Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Vs. Sexy Mother Pucker XL

I have always been a bit scared of plumping lip glosses. The idea of putting an irritant on my lips to make them swell up bigger sounds unappealing, and a step further than I want to take in the pursuit of attractiveness. (I have big enough lips anyway.) Also as someone who suffers occasional cold sores, I worry about tempting fate by stimulating the nerve endings around my mouth and bringing on the little blighters.

However - with the arrival of a review sample of Sexy Mother Pucker XL Extreme Plump, and the tube of Sexy Mother Pucker I got in my Christmas Soap & Glory hatbox still sitting untested, it seemed like the stars of plumping lipglossery had aligned across my chakra (or whatever).

So - what's the difference between the two? Is one more plumping than the other? Read on for swatches and before and after results.




Well, as with most beauty products, it's a case of "horses for courses". They're two very different products despite one sounding like a sequel to the other.


Mother Pucker is a bona fide gloss. It's sticky and comes in a tube with a brush-tipped wand. It has shimmery particles. It smells a bit like a mint humbug. Whereas Mother Pucker XL is more like a lip balm or shine. It comes in a squeezy screw-top container with a Juicy Tube-style slanted nozzle. It is unpigmented and cream-like, with no stickiness. It smells like chocolate.

Mother Pucker is a pretty easygoing kind of plumper - it doesn't sting. It offers a mild tingling sensation, slight pins-and-needles in the lips, but it doesn't *hurt*, unlike some I've read about. It's wearable if you enjoy sticky, tacky glosses (I don't, but many do) and the shimmery finish of Candy Gloss (the shade I'm sporting below) is nice in a playful sparkly sort of way. I think this shade was actually exclusive to the ol' hatbox, but there are a good range of shades available from nude to burgundy.

Mother Pucker XL, meanwhile, feels nice for about the first five seconds - smooth, comfortable - before it starts up with the pins and needles sensation in a more determined and distracting way than its predecessor. This is not something to wear if you're planning on kissing anyone (unless you want them to shy away pawing  at their lips in mystified alarm). I found it tempting during that first five seconds to lick my lips because of the chocolately flavour/scent. But this is a mistake, because it leads to pins-and-needles tongue. Bad. Below is a picture of my lips wearing the XL (and belying none of the drama they are experiencing).

Although they haven't won me over to the cause of plumping glosses (that would be a tough task), the Mother Puckers are a well-priced and well-packaged choice for those curious about this genre of product. Soap & Glory is widely available across the UK and online via Boots (and is now in the USA at branches of Target). Mother Pucker costs £8, and Mother Pucker XL costs £10 per tube.