Beauty lab Tinted lipgloss
Each month, our beauty team tests the newest products to see what reigns supreme. Here, Ingeborg van Lotringen gets to grips with an array of not always gloopy glosses
Illamasqua Loaded Lip
Polish, £19 “Polish” – add that to your alternative words for lipgloss.
This has the high-pigment finish of a classic MAC Lipglass (the first to boast of taking the gloop out of gloss, as I recall), but it’s less creamy and dries to a full-cover glossy stain. That means the colour (14 shades) lasts through dinner and will require remover. The glossiness fares less well, transitioning into more of a faint gleam as the night wears on.
Guerlain KissKiss Liquid
Shine, £29.50 Listen up, gloop-phobes: if you want the jelly finish of your classic sheer gloss to stick around, you’ll have to accept a level of tackiness. This one (in six shades) has a modicum of it, along with a teeny bit of glitter. As a result it gets you that uber-glossed look, like something out of an Abba video. It also noticeably plumps, and has enough emollients to keep your lips feeling comfortable.
Clarins Joli Rouge Lip
Lacquer, £22 If you can’t stand even the merest hint of gloop, go for a gloss in stick form like this one. It deposits a lipstick-fine coating of high-shine pigment that rivals any gloss, at least initially. After an hour or so, the vinyl effect becomes more of a satin finish, but the pigment clings on through multiple snacks. Lips can feel a little dry – that’s the price you pay for packing fewer oils than a bogstandard gloss.
Glossier Berry Balm Dotcom,
£10 Yeah, it’s called a balm, but it’s pretty thin in texture and leaves lips flatteringly glossy. “Berry” is the latest instalment, and like its seven earlier shades, its sheer-pigment finish has a similar colour intensity to traditional tinted glosses (think Lancôme’s Juicy Tubes, or Glossier’s own lipgloss). It makes lips feel cosseted against winter gales, and the berry flavour is pretty addictive; I love it for its versatility and low-maintenance appeal.
Revlon Kiss Glow Lip Oil,
£7.99 Lip oils have all the wet-look effect of a gloss (before turning into more of a “glow”) without the stickiness, but they also tend to lack staying power. This one does pretty well, though; the sheer pigment (seven shades) clings on, and my lips feel coated in balm (it contains coconut and cottonseed oil) for a good hour.
Tom Ford Gloss Luxe,
£38 This “next evolution of lipgloss” (naturally) has things like “hollow powders” for “zero-gravity wear”. Basically, its 16 shades are medium-coverage, exceptionally glossy but with a creamy feel, and end up all over anything and anyone they touch, so keep reapplying with the big, fluffy and slightly floppy applicator.