5 Minutes To Better Lips
a rhode PSA
By the time you finish reading this, I’ll have given you enough time and reasons (hopefully) to buy the new rhode Peptide Lip Shape before it sells out. I am telling you I had no idea I would love this product so much or even at all? I’ve been using it for a week and I am simply obsessed. The type of obsessed that makes a girl procrastinate on everything else to write a second newsletter that week.
This is actually only the second rhode product I’ve ever tried since somehow getting on the PR list at the end of last year. I don’t have a good reason for not trying anything before—I have plenty of friends & clients who rave about them and I adore Hailey’s makeup. In fact, she was the inspiration behind both makeup looks for my wedding weekend. Which is one of the reasons why I was so intrigued by this product. It makes your lips look incredible. Like Hailey’s!!! Like how I want my lips to look! I just can’t get over how wearable it is and I can’t stop taking selfies.
Adding to my curiosity was the fact that it sounded similar to lip contouring products I’d seen in Japan last November, which are gaining popularity there and in South Korea. As usual, they’re on to something and we’re behind.
The Peptide Lip Shape is a contouring lip shaper, making lips look more full, but it’s not a plumping product. Instead, there’s a peptide* to smooth and enhance hydration, plus fenugreek extract to enhance fullness and firmness. No tingles, no dryness, just natural dimension and volume. Hailey made this for the girls who dissolved their lip filler and miss having a little oomph. For anyone who confidently said thin lips are in for 2025, but didn’t really mean it. Again, and I can’t stress this enough, my lips look so good.
Are you thinking contour? She wants me to contour my lips? It literally couldn’t be easier because you just follow the shape of your lips and blend inward with the attached silicone smudger brush, which can actually be cleaned, unlike bristles or a sponge that become gross after one use. I was ready to be disappointed by something stiff, but I should have known better than to doubt rhode’s product development. It blends seamlessly and moves as flexibly as a brush. Real-time reaction about the silicone smudger:
Still skeptical it’s not just a lip liner? I get it. Like traditional lip liner and true to the name, it’s a pencil-shaped product that lines and defines the shape of your lips. Also like lip liner, it can improve wear by acting as a base and preventing bleeding into lip lines or onto skin. But now think about what contour does.
Contouring helps to define and shape by playing with shadows. True contour is creamy, matte and should be undetectable, seamlessly blending into the skin to give the illusion of things like chiseled cheekbones. The tone and shade of contour is crucial to get right. Similar to how bronzer is supposed mimic how the sun naturally warms up your face, contour has to mimic natural shadows, just 1-2 shades darker than your skin tone.
With a lip contour, the idea is to enhance the lips, giving the illusion of fullness and dimension, but in a soft, diffused, barely noticeable way. Like a lip liner, the Lip Shaper lines, defines and improves staying power. But unlike lip liner, it’s wider and creamier, giving you time to blend for natural-looking dimension before it sets. Plus, with the added skin-enhancing ingredients that improve lips over time, rhode’s lip shaper technically creates more than just an illusion. Oh and Mrs. Bieber went ahead and did both a consumer perception study and a clinical study!** For a lip product! She’s just as serious as I am about convincing you that this is worth trying.
The Peptide Lip Shape comes in 11 contour-appropriate shades and costs $24 or you can save a few bucks and get free shipping with the set of 4. I have lift (soft neutral pink) and lunge (rosy beige)—the former matches my natural lip color and the latter is a touch darker for even more definition. Both were sent in PR but I was not paid to write this post. I wrote this because I was overcome by a sense of duty to tell you about it before it sells out. Will I be mad if you hate it? No! But at least take some selfies before making a final call. You can wear it solo or with something on top.
Because this is a skincare newsletter and I’m committed to skincare education, don’t think you’re getting out of here without a quick lesson.
*The peptide in question is Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, one of the most well-studied and clinically proven signaling peptides. Signaling peptides are a category of peptide that tell, or signal, your skin cells to do something. In this case, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 signals your skin to stimulate collagen, making your lips firmer and smoother.
**There are various types of tests and studies that can be conducted to validate claims about a product or ingredient. Each has their own benefits and drawbacks, so having both can be a more powerful way to demonstrate efficacy.
Clinical studies conduct tests in controlled environments and measure the data objectively, with instruments (for example, a Corneometer measures skin hydration). There are many types of clinical studies, some of which provide more reliable insight than others, depending on what is being looked at. For example, was the study conducted in vivo, on living subjects, or ex vivo, in a test tube or petri dish.
Consumer perception studies are exactly what they sound like, based on feedback from consumers about how they perceive the product performed. While they are subjective, consumer perception studies can offer valuable insights about what consumers actually noticed from using the product and what benefits they perceived.
Enjoy your new lips!!
xx,
Jolie
"For anyone who confidently said thin lips are in for 2025, but didn’t really mean it." have never purchased something so fast.....
you sold me! got two shades 🫡