How Wearable Are Lip Stains Really? R29 Staffers Put 5 To The Test

If you've been on TikTok lately (and let's face it, it's endlessly addictive) you might have spotted the app's beauty obsessives fawning over one particular makeup product. This time it isn't Charlotte Tilbury's Hollywood Flawless Filter or Maybelline's Lash Sensational Sky High Mascara. Rather, TikTokers can't get enough of lip stains.

Lip stains are nothing new, of course, but it's fair to say they're staging a comeback. Big time. On TikTok alone, the hashtag #lipstain has 93 million views while the phrase has been mentioned an enormous 176.8 million times. It seems we're on the hunt for the very best ones, too, with Google Trends showing a sharp uptick in searches this past month.

Reminiscent of the '90s and '00s, tutorials prove that a pin prick of the highly pigmented product is more than enough to lend lips that coveted 'just bitten' look, while a more generous slick underneath a heavy helping of gloss plumps and shapes lips in moments. Perhaps its resurgence has something to do with our yearning for a more low maintenance makeup look lately. A quick dab is meant to last, and the product can double up as both blush and eyeshadow, too.

But how wearable are lip stains really? Those who dabbled years ago might remember that there was no room for mistakes. Just like the name suggests, the pigment really stuck around, and if you weren't too keen on the final result, well, it was kinda tough.

2022's latest offerings seem a lot more promising, though. From Fenty Beauty through to e.l.f., R29 staffers put five trending lip stains to the test. Here are their unfiltered thoughts.