Gisou Honey Infused Lip Oil Review: Three Shades, Honestly Tested

There is a particular kind of beauty product that arrives wrapped in so much noise that you almost resent it before you have even opened the box. The Gisou Honey Infused Lip Oil is one of those. It has been swatched, raved about, and reapplied on camera roughly nine million times, and at around £24 a piece it is firmly in the territory of a considered purchase rather than a casual checkout add-on. So when a trio landed on my desk in Bee-llini Peach, Raspberry Swirl and Glazed Plum, the question I actually wanted answered was a simple one: is any of this worth it once you strip away the gloss, so to speak.

Having now worn all three on rotation for several weeks, through nursery runs, a couple of evenings out and a great deal of unglamorous typing on my sofa, here is the genuinely useful version. No breathless adjectives, just what these are like to live with.

What the Gisou lip oil actually is

Let us start with the substance rather than the story. The Honey Infused Lip Oil is an 8ml tinted oil built around Mirsalehi honey, sourced from the founder's family bee garden, alongside hyaluronic acid and jojoba seed oil. The promise is hydration and a glassy shine without the tackiness you tend to associate with anything honey adjacent, and on that specific count it delivers. The formula is genuinely non-sticky. You can press your lips together without that faint glue sensation that makes you want to keep your mouth slightly open at a dinner party, which is more than I can say for most glosses I have owned.

The applicator is a generous, slightly flattened doe-foot that hugs the lip rather than smearing past it, and the glass packaging has real heft to it. That weight matters more than it should. Part of what you are paying for here is the small ceremony of the thing, the way it feels to retrieve from a bag, and Gisou understands that better than most. This is everyday luxury working exactly as intended: not a product you save for special occasions, but one that makes an ordinary day feel a fraction more considered.

The three shades, and who each one suits

Because the tints are all sheer and buildable rather than pigment heavy, none of these will frighten anyone who normally lives in a tinted balm. They read as your lips, refined, rather than a statement. Where they differ is undertone, and that is where choosing well actually matters.

Bee-llini Peach is the one I reach for without thinking. It is a milky, soft peach with warm golden undertones, the sort of shade that does the heavy lifting of looking awake when the rest of you very much is not. Against bronzed or warm-toned makeup it gives a lit-from-within glow that I have come to rely on, and the scent, a creamy, fizzy peach that is sweet without being cloying, is easily my favourite of the three.

Glazed Plum surprised me most. The name suggests something far moodier than it is; in reality it is a sheer, shimmery plum nude with a bronze cast that catches the light beautifully. On the lip it reads as a healthy, just-bitten berry rather than a proper plum, which makes it the most versatile of the set. It carries from a morning coffee to an evening out without ever feeling like too much, and the faint shimmer is flattering rather than frosty (although I must say, I do typically avoid shimmer products if I can).

Raspberry Swirl is the cool-toned member of the family, a milky pink that looks alarmingly bright in the tube and then settles into the gentlest wash of pink-red once it is on. The scent here leans towards a raspberry milkshake, sweet and a little nostalgic. If your skin runs cool or you find peach tones turn orange on you, this is the safe choice, and it layers beautifully over a neutral lip liner if you want a touch more shape.

What I will say, plainly, is that the differences between them are subtle. If you are expecting three dramatically distinct looks, you will be slightly disappointed. What you actually get is three flattering variations on the same easy, glossy theme, which is either a selling point or a frustration depending on what you wanted going in.

The honest bit: longevity and what to expect

Here is where reviews tend to go quiet, so let me not. The high-shine finish does not last all day, and anyone telling you otherwise is being generous. The visible gloss fades after roughly an hour or two, sooner if you have eaten or had a coffee, which is simply the nature of a lip oil rather than a flaw specific to Gisou. The redeeming detail is that the hydration genuinely outlasts the shine. Long after the glassy finish has worn off, my lips still felt soft and comfortable rather than tight, which is the honey and hyaluronic acid earning their keep. Gisou cites independent testing claiming eight-hour hydration, and while I am not about to verify that with a stopwatch, the comfort claim broadly matches my experience.

So treat this as what it is: a beautiful daytime oil you will happily reapply, not an overnight repair treatment. If your lips are properly chapped and in need of rescue, a dedicated overnight mask will do more structural work while you sleep. The Gisou sits in a different category. It protects, it comforts, and it makes your mouth look expensive, and it asks to be topped up across the day in return.

How it compares to the Dior Lip Glow Oil

If you are weighing up the Gisou, you are almost certainly also eyeing the Dior Lip Glow Oil, because that is how lip oil shopping works. The short version is that the Dior is thicker, more cushiony and carries a stronger minty tingle with a colour-reviving tint, while the Gisou is lighter, honey-led and noticeably less of a production to wear. The Dior also costs more.

This is well-trodden ground for me, because Gisou was the lip oil that came out on top when I put a whole field of contenders up against the Dior. Rather than rehash the entire thing here, you can read the full breakdown in my Dior lip oil dupes post, where the Gisou earned its place as the one I would actually recommend reaching for first.

Styling it: the easy lip combos

For the most part these are swipe-and-go, which is rather the point. That said, a couple of small tricks earn their place. Over a neutral, slightly deeper lip liner, the sheer shades gain a little definition and stay put marginally longer, so a soft brown-pink liner underneath Raspberry Swirl or Glazed Plum is worth the extra ten seconds. Bee-llini Peach, by contrast, looks best left entirely alone over bare lips with bronzed cheeks, no liner required. And if you want the glassiest possible finish for a photo or an evening, a thin layer of any of them pressed on, then topped a few minutes later, holds the shine longer than one heavy coat.

Is the Gisou lip oil worth it?

For me, with caveats, yes. You are paying a premium for the packaging, the scent and the non-sticky finish, and if those things leave you cold then a cheaper tinted balm will hydrate your lips perfectly well. But if you take quiet pleasure in the small daily things, and you want a lip product that feels considered every time you use it, this earns its spot. Bee-llini Peach in particular has become a genuine handbag staple rather than a novelty, and that is the real test of any beauty purchase: whether you still reach for it once the newness has worn off.

If you only buy one, make it the shade that flatters your undertone rather than the one with the prettiest tube. Warm skin, Bee-llini Peach. Cool skin, Raspberry Swirl. Genuinely undecided and want maximum versatility, Glazed Plum every time.

Frequently asked questions

For more of the products that have genuinely earned a place in my routine, the rest of my beauty edit is where I keep the honest verdicts.