also having some of the most delicious sounding 'flavours' including Gummy Bear, Berry and Sweet Candy.
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I bought the Grapefruit one and honestly, I adore it. It comes with a little scoop which I never use, instead just dunking my finger in and slathering it on. For day time and nighttime, the creamy formula makes me feel hydrated, comfortable and glossy.
When I was in Home Bargains this week, looking for Christmas decorations, I spotted a couple of 'lip sleeping masks' for £1.99. Like Laneige in recent years, they've blended together two colours and fragrance; strawberry and Lemonade, a pot of red and yellow swirled balm, went in my basket and I left the pink and blue swirled 'Candy Berries' flavour behind.
Like Laneige, this £2 pot comes with a little silicone applicator. Totally surplus to requirements in my opinion, I tried it once and then threw it aside never to use it again. The skincare girlies probably love it but, I'm the kind of woman who will pick food up off the kitchen floor and still eat it so maybe don't take any advice from me.
I did use it in my Home Bargains pot though, just to get the entire experience. The mask smells like artificial strawberry and nothing like lemonade at all but honestly, I don't mind it. That candy fragrance sticks around but it doesn't have a flavour, so no risk of your kids eating it by the fingerful like we did as babbies with Claire's Accessories Chapstick alternatives.
The less expensive product, like Laneige, is thick and shiny, perhaps a little bit stickier than the posh alternative but not sticky enough to feel like a problem for me. The colour in the pink swirl remained on my lips and made it look a little tinted, like I'd been out all day in the cold. I like that too.
I'm not sure if it was soaking in or sluicing off, but the Home Bargains mask didn't last anywhere near as long on my lips - I can put Laneige on and wake up with balmy lips the next morning.
The more I wore the £1.99 alternative, the more aware I was of a subtle, unpleasant waxy taste on my palate. It still felt comfortable though, not unlike any other regular, pocket money balm.
I can't lie to you and say that this is replacing my Laneige, it's simply never going to knock that off my must-buy list because I do believe it's an elite beauty product. That said, if I was a buying for a teenage girl? This pot, in its wrappable box with the little silicone applicator, would be on my must-buy list for the stocking.
It's going in my car, for lip comfort on-the-go. The little silicone applicator, on the other hand, has found a new home in my drawer with all the other tat I'll never use.
This review was independent and all products were purchased by the reporter.
