Back in August when the Enquirer spoke with Jeni Lee Dinkel, she was just starting her new business, Jeni Lee Cosmetics, and anticipating the opening of her first freestanding store in Cincinnati (she unveiled her line at Henri Bendel's in New York earlier that year).

        “I'm anxious about the launch in New York,” Ms. Dinkel said during her interview last year, “but I think I'll know that I've succeeded when my store opens here in Cincinnati, and the women here, my peers, accept the line and come to see me. I'm doing this for them and I want them to know that.”

Jeni Lee Dinkel applies makeup to Cindy Crawfold on the set of the movie Fair Game (File photo) | ZOOM |

        A lot has happened in eight months. The store in Tower Place is doing well. So well that she secured a coveted contract with Nordstrom's and a store in Dallas' North East Mall. Other locations opening this year include Tampa, Columbus, San Diego and Tempe, Ariz.

        “This has been an incredible ride for me,” Ms. Dinkel says. “The (cosmetics) line has really taken off.”

        Like any businessperson, Ms. Dinkel is constantly looking for ways to expand her product line. She believes she's hit another home run with the recent release of Get Lip lip gloss with Viacreme, a lip “enhancer” that enlarges the lip area.

        Viacreme is a patented, all-natural creme created by Dr. Ronald Thompson, a former Fort Thomas gynecologist. The product contains menthol and L-arginine, an amino acid found in dietary products, which stimulate blood flow to the surface of the skin. The lip gloss has no unpleasant taste and stays on for hours. An added cosmetic feature is that tiny wrinkles around the mouth disappear after the gloss is applied because of the increase in the lip area.

        “Friends I haven't seen in a while think I've had collagen injections to make my lips look bigger,” Ms. Dinkel says.

        After years of enjoying a doctor-patient relationship with Dr. Thompson, Ms. Dinkel says the two joined their talents to create a product she says “is fun and cool, and it has a lot of uses.”

        Get Lip lip gloss is $38 and available at all Jeni Lee stores and counters or by phone at (800) 723-2889 .

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