From The Vault: UNE Lip Gloss

My last trip down memory lane for 2015 takes me back to a product which on the whole I admit to finding difficult to love; lip gloss. That said there are one or two that have caused me to give them a mention...

UNE Sheer Lip Gloss

Perfect for bridal make-ups, the UNE Sheer Lip Gloss is light to wear and don't feel as sticky as many glosses on the market. Being fairly long lasting, I have found that I only needed to supply small pots of product to the party to use for touch ups (something I always do when using gloss for bridal work).

I am a big fan of glosses that are sheer enough to be able to use on pretty much any colour lip pencil, whilst still retaining enough pigment to use in their own right, and these are just that. There are five glosses in the collection, from nude (S01) across a range of natural shades to a deep plum brown (S09), all of them beautiful and all versatile enough to wear with or without other products.

The only real negative for me is the brush wand. Packaged in traditional gloss style, there is a brush inside the tube, which is unfortunately quite spikey and short - not ideal for gloss application in the slightest. Although I do not use the brushes and wands that are in gloss tubes (preferring a disposable wand or lip brush for both hygiene and usability purposes), I imagine that if you were buying this for yourself, it would be easy to get frustrated by the lack of quality and bristle length.

Come on UNE, sort out your gloss brush wands!

* * *

For the first time in a while, I can say that I haven't purchased another tube of this gloss. To be fair it hasn't been because I didn't want to but the significant reduction in UNE Beauty's availability in the UK has kind of put pay to it.

From a personal perspective, one of the great things about UNE was that it was stocked in my local Superdrug (a UK drugstore) and it was so easy just to pick up what I needed. A couple of years ago however they withdrew for these shores (and with that my local branch), for a reason I imagine known only to UNE and their parent company Bourjois; even my most frequently visited online stockists have limited stock.

The lack of immediate supply hasn't worried me greatly in all honesty as I have found other glosses high I am equally as happy with and with a similar spectrum of colours so I haven't felt the need to seek out the Internet bargains.

If you are a lover of UNE then I do suggest having a Google as you are sure to turn up some bargain-ous finds; in fact Fragrance Direct are selling their Sheer Lip Gloss stock for just £1.99!!!

It is worth noting that some of the shades contain Bismuth Oxychloride, so if like me it is an ingredient you try to avoid (where possible) it is worth checking before buying.

French cosmetics brand UNE Beauty only hit the UK in 2010. The majority of the products are ECOCERT certified and all are free from parabens and silicones and are cruelty free. UNE work in partnership with Plan, the global children's charity, to protect the rights of girls in Cameroon by promoting access to quality education and helping to provide the skills to enable them to move out of poverty.

www.unebeauty.com

Ingredients:

(* Denotes certified organic ingredient)

Sesamum Indicum (Sesame) Seed Oil*, Glyceryl Dihydroxystearate, Glyceryl Disostearate, Trisostearin, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil*, Tribehenin, Octyldodecyl PCA, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernal Oil*, Parfum (Fragrance), Theobroma Grandiflorum Sees Butter*, Solanum Lycopersicum (Tomato) Extract*, Limonene, Tocopherol

May contain: CI 77019 (MICA), CI 77163 (Bismuth Oxychloride), CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 (Iron Oxides), CI 77742 (Manganese Violet), CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), 09UML0032