Lumavera Filler Dual Peptide Lip Volumizer

Reviewed by Monica on April 1, 2015

2 Comments

Over the past year, I’ve been hearing amazing things about the luxury skin care line, Lumavera, but I hadn’t yet gotten around to giving it a try. So, when I had a chance to try Lumavera Filler Dual Peptide Lip Volumizer ($20), I was pretty eager. Lumavera touts using plant stem cell technology and natural ingredients to create anti-aging products said to make your skin look younger — with no parabens, sulfates, or other harsh chemicals. I’m not overly ingredient-conscious when trying beauty products, but I am always excited to try items made with plant cell technology. My favorite skin care obsession is currently Eclos, so I was hoping to fall as in love with the Plant Cell Lumavera line as I am with the Apple Stem Cell Eclos line. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case with the Filler Dual Peptide Lip Volumizer.

At 29, I’ve spent the past decade trying all sorts of skin and beauty care products, and l’ve given a fair amount of time to lip plumpers and fillers. I have decently full lips to begin with, but I certainly wouldn’t say no to an Angelina Jolie-esque pout! Though most lip plumpers do work in a minimal amount, I’ve yet to find one that really makes a difference. Unlike most people, I don’t mind the tingle that comes from cinnamon, ginger, or pepper on the lips and those ingredients generally prove to be most effective — plus, the tingle lets me know that the product is working! However, the Lumavera Lip Volumizer uses castor oil, coconut oil, jojoba and sunflower seed oil, among other ingredients. I found these ingredients to be intriguing, since I’ve been doing some recent research on natural oils and their uses.

Castor Oil is the lead ingredient in the Lumavera Lip Filler, which made me a little anxious when I first noticed this. Castor oil is recognized as relatively safe by the FDA when used as a laxative. You may have also heard of it as being used to induce labor and/or as a punishment for servants and soldiers, though both practices are now frowned upon in most cultures. Coconut oil is everywhere these days, avowed for a variety of uses and Lumavera uses certified organic coconut oil. Coconut oil is found in many skin care products, since it has excellent moisturizing properties, so including it in a lip filler makes sense. Sunflower seed oil and jojoba are other ingredients that seem to be in high-demand for use in cosmetics and skin care products lately. Amusingly, just last night I saw a video for Younique’s new makeup remover wipes, with these two ingredients being the focus. They’re both showing up more and more in cosmetics and the combination in this lip product made me quite excited to try the Lumavera lip filler, narrowly eclipsing my dislike regarding the lead ingredient of castor oil. A final intriguing note regarding my research into the Lumavera Filler Dual Peptide Lip Volumizer is that, outside of the product’s name, nowhere did I see a claim that this product is a lip filler or plumper. The Lumavera website merely states that it “hydrates, firms, and supports dry irritated lips.” If that’s the products purpose, it works perfectly fine and does exactly what it claims to do. However, if it truly is meant to be a lip filler, it doesn’t quite succeed.

When I first received the Lumavera Lip Filler, I tore open the box and lathered it right on over my lipstick. It was the end of the work day and I hadn’t gotten around to taking my makeup off yet so I thought, why not? I was a little surprised at the medicine-like scent, but it was very minimal (not strong enough that my husband noticed) and I quickly got used to it. It also had a slightly chemical taste — I’ve bitten off my fair share of balms and lipsticks and the taste is like a lipstick rather than being generally taste-free like my can’t-live-without-product, Blistex. What really surprised me, though, was the texture of the lip filler. It’s a cloudy, semi-transparent liquid-gel, not as waxy as a Blistex, but not as lightweight as lip gloss. It’s almost invisible when you put it on, there’s just a small shine, not much different from a lip balm. However, it has a grainy feel, resembling little beads inside the gel, which is a rather disturbing when you first try it.

It didn’t cause my lips to tingle, which was surprising, as I’ve never tried a lip filler that didn’t, but this isn’t necessarily a problem; this just made it a little harder to gauge whether the product was working or not. Over time, I got used to the texture and I used the product religiously 2-3 times a day for the last five weeks. Because of the texture, I found the product preferable to use when I wasn’t wearing makeup, so it didn’t interfere with the look of my lipstick. Unfortunately, I can’t say that the product does anything but moisturize the lips. It does this well enough, but so does any lip balm. I saw no evidence of lip filling or lip plumping, nor did I see any recognizable impact from using the product. I can’t recommend it if you’re looking for a result other than lip moisturization and I will be going back to Blistex for this purpose — it’s hard to beat $0.99!

On the plus side, I saw no evidence of adverse effects from using the Lumavera Filler Dual Peptide Lip Volumizer. Also, I’m still interested in trying the Lumavera skin care line, as I’ve read some great things about it. Hopefully, the skin care products will give me a better experience. I’d love to know if others had the same result, as there aren’t a lot of reviews for the product that I could find!