New Hue, New You
Lip colour options have evolved in step with our lifestyles, with innovations in formulations, more options to care for their condition and easy-to-wear sheer colour. Find your look now!
Lipstick has long been said to be impervious to economic conditions, a small pick-me-up purchase when other big-ticket items are off the cards. Pandemics, on the other hand, have been more challenging for the classic cosmetic item. With faces under masks, we turned to more low-maintenance products.
But now, judging from the glut of new releases, we are ready to return to a more impactful lip look, albeit tweaked for comfort and care.
CREAM AND SHINE
Classic-style bullet lipsticks have evolved to meet our demand for high pigment colour that swipes on smoothly and leaves lips hydrated and comfortable. There are still plenty of options on the very shiny or very matte ends of the spectrum, but new arrivals tend to embrace a position somewhere around the middle. The perfect example? Fenty Beauty’s new Icon Refillable Lipstick, billed as a semi-matte finish but which leaves lips looking lush and full with a subtle sheen of moisture.
There’s a wearable selection of 10 shades, spanning pinky nudes to red with classic scarlet shade ‘The MVP’ in particular intended to be a universally flattering hue.
“We all know how hard it can be to find THE perfect red,” says Fenty Beauty owner and founder Rihanna. “That’s why it was so important to me that we had the ultimate red shade that looks amazing on everyone. After testing it on all skin tones and almost a year of tweaking to get it just right, we finally have our MVP.”
The new range is refillable, with the lipstick tube and its case available to purchase separately, to reduce packaging waste. The superstar founder says the unique tip of the lipstick bullet shape was inspired by her own famous lips, in particular her Cupid’s bow, but also makes it easier for a precise application.
TREATMENT AND CARE
With the recent expansion of skincare categories comes more consideration of the skin on your lips.
Lips do not have the same protective outer layer, or stratum corneum, found in other areas of skin, nor do lips have the same amount of oil and sweat glands, so they don’t get the same type of hydration and lipids.
Lip balms have previously addressed this with instant-care products, many designed to protect the outer layers from environmental elements like sun, wind and weather damage, as well as forming a barrier to preventing any moisture loss. Yet they often don’t have the required active ingredients to replenish moisture if your lips are already dry.
New treatment products offer more intensive and concentrated care, using the likes of hyaluronic acid to penetrate the layers and deeply hydrate lips. The difference can be related to using a serum on your face, instead of just a moisturiser – the ingredients are designed to go deeper and work for longer.
The ingredients in lip treatments, lip masks and lip serums provide hydration claimed to slightly plump out lip lines and smooth the surface of lips as well as minimise flaking.
Other beneficial ingredients sometimes included are ceramides, to further help prevent moisture loss, firming peptides to support the lip’s natural shape and encourage repair and even retinol or bakuchiol, anti-ageing ingredients intended to tackle dark spots and fine lines around the lips.
TINTS AND BALMS
Casual and quick remain top priorities for many this year, so lip colour that won’t be easily smudged – particularly by mask wearing – or has a coddling texture that smooths and soothes has become increasingly popular.
In particular, that means moist balm-type formulas loaded with skincare benefits with sheer colour payoff that don’t need all day surveillance and can be applied without a mirror.
When it comes to trending colours, nudes and bold red remain the stars for classic lip styles, but plums and grape hues are coming through in glossy balms and sheer tint lip releases, and make a nice alternative in the colder months.
PERMANENT LIP COLOUR
Though it was first introduced as a semi-permanent makeup option in high-end beauty several years ago, ‘lip blushing’ is predicted to really take off this year.
Tipped in Yelp’s 2022 beauty trends forecast, lip blushing is one of the fastest-growing beauty terms being searched on the crowd-sourced reviews and reservations platform. The approach involves the application of a semi-permanent cosmetic tattoo to the lips to create the appearance of a fuller, shaded pout, with more depth of colour, which is particularly useful to intensify your natural lip colour that can lose pigment with age.
You can think of lip blushing as microblading, only for lips instead of brows. Similarly, the pigment lasts for around 18 months.