In Her Element, a local skincare brand, has just released its Butterlips Conditioning Color (P 345 / 3g, PHP 875 / set of 3 + pouch)! Color cosmetics were highly anticipated since the launch of the brand last 2016, especially since founder Liz Lanuzo, made her name as a beauty blogger. Personally, I think this works out because the skincare expertise just bleeds through this product!

Butterlips Conditioning Colors were created with the intent of providing full-color balms that brighten the complexion. Normally, high-pigment products tend to feel uncomfortable, and moisturizing products don’t usually deliver high pigment. Butterlips just wanted it all (and for another brand that’s recently done something similar with a high-moisture, high-pigment lip product, check out Ellana Minerals Satin Stain Shine.)

All three color names are taken from the children of Bathala, a Filipino deity. The set comes with a pouch designed by Liz herself, who is also into painting! It’s a great size for carrying all three tubes, or any of your loose tita essentials like medicine, coins, etc. It may seem trivial, but I really love a good story and I like to think of the pouch as Bathala enveloping his kids when I’m carrying these colors, hehe.

Butterlips Conditioning Color in Mayari (P 345 / 3g)

Mayari is the goddess of the moon and is described as a clay brown. It is easily my favorite shade. I find it trendy and yet so easy to wear. The tangerine undertones in this brown color make it flattering for fair to deep skin tones, even though It may look dark on fair skin and flush on deep skin. Differences aside, I predict it looks good on all these skin tones, and I don’t suspect it will make teeth appear yellower.

Butterlips Conditioning Color in Tala (P 345 / 3g)

Tala is described as a berry plum. This is also a great color, I find it an inspired MLBB (my lips but better) choice, and something that can look natural on most skin tones. It’s a pretty safe color, but I don’t mind as I find it quite successful in bringing out a good-looking berry/bitten feel.

Butterlips Conditioning Color in Hanan (P 345 / 3g)

Hanan is described as a bright coral, and even when I saw snippets during the development stage, I made my distaste for it known. Sadly, I don’t think the color was edited at any point after. This is the kind of blue-heavy coral that is very difficult to wear. The blue undertones combined with the yellow overtones of the coral plus most Pinays’ warm skin tones pulls very neon overall. Obviously, lipsticks come in unnatural colors as well, but there is just something off about this color.

It reminds me a lot of Ellana Satin Stain Shine in Believe, both of which suddenly become flattering once blotted down. So that is a fix. Blotted down, this color looks more of a soft pink, though I’m quite unsure how it will look on deeper skin tones.

Conditioning Colors

These are great daily lips! The goal of conditioning was not compromised at all, and there is enough pigmentation to keep everyone from looking haggard. I have very dry lips myself and the flakes all just kind of melt and calm down with these balms. Some balms can feel too waxy, but this feels lusciously silky. The top three ingredients are waxes and oils so that makes a lot of sense, but I’m glad they found a way to incorporate this much color in it. I also love that despite the initial layer of product getting rubbed off, the conditioning elements go in my lips and leave me feeling moisturized for hours on end. It doesn’t stain, but there’s enough pigment to keep pressing down on the lips throughout a normal day.

The packaging is a little flimsy. I feel like the cap can come off anytime soon, but it doesn’t feel like robbery considering the price point.

Bonus: The Look

Anyway since we’re all here, I wanted to talk to you guys about the look I created for this campaign. The initial direction was natural, skin, dressed down, and glowy. I took the initiative of brightening the face as well, since we discussed a white background and I find either toned up or heavily bronzed out complexion looks flatter that most.

To get the glow: I layered moisture by applying the Avene Thermal Spring Water Spray, layered with the Innisfree Green Tea Seed Serum, and the Embryolisse Lait Creme Concentre to plump up the skin and disguise texture. Once that settled, I added an SPF primer (Shiseido Glow Enhancing Primer SPF 15 ,) hoping that the SPF would interact nicely with the lights. Lastly, I applied a refractive foundation (Make Up For Ever Ultra HD) something that would absorb and bend the light, to keep it from looking plainly wet.

I had planned on adding serums or oils on top of that, but a light test revealed that we had already achieved the desired complexion!

Complimentary details: for a naked look - I pencilled in a few bare spots on her brow and went to town with the soap. Without brushing everything up and making it look too editorial, I brushed the hairs at an angle to fluff them out and give dimension, without being too glaring.

I also proceeded to lightly (not fully) curl the lashes and coat them with a decent amount of mascara. Mariana has smaller lips and I’m afraid going ham on her beautiful eyes will detract from the product. I used 5 eyeshadow shades to contour and highlight her eyes, so that they would have dimension under the studio lights. Naked looks are harder because you need to put product, and you need it to have an effect but it needs to still be invisible. Lastly, I added nude liner to her lower lashline as a little freshening kick.

Blush and contour were minimal, and we only changed the lips for every layout. At a certain point, I was applying the BCC to Mariana and she thought that I was still loading up on Rosebud Salve ‘til she noticed the color!

In Her Element is available in inherelement.ph, Shopee, Lazada, BeautyMNL, and select Beauty Bar stores.

Full disclosure: I did the makeup for this campaign, but I am not compensated to review this product.