Company Overview! A closer look at Kae Q

Purchased

This has been a really busy month for Kae Q. A huge cleanout and a brand new off-Etsy website, and really sexy looking new beso balm sticks! I've been haunting their page, lusting after several products and trying really, really hard not to break my current no-buy.

Back at the end of May I took a look at Kae Q for the first time, and while I really enjoyed the ingredients, the besito balm samplers left something to be desired.

I'm still pretty undecided. Ultimately I don't buy balms for color, I buy them to keep my lips moisturized and happy throughout the day. But there's this tiny part of me that does feel a little mislead by the super vibrant pigmented photographs on the website. And then... there's another part of me that looks at those and wonder, "Well, maybe they are really pigmented, but you're just lousy at applying lip product with a brush from a sample pod." I'm not really sure where the truth lies, but I think it's a little bit in both camps.

I got some awesome feedback and advice when I shared this post on /r/indiemakeupandmore, namely to try heating up my sample pods! This never even occurred to me! So I dug out my samples again and blasted them with my hairdryer - be careful if you decide to try this because I stupidly didn't realize that besito pods are light and tiny... obviously they're going to blow away and start ricocheting across my bathroom walls.

I'm really happy to report that this totally did the trick! Look how creamy the surface of this besito is after some hairdryer action:

Gaze upon the creamy fingerprint marks

 Once I heated up my samples, they were soft and creamy, maybe even a smidge too much! It was SO much easier to spread across my lips and swatch:

Check out how creamy Mamey is!

Above all, the color payoff for the besitos was way better than my "cold" attempt before. I'm not as good at photographing my lip swatches as others, but I think these two comparisons speak for themselves.

Please excuse my freckly lips.

I already spoke in my last review about the creamy quality of these lip balms, but I'm pretty pumped now that the color payoff is as enjoyable as the lovely formula! I especially like how Snapdragon is a pleasant "my lips but better" shade, and I love how Mamey is way brighter than I originally thought.

Much like leaving a vial of perfume to sit and age only to revisit with a new experience, I'm really glad I picked these back up! Unfortunately, now it's going to be even more tricky to adhere to my no-buy...

If you've tried out the Kae Q balms before, did you have a similar experience?