Why So Many Raves? NYX Butter Gloss in Maple Blondie

Yet again, I'm late to the party, but do you guys remember all the raves about the NYX Butter Glosses when they first came out? And then again, when NYX launched their Intense gloss formula earlier this year. Everyone was freaking out over these, buying most of the range and touting it as the best lip gloss in the drugstore. I'd resisted the hype for a long time, but after using up some of the older glosses in my stash, I finally decided to get the NYX Butter Gloss in the shade Maple Blondie ($4.99 for 0.27 oz/ 8 ml). 

The Butter Glosses come in simple slender tubes with the cap reflecting the color of the shade, which comes in handy especially if you have quite a few glosses in your drawer. The tube is shorter than that of NYX Mega Shine glosses. They come with a standard doe foot applicator, as you can see below, but I have to mention that the first time I pulled out the wand, it was all gunked up and covered in gloss, almost like the stopper has malfunctioned or something. I tried to wipe that off, but it's still a bit messy - I'll keep my eye on that for the next couple weeks to see if it happens again, but admittedly I wasn't very happy about it.

 Online, Maple Blondie looked more like a neutral peach to me, but in person, it's quite a bright pinky peach (no shimmer) with quite a bit of a white base, giving the shade a more pastel appearance. I don't really have any similar shades in my stash, but it looks a bit like a cross between Essence Stay With Me Lip Gloss in Candy Bar and the Clarins Lip Perfector in Rose Shimmer.

L-R: NYX Butter Gloss in Maple Blondie, Essence Stay With Me in Candy Bar, Clarins Lip Perfector in Rose Shimmer (one swipe each)

On my mauvey lips, Maple Blondie pulls a bit pinker than in the tube, and right away, you can see the issue with that white/ pastel base - the gloss sinks into and exaggerates vertical lip lines immediately. It also has a tendency to form that disgusting line of gunk where your upper and lower lip meet in the middle of your mouth. Applying very sparingly seems to help that issue a bit, but to me, it's just a sign of a less than ideal formula. As the time goes on, the Butter Gloss starts to feel a bit tacky, and transfers very easily onto any kind of drinking vessel you may be using.

Not sure what I'm missing here, but to me, the Butter Glosses perform very, very similarly to the old Mega Shines, the only real difference being the improved scent (cupcake vanilla versus cherry cough syrup). In fact, I probably prefer the few Mega Shines I still have left in my stash - but then again, maybe I just had bad luck with this shade, and other Butter Glosses don't sink into lip lines as easily. Once more, I'm left feeling underwhelmed and somewhat puzzled by all the hype, which seems to have become a trend for me lately. I guess, all the more reason to stop jumping the bandwagon and start purchasing even less stuff...

By the way, originally, this review was supposed to be all about the bareMinerals Buttercream Lip Gloss in Must-Have Pink (pictured below), which I've had unopened in my stash since January, when I purchased it as part of a (Holiday?) set I got on sale at Ulta. However, as soon as I cracked the tube open for swatches, I noticed that the smell was pretty strange - I still continued with my photos nonetheless, thinking that maybe it was supposed to be like that. NOPE. It's definitely gone off. A new, properly stored, never before opened or touched gloss has gone completely rancid on me. I realize it's just a mini and it wasn't all that expensive, but that makes me pretty pissed. I highly doubt that I will purchase any glosses or lip products in general from bareMinerals range ever again - I should have just stuck to my favorite Buxom Full-On Lip Polishes & Creams, which they also make.

Anyway, back to the NYX Butter Glosses, have you guys tried any of these? Do you agree with the raves? Also, please share any of your 'make-up going bad' stories, I'm hoping this will make me feel a little better; the Buttercream incident wasn't helped by the fact that a couple days later, I also discovered a Fyrinnae Lip Lustre that's gone off in my lip drawer. Have I mentioned that I'm not buying any lip glosses or liquid lipsticks until I finish what I have? Yeah. 'Coz it needs to happen.