Skin-Nomad's Take — At a Glance

• Sugar lip scrub that buffs away flakes
• Fine sugar with shea, agave and nourishing oils
• Sweet peach flavour

Lipstick that catches on the same dry patch every time is a texture problem rather than a colour one. The NCLA Beauty Sugar Sugar Peach Lip Scrub lifts that loose surface skin with fine sugar, carried in a base of shea butter, agave nectar and conditioning oils so lips come away smooth rather than stripped. NCLA Beauty makes it in Los Angeles, and it is comfortably the least glamorous product in the brand's lip range.

Key Benefits

• Fine sugar polishes and then dissolves: The granules are small enough to lift loose flakes without scoring the thin skin beneath them, and because sugar melts as you work it, the abrasion tapers off instead of staying sharp throughout. That is a gentler curve than a mineral or shell grit, which is as rough at the end as it was at the start.
• Conditioning happens in the same pass as the buffing: Shea butter, agave nectar and the oils in the base stay behind on the lip as the sugar goes, softening the skin at the moment it is most exposed. Lips come away smooth rather than raw and tight, which is the usual complaint about scrubbing lips at all.
• Vitamins C and E ride in the base, not on the surface: Both are antioxidants, and in a scrub they remain in the film of shea and oils rather than being buffed away with the sugar. They are doing more for the lip after the scrub than during it.

Texture & Finish

The paste is grainy but soft, closer to wet sugar than to a gritty exfoliant, and the granules break down noticeably as they are worked. Lips feel cushioned rather than scoured, and what is left is a light conditioning film instead of a bare, squeaky surface. The peach flavour is soft and sweet rather than sharp, which suits a product that inevitably ends up tasted.

Ideal For

• Skin types: All skin types, including dry and easily irritated lips that find a stiffer scrub too much.
• Skin concerns: Flaky, peeling lips, uneven lip texture, and lipstick that clings to dry patches.
• Best used by: Lipstick wearers whose colour never sits evenly are dealing with the lip surface rather than the shade, which is what a scrub is for.

FAQ

Q: How is a lip scrub different from using a face or body scrub on my lips?
A: Grit size and what the base leaves behind. Face and body scrubs are built for skin with a thicker outer layer and oil glands beneath it, so their particles are coarser and the base is designed to rinse away clean. The NCLA Beauty Sugar Sugar Peach Lip Scrub uses fine sugar in shea, agave and oils, so it buffs a far thinner surface and leaves conditioning behind rather than taking it away, and it is formulated for a product that will end up on your tongue.

Q: Will scrubbing my lips make them pinker?
A: It will not change your natural lip colour, and it is worth being clear why. Lip colour comes from blood vessels showing through thin skin and from melanin, which is present in lips in every skin tone and in greater amounts in deeper complexions. What a scrub removes is the dull, grey-looking layer of dead skin sitting over that colour, so your own tone reads more clearly and evenly.

Q: Do I need to follow it with a balm?
A: Not as a rule. The shea, agave and oils in the base leave lips conditioned on their own, which is the whole reason for scrubbing in a nourishing base rather than a plain one. A balm afterwards is worth reaching for if your lips were badly chapped to begin with, or if you are going straight out into cold air.

Lip care is mostly patience, and this is the one step that shows its work before you have put the lid back on.