Glossy lip trends 2026 to 2027

Gloss moves on a long cycle against matte. The 1990s were glossy, the 2010s were matte liquid lipstick, and the 2020s came back to shine, first as sticky Y2K gloss, then as lip oil, then as balm and treatment. By 2026 the direction turned again, toward decorative shine: frost, pearl, jelly and glitter on a hydrated base. The report is dated 22 September 2026.

The category has the numbers behind it. Circana data reported by Glossy shows tinted lip treatments grew by more than 60% in the year to October 2025, and lip liner by 28%, while prestige makeup as a whole grew by 1%. Lips are where the makeup market is, and gloss is how they are being worn.

What are the glossy lip trends for 2026 to 2027?

Six looks recur across the 2026 trend coverage from Who What Wear, NewBeauty, Pinterest and the Dutch beauty press. Each has a recipe of two or three products and a name that makes it searchable.

Disco lips, the party version, fall between glass and frost: a nude liner, a clear gloss and shimmer pressed at the centre, which NewBeauty traced to the winter 2025 holiday season and a reaction against slick-bun minimalism.

Which glossy lip looks defined 2026?

Blurred lips were the headline. Who What Wear listed them among the six beauty trends of 2026 with Google searches up 300%, Korean in origin and led by berry shades. Makeup artist Christian Briceno described the look as stained into the mouth, not painted on. The matte version dominated early in the year; the glossy version, a stain under a clear gloss, followed as people wanted the diffused edge with shine.

Cherry cola lips kept going. The 2023 look, started by creator @blendsbypouja and reaching 117 million TikTok mentions according to Refinery29, was still on the Douglas Netherlands trend list for 2026. Its structure, a deep liner filled in and a sheer gloss on top, is the template for every cola variant since, including the plum and blackcurrant version.

Frost returned in the winter of 2025 to 2026 under the cold girl name, and Who What Wear's spring 2026 lip list included frosty finishes led by L'Oréal's viral Ballerina Shoes shade. The Dutch summer 2026 press described frosted lips with a subtle pearl sheen, and the rule everywhere was more shine, not less (Girlscene).

What did the Spring/Summer 2027 shows add?

New York Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2027 ran in the second week of September 2026, and gloss moved off the mouth. At Ulla Johnson, lead artist Romy Soleimani dabbed sheer pink lip gloss onto the eyelids for a wet, light-catching lid, using Sisley's Le Phyto Gloss, and glossed lids appeared at Carolina Herrera, Cult Gaia and Sandy Liang as well, in copper, sunset and purple tones over opalescent shadow (Who What Wear; Marie Claire).

On the lips, the palette cooled. The Zoe Report recorded glossy blue and bold red lips at DVF by Emi Kaneko for Estée Lauder, dewy coral and litchi glosses at Ulla Johnson, and a vinyl liquid lipstick at Thom Browne by Aaron de Mey (The Zoe Report). Bustle noted bubblegum pink at Christian Siriano, a cool rosy pink at Tory Burch and deep burgundy at Rachel Comey, with spring shades skewing more bubblegum than coral (Bustle).

London, which followed from 18 to 22 September 2026, put its shine on cheeks and eyes: iridescent blush at Harris Reed and white eyes at Mulberry, with lips left bare in most of Bustle's coverage. Frosted shadow and icy nails in New York point the same way. The 2027 finish is pearl and gloss on a bare, flushed face, and the lip is one of several places it goes.

How do you do the three main looks?

Cherry cola, glossy blurred lips and glass lips share a kit and differ in one step each.

You will need

• A balm and a tissue
• A lip liner: warm brown for cola, plum for the cool version, rose nude for glass lips
• A lip stain in berry or red (blurred lips only)
• A sheer red gloss (cola) or a clear gloss (blurred and glass lips)
• A fingertip or a small brush

Steps

1. Balm the lips, wait, and blot until the surface is soft but matte.
2. For cherry cola: fill the whole lip with the brown liner, blot, then press a sheer red gloss onto the centre and blend it outward until the edge is darker than the middle.
3. For glossy blurred lips: dab stain onto the centre of the lips, blur the edge outward with a fingertip until there is no line, wait 60 seconds, then add clear gloss at the centre.
4. For glass lips: line and fill with the rose nude liner, blot, then apply a thick clear gloss over the whole lip and a second dab at the centre.
5. In all three, press the lips together once and stop the gloss a millimetre short of the edge.

The liner does the wear and the gloss does the finish. The full three-coat method is in the lip layering guide.

Which gloss colours are rising for 2027?

Cool tones. After two years of latte, espresso and the mocha mousse brown of 2025, the search data points the other way. Pinterest's 2026 forecast, reported by BeautyMatter, lists icy blue and frosted makeup up 150%, opalescent up 115%, dark vamp romantic lips up 160%, two-toned lipstick up 100% and the jelly candy aesthetic up 100%. Beautylish reports purple and lavender glosses trending, and Laneige named a Lavender Frosting shade.

Berry is the bridge. Strawberry glaze and sheer berry with a dewy finish appeared on Who What Wear's spring 2026 list and on the Douglas Netherlands list for 2026, and berry led the blurred lip. From there the palette goes cooler into blackcurrant, plum, lilac and milky pearl. A sheer cool violet glaze such as India Anaïs Amethyst Glaze is one example of the direction (sold out; the next edition is planned for spring 2027).

Gold is the accent. Disco lips, gilded cupid's bows and the copper and sunset lids of the New York shows all put a warm metallic against a cool base. The pairing of violet and gold is set to be the 2027 contrast.

What comes next for gloss?

Formula is the trend. Every 2026 source describes the winning product as a hybrid: oil comfort, gloss shine and a treatment claim, non-sticky, with peptides or hyaluronic acid. Essence sells a peptide gloss for €2.99 (LINDA.nl), which means the peptide claim is now the floor. Stylus analyst Lisa Payne told Glossy that consumers return to old looks only when the formulas are many times better than before.

With the ingredient story settled, the difference moves to finish and ritual. Pearl, opal, chrome, frost and jelly are the finishes; layering, matching lips to nails and refillable objects are the rituals. Hermès sells a refillable lip shine, Rhode made its balm into a phone-case accessory, and Charlotte Tilbury sells gloss and liner as a kit. The gloss of 2027 is a system, and the tube is one part of it.

The other half of the system is the hand. Lip gloss nails, glass nails and jelly polish borrowed lip language for manicures; the reverse move, a gloss that matches the polish, is covered in matching lip gloss and nail polish.

“stained into the mouth, not painted on”

Christian Briceno, Makeup artist, quoted by Who What Wear