Erin’s Faces dropped their Fruit Smoothie Lip Glosses in 2021 and I showed up late, finally trying them for the first time in November 2021. Well, I’m pissed I waited so long because these lip serums are everything. Here’s why.

By: Lisa Fennessy

IN THIS POST:

• Why I love the ingredients in Erin’s Faces Fruit Smoothies Lip Gloss
• Pros & cons of the Lip Smoothies
• Erin’s Faces Lip Smoothies swatched (including the newest color!)
• Exclusive TNK discount code

If you haven’t heard of Erin’s Faces, let me introduce you. This is a small but mighty indie beauty cult fave. You won’t find them in third-party green beauty retailers or in stores, but you will find them direct to consumer on ErinsFaces.com.

The “face” behind this brand is Erin Williams, a professional makeup artist turned makeup and skincare formulator out of her 5 X 10 kitchen in Queens. That was years ago. Now the brand has evolved and grown, and to be honest, turned my head SEVERAL times. 

One of those times is with their Fruit Smoothie Lip Glosses. Don’t let their whimsical packaging fool you—these lip glosses transcend age and style delivering everything you want in a lip gloss and nothing you don’t.

Honestly? I may have found my perfect lip product.

RELATED: Our top picks for vegan lip balms.

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Why I love the ingredients in Erin’s Faces Lip Smoothies

The theme here is strawberries. All Lip Smoothie shades are named after strawberry varieties and the formula actually includes “organic strawberries,” rich in vitamin C and alpha lipoic acid.

Beyond that, a couple of things stood out to me here. First, every single ingredient besides the mango seed butter is sourced organic. Including the first three ingredients. This is huge for me personally and speaks directly to the brand’s values. Often times I’ll be vetting a “green beauty brand”…the ingredients look good, maybe some ingredients are organic, maybe some aren’t…no particular red flags but then the first few ingredients (which is 9 times out of 10 the bulk of the product) is not sourced organically.

It’s a small thing but to me it speaks volumes. Sometimes those first few ingredients can make up 90% of the formula—so if a brand is marketing their product as organic and those first few ingredients are not organic…I don’t like it!

Second, we are seeing the choice to use iron oxides and titanium dioxides as colorants over FD&C dyes. FD&C lakes and dyes have been connected to health concerns (1–9) and are pretty controversial in the “clean beauty” space. Some brands use them, some don’t. Some “clean beauty” retailers will carry brands who formulate with them while others won’t. 

Personally, I’m okay with using them here and there—especially when I want to wear a shade that can’t be made using iron oxides and titanium dioxides alone—but I value when a brand makes a decision to exclude them. 

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Erin’s Faces Lip Smoothie review: pros & cons

What I like:

• Lightweight
• Not sticky or goopy
• Gorgeous shades 
• A touch of mintyness 
• Can wear sheerish or layered for a more opaque look
• Made with a hydrating base of castor, jojoba and shea
• Long lasting hydration
• A focus on organic ingredients
• Gluten free, vegan, cruelty free
• Packaged in recyclable glass 
• Can apply on the go without a mirror
• Formulated with iron oxides and titanium dioxides only

What I don’t like:

• 🦗🦗🦗

RELATED: The best organic lip balms.

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Erin’s Faces Lip Smoothie swatches

My favorite Lip Smoothie shade is Sonata. It’s the perfect pinky brown for me and looks (and feels) incredible on my lips. We got the chance to try all the shades, including their newest one that dropped April 4, 2022. Here’s what they look like applied.

See any shades you like? Have you tried these lip glosses?

TNK Team Note: This article contains affiliate links. TNK uses affiliate links as a source for revenue to fund operations of the business and to be less dependent on branded content. TNK stands behind all product recommendations. Still have questions about these links or our process? Feel free to email us.

REFERENCES:

1.The “lake azo dyes,” “Yellow 5 lake”, “Red 40 lake”, “Red 27 lake”, and “Red 28 lake” are petroleum-derived and the “azo coupling” process is used to make lakes from azo dyes: Hunger K., Mischke P., Rieper W., Raue R., Kunde K., Engel A.; Azo dyes; Ullmann’s encyclopedia of industrial chemistry, 2000 Jun 15; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14356007.a03_245.pub3

2. “Yellow 6 lake” is a petroleum-derived azo dye, which is the dye family with the most carcinogenicity issues: Esen B., Oymak T., Dural E.; Determination of food colorings in pharmaceutical preparations and food additives by a validated HPLC method; Int. J. Sci. Eng. Res. 2018;9:72-6; https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emrah-Dural/publication/327285278_Determination_of_Food_Colorings_in_Pharmaceutical_Preparations_and_Food_Additives_by_a_Validated_HPLC_Method/links/5b86a77e92851c1e123abaff/Determination-of-Food-Colorings-in-Pharmaceutical-Preparations-and-Food-Additives-by-a-Validated-HPLC-Method.pdf

3. “Red 40”, “Yellow 5”, “Yellow 6”, and “Blue 1”, are petroleum-derived ingredients and there are carcinogenicity issues with “Yellow 5”, “Red 40”, and “Yellow 6”: Kobylewski S., Jacobson M.F.; Toxicology of food dyes; International journal of occupational and environmental health, 2012 Jan 1;18(3):220-46; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23026007/

4. Carcinogenic contaminants in “Yellow 5 lake” dye, including benzidine: Prival M.J., Peiperl M.D., Bell S.J.; Determination of combined benzidine in FD & C yellow no. 5 (tartrazine), using a highly sensitive analytical method; Food and chemical toxicology; 1993 Oct 1;31(10):751-8; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8225134/

5. “Red 40” is contaminated with p-cresidine (reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen): Lancaster F.E., Lawrence J.F.; Determination of total non-sulfonated aromatic amines in tartrazine, sunset yellow FCF and allura red by reduction and derivatization followed by high-performance liquid chromatography; Food Additives & Contaminants, 1991 May 1;8(3):249-63; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1778264/

6. “Red 28” ingredient, “Red 28 lake”, contains benzidine (the starting material for its production), for which “there is sufficient evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of benzidine,” according to the WHO IARC: Sponza DT, Işık M.; Toxicity and intermediates of CI Direct Red 28 dye through sequential anaerobic/aerobic treatment; Process Biochemistry, 2005 Jul 1;40(8):2735-44; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222069446_Toxicity_and_intermediates_of_CI_Direct_Red_28_dye_through_sequential_anaerobicaerobic_treatment

7. “Red 28 lake” (congo red lake) is a carcinogen: Raymundo A.S., Zanarotto R., Belisário M., Pereira M.D., Ribeiro J.N., Ribeiro A.V.; Evaluation of sugar-cane bagasse as bioadsorbent in the textile wastewater treatment contaminated with carcinogenic congo red dye; Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology, 2010 Aug;53(4):931-8; https://www.scielo.br/j/babt/a/jCYmxpwjCVWCkND8B6R9qWR/?lang=en

8. “Red 28 lake” is produced from “Red 28”, which is petroleum-derived: Weiser H.B., Radcliffe R.S.; The Physical Chemistry of Color Lake Formation; IV. Red Congo Acids and Red Congo Lakes; The Journal of Physical Chemistry, 2002 May 1;32(12):1875-85; https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/j150294a010

9. “Yellow 5”, and “Red 40”, which are found in Jones Road Cool Balm, were positive for causing genotoxicity in the in vivo comet assay: Sasaki Y.F., Kawaguchi S., Kamaya A., Ohshita M., Kabasawa K., Iwama K., Taniguchi K., Tsuda S.; The comet assay with 8 mouse organs: results with 39 currently used food additives; Mutation Research/Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis, 2002 Aug 26;519(1-2):103-19; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1383571802001286?via%3Dihub