Cult Beauty - Clinique Chubby
Whilst it’s always great to celebrate new launches in the beauty world- and there are more than enough of them to do that on this blog every week – there are some cult beauty products we just love to celebrate. Classics that have stood the test of time, maintained their best-selling status, and products that many of us couldn’t live without. So, let’s celebrate one every week!
CLINIQUE CHUBBY STICKS
Clinique’s Chubby Sticks are a phenomenal beauty success. Launched less than five years ago, in April 2011, they are one of the brand’s top-sellers, and have spawned a whole ‘Chubby’ family of products – and a little bird tells me there’s more Chubby love coming early next year – watch this space.
I wrote about the launch on my old blog Beauty Bombshells, back in 2011, these fat lip crayons that you didn’t need to sharpen, and that nourished and tinted the lip. Little did we know then that when stats were collated just a year later, five Chubbies a minute were being sold in the UK.
Novelist, and beauty fan, Marian Keyes loves them – she wrote a love letter to her chubby in 2013. It’s not hard to see why. Clinique hit a winner with this formula, and patented and not copied for a year or so, they grabbed the lip crayon market.
They revolutionised it. Every brand followed with their own version of the Chubby, after the original’s success. I have never reviewed as many lip crayons as I did in the couple of years that followed Chubby!
It’s as easy a way of slicking on a hint of lip colour as you will ever get. Okay, they’re not for hardened lipstick fans, but come the summer months, I can happily swap my matte reds for a red Chubby. They’re a beach essential! Their success lies in the fact that they feel great on the lips, giving all the nourishment of a balm, with just that hint of colour. The extensive shade range also helps.
A simple, clever idea, that looks great and works brilliantly, it’s not hard to see why they have attained cult status before their fifth birthday.
The shade names are also genius – Chunky Cherry, Richer Raisin, Super Strawberry, Whole Lotta Honey, Woppin’ Watermelon, Fuller Fig, Graped-up and Mega Melon, the eight originals.
Of the eight original shades launches, Super Strawberry became the global best-seller, selling over 1 million in just over a year. In the UK, Woppin’ Watermelon was, and is, a firm favourite.
In June 2012 Clinique announced and eight-shade extension to the line, followed by Chubby Intense in Ocrtober 2012 – shades that were bolder and brighter, and more pigmented.
In February 2013 they added the Chubby Stick Shadow Tint for Eyes. That was followed by the Chubby Cheek and Chubby Baby Tint – a lighter lip balm, in July 2014. In January 2015 there was a Chubby Highlight and Chubby Contour added, and then came a Chubby Mascara.
Look out next year for something a bit different in the Chubby line!
Clinique Chubby Stick Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm (to give them their full name), Chubby Eyes and Baby Tint are £17 each; Chubby Contour and Highlight, and Cheek are £19, available from Clinique counters and clinique.co.uk
