Philosophy Under The Mistletoe Lip Shine Set Holiday 2010

It's that time of year again when blogs start posting holiday gift ideas. I bought this Philosophy set recently and it dawned on me that it would make a really great gift (or four). I am selfishly keeping this for myself, but I guess there's nothing stopping me from buying another one for someone else...

The Under The Mistletoe set is a box of four of Philosophy's amazing lip shines in new holiday flavors. This year they're candy-themed scents instead of baked goods like previous years. Comes in a pretty nice box:

It's actually pretty sturdy. It has a cardboard sleeve (with a gross picture of kissing babies) and a very solid pull-out drawer with a pretty printed red glitter pattern and light blue lining. You could totally use the pull-out drawer for something once you take the gloss out, but I can't think of what. Change tray? Makeup organizer? No clue. It feels too nice to throw out.


This is what you see when you pull out the drawer. It contains lip shines in Peppermint Bark, Candy Cane, Pink Frosted Cookie and Have a Cherry Christmas.


Ooooh, they're so pretty. Peppermint Bark is a sheer red shimmer, Candy Cane is clear, Pink Frosted Cookie is a sheer pink shimmer (but essentially clear), and Have A Cherry Christmas is a slightly lighter sheer red shimmer but looks almost the same as Peppermint Bark.

They don't provide a whole lot of color or shimmer, but they are really shiny:

Peppermint Bark, Candy Cane, Pink Frosted Cookie, Have A Cherry Christmas. As you can see, they're really sheer, only the two red shades add a small amount of color.

Peppermint Bark has a chocolate peppermint type scent. Reminds me a bit of C.O. Bigelow Double Chocolate Shake Mentha Lip Shine.

Candy Cane is straight peppermint- and it's STRONG.

Pink Frosted Cookie is harder to describe. It has a vanilla cake type base but a sharp perfumey fruity sort of scent on top. It's not smooth like cupcake or fresh like strawberry, I find the scent a little odd- it has a distinct 'perfume' type smell to me. Maybe a bit like Philosophy Belgian Waffle Cone mixed with Sugar Plum Fairy?

Have A Cherry Christmas might be my favorite one- it has a very sweet candy cherry scent. It's not too fake or sour or sickening like cough medicine. Cherry scents can be a tricky territory, but this one is just right. Not realistic cherry, but definitely not cough syrup!

All of them are slightly sweet tasting, so there's not just scent in them. Very pleasant, no funky Stevia bitter taste, which I'm thankful for.

The texture is thick and marginally sticky. Not extremely sticky, but enough for your hair to get stuck in it on a windy day. They feel a little more moisturizing on my lips than the average gloss and I don't feel like my lips are dry after they wear off.

I like that they're really strongly scented/flavored. I like my lip products flavored and scented, and as long as the scents are good, the stronger, the better! They're not so strong that they'll make you sick from smelling them, but they're strong enough to smell for a while after you apply them.

I'm a pretty big fan of Philosophy's lip shines, and really a pretty big Philosophy fan in general. They make shower gel that smells like cake. How could I not be? I love that they always do scents that appeal to me- Red Velvet Cake, Sugar Cookie (which doesn't smell like sugar cookies, more like lemons), Pumpkin Spice Muffin, Ooey Gooey Smores (quite possibly their best lip shine flavor EVER), Cinnamon Buns, Snow Angel (smells like angel food cake!), Gingerbread.... the list goes on. I'm rarely disappointed by the lip shines.

Anyway, I thought this set was a pretty good deal considering that these would each be $10 individually. Good quality, nice scents, attractive packaging, overall just a nice little set. Why don't people get me things like this for Christmas? I really don't want another pair of driving gloves that I'll never wear. Hmph.