Cassandra Bankson has looked at more than 10 lip products, from cheap drugstore scrubs to pricey masks and glosses. She approved most of them, with an approval rate of 60%. A handful she passed on, and her reasons are worth knowing before you spend.
What does Cassandra Bankson recommend in lip?
Hydration is the thing she keeps coming back to. She praised the Torriden Solid-In Ceramide Lip Essence for keeping lips soft all day without creating a cycle where you need to keep reapplying. That matters if you have chronically dry lips that seem to get worse the more product you put on. She also rated the Glow Recipe Plum Plump Hyaluronic Gloss Balm highly, noting that hyaluronic acid is great for lips and that she woke up with genuinely hydrated lips after wearing it overnight. For daytime, she called out the EltaMD UV Lip Balm Broad-Spectrum SPF 36 as a strong pick because it has SPF, which most lip products skip entirely. She named St. Ives Watermelon Sugar Lip Scrub her winner in this category, saying it cleared dry, flaky lips within days and costs a fraction of what pricier scrubs charge.
In her words
"If you just put this on in the morning or even the night before, you have hydrated smooth lips for the entire day. And this doesn't leave you in that cycle of drying out the lips and like having to reapply this even more because you put the lip product on but then you feel like it's just making the issue worse. I love love love love love this. It's so inexpensive, I usually get it from Amazon, from Style Vana, or from Style Korean."
"It's [...] a little bit more translucent but it's also a little bit more sticky and this actually hydrates better in my opinion. When I put this on at night and I wake up in the morning my lips actually feel hydrated. It smells divine and [...] it's light, it's not overbearing. [...] This is clear, it's a little bit more sticky but this works so well and it actually keeps the lips hydrated. It has hyaluronic acid in here which is phenomenal for the lips."
"It's literally a fraction of what I was paying for the Bite Beauty one, it tastes better than the Bite Beauty one, it makes me look better than the Bite Beauty one. The granules are much finer than those big chunky ones. It smells like Hubba Bubba watermelon Bubble Gum as opposed to like watermelon cough syrup. The exfoliation is helping heal my lips [...] in a way. It literally [...] took one day to get rid of the crusties and [...] then about four days to get rid of all the split lip."
"I really really love the Bite lip products. [...] Bite Beauty is fantastic. They have some amazing and innovating products and I love them so much. This is a great lip cream. Overall, if you have dry lips, especially post-Accutane, this is what I recommend if people are looking for a cruelty-free, a little bit more luxury option of a post-Accutane lip treatment. If you have super dry lips and skin, this stuff is amazing."
"It's lightweight, it's hydrating and it's pretty. It's just a little bit more expensive but this is a solid choice. If other people online have gotten breakouts around your lips or the Lage leaves your lips drier, this generally does not do that."
"I think I would recommend the Elta MD lip balm for daytime use. That's a really good one because it has SPF in it."
How many lip products has Cassandra Bankson reviewed?
Cassandra Bankson has reviewed 15 lip products, for an approval rate of 60%. 9 approved, 2 mixed, and 4 skipped.
What has Cassandra Bankson skipped in lip?
Her skips were mostly designer lipsticks. She was direct about Dior Lipstick, calling it patchy despite the price, and said that with YSL Lipstick the bottle matters more to buyers than the formula does. She skipped Dior Addict Lip Maximizer too, describing the brand as a designer name on underwhelming makeup. She also had reservations about Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask, pointing out that for some people it can cause breakouts around the mouth or actually leave lips drier by morning, and that there is nothing in it she considers worth the price.
"The lipsticks that are patchy yet we pay hundreds of dollars for them"
"If it's more important that you're taking out a YSL lipsstick and it's beautiful bulleted artistic bottle doesn't really matter what the formula is"
"I don't use Dior anymore because I think they're an overpriced makeup brand. They're a designer that slapped their name on some really crappy makeup. Their eyeshadows are horribly pigmented. I used to [...] have this lip gloss, an orange one, and I spent a ridiculous amount of money on it. [...] It wasn't that great—it was really sticky. But you know what, it looks great on her and the color is very pretty, so it wasn't as bad as the eyeshadows."
"I don't know if I want to pay $24 for that, and I'm also not going to because it's not cruelty-free. If you're someone who puts this on and you're [...] getting breakouts around your lips, or if you wake up with drier lips than when you started, that's something to consider. There's nothing toxic or dangerous in here, but there's nothing revolutionary either, and with the coconut oil I could see that causing breakouts for some people."
What should you take from Cassandra Bankson's picks?
Cassandra's record here shows she is most impressed by products that solve a real dryness problem without creating a new one. She has a soft spot for value, which is part of why the St. Ives Watermelon Sugar Lip Scrub stood out to her so strongly. If you are weighing up whether a high-end lip product is worth it, her takes suggest the formula matters far more than the brand on the label.
Watch Cassandra Bankson say it
Every verdict here comes from a video. These are the moments themselves, each one jumping straight to the bit about that product.
- St. Ives Watermelon Sugar Lip ScrubNamed a winnerWatch at 6:43
- Dior LipstickSkipped itWatch at 3:33
- YSL LipstickSkipped itWatch at 15:51
- Dior Addict Lip MaximizerSkipped itWatch at 17:03
- Laneige Lip Sleeping MaskSkipped itWatch at 3:08
- Torriden Solid-In Ceramide Lip EssenceRated itWatch at 13:00
- Glow Recipe Plum Plump Hyaluronic Gloss BalmRated itWatch at 5:40
- Bite Beauty Agave Lip MaskRated itWatch at 17:25
- Tatcha Kissu Lip MaskRated itWatch at 12:03
- EltaMD UV Lip Balm Broad-Spectrum SPF 36Rated itWatch at 24:49
- Rhode Peptide Lip TreatmentRated itWatch at 16:51
- MD Solar Sciences Hydrating Sheer Lip Balm with SPFRated itWatch at 18:22
- Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Magic Lip OilRated itWatch at 18:00
About this expert
See everything Cassandra Bankson has reviewed
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This guide reflects what Cassandra Bankson said across her videos about 15 products in lip, aggregated by The Guru Index. Sponsored takes are excluded. The approval rate is the share of these products she approved. It is general information, not medical advice.