September 11-17, 2003

cover story

Full Frontal

A local makeup maven wants to give you a fat lip.

by Alex Richmond

Somewhere in between wishing you had Angelina Jolieís lips and knowing there are no miracle fixes comes Scarlett Fever, the new lip gloss from Scarlett Messina that promises to make your lips up to 40-percent fuller in 29 days.

Scarlett Fever is a thick gloss, flecked with subtle sparkles and with just the tiniest hint of pink-y color, making it perfect for pairing with this season's dark, smudgy eye. Or, slide it on over your favorite lipstick for extra shine.

Like its predecessor, Lip Venom, Scarlett Fever is loaded with cinnamon and peppermint oils to make your lips feel tingly and your breath a little fresher.

Scarlett Fever has an edge over all other lip-plumping glosses, though, with its newly patented ingredient MaxiLip, which has studies behind it backing the promise of fuller lips. Plus, the packaging is fun -- it looks like a bright red felt-tip pen. Just twist the bottom and the gloss oozes through the pen's tiny holes, ready for a liberal and unscientific all-over smearing.

But does it really work? Like any product that makes a promise, it's more fun to experience the immediate gratification of the stuff, which in Scarlett Fever's case means faintly numbed, slightly fuller lips. Who wants to measure the results promised over 29 days? Who makes a flow chart for lip gloss? That takes all of the fun out of it.

What is fun is to try it out on your friends and tell them you think their lips are getting as big as those toy wax lips you get out of a gumball machine. Or practice kissing with it on. Your tingly lips might perform differently than what you're used to.

Scarlett Fever Lip Plumping Gloss, $20, available at Scarlett, 104 S. 13th St., by calling 800-862-2311 or from www.scarlettcos.com.

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there