So we savored every single cream bullet, liquid matte lipstick, gloss, balm, and stain (we tried hundreds of them) while determining which ones would earn our beloved Best of Beauty seal because we know we might not be wearing our tried-and-trues - like YSL Beauty Rouge Volupté Shine Lipstick Balm in Rouge Studio or Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Cream Color Drip Lip Cream - in public as often as we'd like.
But now lipstick, just like the world at large, is attempting a shaky comeback to normality, and at Allure, we understand that return isn't necessarily a given. The bold swipe of a full-pigment, matte-red bullet, or the comfortable sheen of a tinted balm, and the glamorous shine of a glitter-packed gloss…few were felt during the isolation and rare, face-covered social outings of the last year and a half.
If there's one beauty lesson we've dutifully embraced throughout 2021, it's not to take our lipsticks for granted.
