Kelly’s question: I saw your post that says Promise lip gloss doesn’t really help you lose weight. But I just read at Bella Sugar that Too Faced Cosmetics has a new lip gloss called Fuze that really works. Is Fuze any better than Promise for weight loss?

Editorial Note: The fine folks at Bella Sugar contacted us and pointed out that they were misquoted in Kelly’s question. They NEVER said Fuze really works. Now, on with our answer.

The Right Brain replies:
Fuze lip gloss is a joint project between Too Faced Cosmetics and a division of the Coca Cola company that makes the Fuze beverage. You can read all about it at Cosmetics Design.

Does Fuse really work?

The primary active ingredient in this product is called Supercitrate, which is the calcium-potassium salt of hydroxycitric acid (HCA for short.) Supposedly HCA works by inhibiting the creation of fatty acids and cholesterol. A study by CV, Garis R, et al, from the Department of Physiology, Medicine and Pathology Georgetown University Medical Center, showed that people experienced significant weight loss after taking this drug. So based on this study, it appears HCA could be a legitimate diet ingredient.

Can you lose lard from lip licking?

But does it work from a lip gloss? That’s a very different question. According to their study, researchers saw weight loss when test subjects ingested about 5 grams of the chemical 3 times a day. That’s a total of 15 grams each day. An average tube of lip gloss is .25 to .5 ounces, which is about 7 to 14 grams. So, if Fuze was 100% HCA you’d have to use almost an entire tube a day to get the weight loss benefit. But it probably contains much less than 100%. If it’s only 10% HCA, you’d have to use 10 tubes per day! And if it was only 1%…well, you do the math.

Using 10 or more tubes of lip gloss seems a little impractical to us. So, based on the study we found, we’re really skeptical that this product can help you lose weight. Of course, if Too Faced Cosmetics have run their own studies that show Fuze lip gloss does really work, we’d be glad to review them and reconsider our opinion.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Fuze is a fizzle, in our opinion. And we always recommend checking with your doctor if you’re considering taking any kind of diet aid drug. We’re cosmetic chemists, not medical weight loss experts. If you still want to check it out, you can find Fuze at Amazon.com