Shine on: from catwalks to TikTok, lip gloss is back from the 90s

As a teenager in the 90s, lip gloss was boss.

I was never without a couple of Lancôme Juicy Tubes rolling around in my high school backpack, I smeared on Clinique Chubby Sticks for that shiny je ne sais quoi before first dates and to this day the sweet vanilla scent of M.A.C. Lipglass takes me back to my Year 12 formal.

As the early aughts rolled around, my love affair with lip gloss continued. From Paris and Britney to Lindsay, Nicole and Jessica, no celebrity worth their Motorola flip phone fronted the paparazzi without a slick of high-shine lip lacquer. As I scrolled their misdemeanours (oops! They did it again!) on the internet at home, I too was smearing my smackers with slick layers of gloop that smelled like bubble gum and had the consistency of margarine.

But when my twenties came around, I kissed lip gloss goodbye. I moved on to lipstick, favouring the bold pigments, maturity and sophistication it conveyed, compared with the innocence of gloss. I was also sick of its fly-catching abilities and the cloying scent of watermelon.

Too sticky, messy and tricky to reapply were some of the biggest problems us lip gloss addicts faced, making way for matte, long-lasting lipsticks. As my friend Rebecca said when I told her I was writing this story: “Lip gloss is fake news.”

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But it’s now making a shiny new comeback. Celebrities like Ariana Grande have slicked lips to rival Paris or Lindsey (Grande’s range for M.A.C Cosmetics includes a mauve lipglass), Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty lip gloss range sold out entirely eight times within three months of its initial release, and high-shine lips showed up on the runways of fashion brands including Balmain and Chanel at Paris Fashion Week in March.

Beauty’s obsession with anything that evokes a healthy glow is also fuelling the trend. Full lips signal youth and vitality. And they’re just about the only part of you that’s visible while sheltering in place – whether you’re lip-synching from home on TikTok or video calling a Tinder date.

But lip gloss is not just for those who don’t remember the 90s. “New and improved” formulas claim to do everything from hydrating and treating lips to plumping and protecting them, trying to lure in a generation who can still taste the watermelon from the first time around.

In the spirit of becoming a #glossguineapig, I reverted to my teenage years and tried some.

The gloss with the cult following

I started with the self-appointed queen of the lustrous new arrivals, the Wet Lip Oil Gloss by US clean beauty brand Kosas ($43, from Mecca) – star of 8,600 beauty YouTube videos and counting. It comes in five shades, from Malibu (almost Barbie pink in the tube, much more natural on the lips) to Fruit Juice (um, did somebody say watermelon?) and Jaws (vivid cherry) in a cool rectangular tube with a swimming pool-blue lid that has a little Bauhaus styling about it, if I’m not mistaken. The multi-tasking treatment promises to plump and hydrate while providing a sassy slick of colour.

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It is smooth as silk to dab on, with a pleasingly plump doe-foot applicator. I did find it needed to be reapplied after an hour or two – the consistency is quite thin – but the colour payoff is superb and it’s super comfortable to boot.

The glosses that wear like lipstick

The big news in the world of lip gloss (I know you’re on the edge of your seat) is the hybrid lip gloss-lipstick, as championed by Ilia (another clean beauty brand) and Jouer from Los Angeles. Both swatch on with a sheer wash of pigment that can be built up in intensity, and the Jouer Lip Enhancer Shine Balm ($29 from Mecca) has the added bonus of a subtle vanilla scent that recalls my M.A.C Lipglass days of yore. This time around, however, their silky textures prevent the whiplash I constantly suffered when my ruler-straight hair (thank you, 90s straightening irons!) got caught in the tacky, cement-like formulas I was constantly lavishing on my lips pre-internet.

Pat McGrath’s Mini Lip Fetish Lip Balm Trio ($44, from Sephora) offers a toe-in-the-water way to test drive glossy lips, with three tiny tubes that stay put for hours despite their small size. I alternated between Blow Up (a dusty neutral) for work and Flesh 3 (a rich burgundy) for evening and used the clear balm as an overnight lip treatment. Ironically, I did find myself reaching for Paw Paw ointment to rehydrate between Blow Up and Flesh 3, so the long wear comes at a hydrating cost.

For truly eye-popping colours, the recently released Mecca Max Gloss Boss comes in 15 medium-coverage hues ranging from deep magenta to vivid coral at $18 a pop.

The glosses that go on top

Another benefit of lip gloss is it makes a perfect liquid topcoat, adding a jewel-tone shimmer to the matte lip pencils and crayons. There’s a lot of buzz around Huda Beauty’s new Silk Balm Hydra Plumping Lip Balm, an opalescent pale peach, available in Australia from Sephora, that is well suited to slicking over lined lips. It has a slightly peppermint taste but comes with a hefty price tag ($39). Liquid Lanolin Lip Water by home-grown brand Lanolips delivers similar results, for $16 less. A bit like a serum, is not sticky and has an almost holographic glow in either its clear or watermelon (watermelon again!) iteration.

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With these watery formulas there’s still a hint of my adolescent memories – lip gloss dribbling down my chin like a melted Paddle Pop – but hey, nobody said looking good was easy.

The glosses that save you from sun damage

Maybe it’s our extreme climate, but Australian beauty brands seem to wear better when it comes to protective and nourishing glosses. The Sheen Screen by cult Melbourne sunscreen brand Ultra Violette ($25) comes in four shades that pack an SPF of 50. I used the nude and rose shades for outdoor workouts and found them to be thicker than the average gloss, and the rose shade is particularly pigmented.

Go-To’s Pinky-Nudey Lips! ($17, exclamation point included) also has a good not-too-pink-not-too-almond colour. The tinted balm from the company founded by former beauty writer Zoe Foster Blake has an SPF of only 15, so it’s not really going to do the sun protection job for long, but its colour will complement just about any makeup look or skin tone.

I would also recommend the rose and nude shades of Mecca Cosmetica’s Lip De-Luscious Glide ($30). With an SPF of 15 in a pleasingly minimal magnetised bullet, the two mega-glossy and hydrating formulas work well with daytime and evening makeup.

The plethora of new formulas, colours and finishes mean there probably is a lip gloss out there to suit most tastes now – and with less of that margarine feeling. I may have traded my backpack for a handbag, but it looks like there’ll still be a few tubes of gloss rolling around in there.