Once upon a February in 2024, Hailey Bieber posted a mirror selfie holding her phone, encased in a cover with a built-in notch for lip gloss. This simple yet ingenious idea delighted lip care savants world over, and it made one thing clear—having a lip treatment attached to an everyday essential wasn't just convenient—it was a necessity. Bieber’s marketing is clever but she isn’t the first one to go there either—lip balm keychains, anyone? But the popularity of her chosen vehicle—a tinted lip treatment—points to a growing demand for hybrid lip balms that deliver more than what’s typed in their job description.
Closer home, skincare-infused lip products have been leading the revolution. For proof, look at Kay Beauty’s bestselling hydrating lip oil for instance. “The skinification of makeup has driven innovation, prompting brands to develop products that blur the lines between skincare and makeup. As a consequence, lip glosses and lip oils have now evolved as indispensable skincare investments,” says a Nykaa spokesperson.
The notion is seconded by Diipa Büller-Khosla, founder of indē wild who finds that lip treatments have always stayed by her side. “I applied it before giving birth and before speaking in front of Harvard Business School. It makes me feel ready to conquer any challenge,” she says. From her vantage point, what’s fuelling the thirst for lip products that offer more than just colours and tints is the advent of the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic. “It makes sense why people are now trying to simplify their beauty routine to focus on building a glowy, natural base to enhance their features, not change them,” she adds.
Mini Sood Banerjee, assistant director and head of marketing at Amorepacific Group agrees. She has witnessed the cult-following of lip masks in the country from its nascent stages. Arguably, the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask was the first to take a conventional lip balm and pump it with maximum nourishing benefits. She can now witness the same courtesy being extended to other lip products. “The humble lip gloss is no longer just considered as a product to add colour and shine to the lips. In the post-pandemic world, there has been a rise in consumer demand for multi-functional beauty products,” she explains. For brands looking to capture the interest of modern-day beauty shoppers, there is no scope to overlook consumer feedback for lip glosses that offer hydration and SPF protection.
So, what does the future of makeup look like? According to Banerjee, brands will need to innovate and adapt to meet these evolving consumer demands by developing products that blur the line between skincare and makeup. Expect formulations infused with skincare ingredients—such as actives, antioxidants and SPF—so you never have to make the binary choice between skincare and makeup again.
