Best Cosmetic Products for Lips

Types of cosmetic lip products

Lipstick

A handbag essential, lipstick is usually one of the first beauty products that make-up wearers buy, and it’s common to see people with a huge collection of colours and finishes so that they can mix up their beauty looks.

Because they’re waxy and solid, lipsticks can be long-lasting, however that largely depends on the texture of the lipstick that you buy.

Lip gloss

Lip gloss may have been big in the 90s, but it’s experiencing a huge revival with more and more people adopting the throwback trend. Lip glosses can help your lips look bigger and more youthful.

They’re usually pigmented, however you can also find clear lip gloss that you can apply over your favourite lipstick shade to give it an instant makeover.

Lip liner

Lip liner, or lip pencils, are waxy products that are either applied along the edge of your lips or all over your lips. They act as a base for another lip colour (usually a lipstick) to prevent it from bleeding out and helping it last longer. If you want to change the shape of your lips, such as making them appear bigger or more symmetrical, lip pencils can help you easily achieve that.

It’s generally recommended to either choose a lip liner colour that’s close to your natural lip colour or one that matches the lipstick you’re wearing.

You can even find “reverse” lip liners, which are colourless and applied outside the lips to create a barrier that prevents your lipstick from feathering. These can help you define your lips without making any sharp edges.

Tinted lip balm

Tinted lip balms moisturise and add colour to your lips, all in one handy little tube. Because they’re so convenient and don’t make too much of a statement, they’re great for everyday wear, whether or not you have chapped lips.

They can be more sheer and have just a hint of colour, such as the range of Burt’s Bees Lip Balms, or they can be more pigmented (even as much as a lipstick), like the Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm.

Lip stain

Lip stains are liquid lipsticks that have minimal shine and are long-lasting, making them a great option for when you need something that lasts you all through work and post-work drinks.

If you want vibrancy and impact without the high-maintenance that often comes with lip products that offer that, then you might find lip stains such as the Rimmel London’s Provocalips are a good option for you.

The liquidy consistency of lip stains also makes them easy to layer - you can deepen the shade with multiple layers or soften your look by applying a gloss over it.

Lip cream

As their name suggests, lip creams are creamy and more liquidy in texture, however that doesn’t necessarily mean they dry with a creamy finish - they often actually dry matte or semi-matte (which is often described as ‘velvety’). Lip creams are usually long-lasting and relatively simple to apply.

Lip plumpers

Topical lip plumpers, or lip enhancers, hold onto moisture in the surface of the skin, which slightly swells them and temporarily gives you bigger lips. They can contain ingredients like hyaluronic acid, shea butter, and various oils to moisturise lips, and mild irritants such as cinnamon and menthol to get blood rushing to the surface of your lips.

Often they come as lip gloss plumpers - the extra shine helps make your lips look even more 3-dimensional.

Finding the right formula

Finding a formula that you feel comfortable wearing and you feel great in can be harder than finding your perfect shade. Lipsticks and other lip products come in countless finishes, but here are some for you to consider when you’re trying to sort through the choice at the lipstick display.

• Matte: Matte lipstick is shine-free, glitter-free, and has a high colour pay-off - what you see in the tube is really what you get on your lips. Matte finishes are generally the most long-lasting formula you can find, meaning you can eat and drink to your heart’s content without needing a touch-up.
• Creamy: A creamy finish offers substantial coverage, can be built up for a deeper hue, and because it has a higher wax content than sheers, has more staying power. Cream lipstick is often a bit moisturising, making it great for all kinds of occasions.
• Glossy: Glossy lip products add shine, are eye-catching, and can make your lips look plumper and more youthful than they are, making them perfect for your next party or night out when you feel like being that little bit extra.
• Sheer: Sheer lipstick is great for daily wear - it has a subtle shimmer and colour, and its understatement means it suits almost any outfit or occasion. Because it has a higher oil content than other finishes, you’ll need to reapply it more often.

  Mecca's matte Pout Pop in shade 'Heavy Hitter'.

  Mecca's Gloss Boss in shade 'Posh Pop'.

How do I pick the right lipstick colour?

Make-up artists usually recommend that you choose lipstick colours based on your undertone.

Skin tone refers to your skin’s depth (it can be fair, medium, dark, or deep) and can change according to the season (like if you’re fairer in winter and more bronzed in the summer).

Your undertone refers to the tones underneath the surface of your skin that show through and affect its overall colour - we call these either “cool”, “warm”, or “neutral”. These don’t change, and you can have any of these undertones regardless of your skin tone.

Cool undertones

If you have a pink, blue, or reddish hue to your skin, or if you feel like silver jewellery suits you better, then you likely have cool undertones. Those with a cool undertone usually also find that the veins in their wrist appear blue rather than green.

Warm undertones

You have a warm undertone if you have a yellow, golden, or olive complexion. Most warm-undertoned people look better in gold jewellery than silver, tend to bronze up quickly in the sun, and have veins that look more green than blue.

Neutral undertones

If you don’t feel like you fit neatly into the warm or cool undertone categories, then fear not - you might have a neutral undertone. This means that the base of your skin is a mix of pink and yellow, and you’re one of the lucky people who suit both silver and gold jewellery.

Of course, there are plenty of warm lipsticks that suit cool tones and cool lipsticks that suit warmer undertones, so don’t feel like you need to follow the make-up rulebook to the T (or at all).

Other things to consider

Ingredients

Some of the main ingredients in lipstick are wax (often candelilla, beeswax, or carnauba), oils (such as castor, olive, or mineral oil), and pigment. Wax is used to retain the shape of the lipstick, oils add moisture, and pigment provides the colour you see.

If you have dry and chapped lips, look for nourishing ingredients, such as vitamin E, aloe, and glycerin, to help your lips retain moisture and keep looking healthy throughout the day.

You should also use a moisturising lip balm or another lip care product before applying lip colour, particularly before putting on a lipstick with a more drying matte finish. You can also use lip scrubs to help get rid of dead skin on your lips so that your lip colour applies more evenly.

Application

Lip glosses and liquid lipsticks will usually either come in a squeeze tube or with a doe foot applicator wand. A wand is generally easier and more hygienic to use, as you don’t need to apply the product with your finger, however squeeze tubes are great for when you want to mix different lip colours.

If you’re shopping in-store, check how sturdy an applicator is and how easy it is to get product out of the tube by doing a swatch on the back of your hand. If it feels flimsy or takes a few tries to get product out, that’s an instant red flag.

Cruelty-free lip products

Any makeup brand can claim that their products are cruelty-free, so you should look for Cruelty Free certification - in Australia, organisations like Choose Cruelty Free and PETA compile lists of brands that have their stamp of approval.

Just because a lip product is vegan, it doesn’t mean that it’s cruelty-free; it simply means that it doesn’t contain any animal ingredients or derivatives in its formula. A cruelty-free product is one that hasn’t been tested on animals.

Some beauty and lipstick brands with Choose Cruelty Free accreditation include Adorn Cosmetics, Eco Minerals, Innoxa, Lush, Natio, and Musq.

Price

When it comes to make-up, you can find high-quality products at low price points. If you’re after a budget cosmetic lip product, tinted lip balms can set you back as little as $4. You can find lipsticks and other lip colours starting from $7 from brands like Rimmel and NYX, and there are plenty of discount pharmacies where you can score an even better deal than this.

If you’re after a mid-range lippie from brands like Urban Decay and Stila, you should expect to pay somewhere between $25 and $45 for your next shade, while luxury lip products like YSL lipsticks and those from Christian Dior will usually set you back anywhere from $55 to over $100.

The bottom line

It can be tricky to choose between different lip cosmetics when there’s so much on offer.

If you feel like throwing any advice about what shades suit what undertone out the window, then do so. Choosing a lip colour and texture that you feel good in and makes you feel confident is the most important consideration you should be making when you shop.

Trying out different shades to get a feel for what kind of look you want to go for should help you find lip products that work for you.