Where Have All the Lipsticks Gone?

I recently had a craving—an unexpected one, but a craving nonetheless. Suddenly, all I wanted to wear after months of glossy balms and lip stains was a matte plum lipstick. Not a crayon,  liquid lipstick, cream, or sheer but an old-school, classic, traditional bullet lipstick, the kind I’ve been using since I got my first tube of Clinique in 2003. But nothing in my vast collection quite fit what I was looking for.

So I went to the mall! For me, that meant the Mall of America, where I knew I could browse Nordstrom, Sephora, Macy’s, and Ulta and do a lot of swatching to find my desired shade. Except… I couldn’t. While there were a handful of bullet lipsticks for sale, my longed-for matte shade of plum was nowhere to be found.

Sure, brands still make bullet lipsticks; they’ll probably always make bullet lipsticks. But what had once been a plethora of options was now scaled way back to make room for glosses, liners, and balms. Even old faithfuls like Estée Lauder, Pat McGrath Labs, Lancôme, and MAC weren’t giving me what I was looking for. When I browsed their counters, all I saw was a slim collection of nudes, roses, and browns, with a red or two thrown in. Nars Cosmetics used to be a dependable source for lipsticks, but it only sells its classic matte bullet lipsticks online these days, and its skinny Powermatte lippie didn’t quite fit my classic craving.

So, where have all the old-school lipsticks gone? I decided to find out.

10 years ago, everyone was wearing brightly colored, matte bullet lipsticks or the new-to-market liquid lipsticks, sometimes even in unique shades like lilac and blue. Today, things are a lot lighter, both in color and format. Glossy balms, gloss and liner combos, and jelly stains are the lip products du jour.

“I think that’s the magic of the beauty industry: It’s always evolving,” says Chanel Temple, a makeup artist and Huda Beauty educator. “Right now, it feels like everyone’s chasing their perfect ‘everyday’ look, the kind of effortless routine that just works and makes them feel like their best selves.” Temple compares it to a daily makeup uniform: “easy, polished, and usually in soft neutrals, peaches, or pinks,” she says. “It’s all about enhancing rather than transforming.” 

Call it the Hailey Bieber effect. Bieber and her brand, Rhode, are known for this simple, barely there beauty look, and the success of Rhode has absolutely influenced other brands to do the same, not to mention the more minimal makeup trends and aesthetics that have dominated the 2020s, including the infamous “clean girl” trend.

Autumne West, national beauty director at Nordstrom, says that customers often reference social media and celebrities when looking for a new lip product. “They come in looking for a specific shade and finish, like, ‘I want something a little pink or natural for summer but don’t want it to be heavy,’” she explains. Some of Nordstrom’s most popular products include Dior Addict Lip Glow Butter, YSL Loveshine Plumping Lip Oil Gloss with Hyaluronic Acid, La Mer’s The Lip Volumizer Lip Gloss, and MAC’s Lipglass Air Nonsticky Lip Gloss. Not a lipstick in sight!

"I believe it’s because of two things: The first is the simplicity of a gloss or balm makes them easy to use and wear,” says West. “The second is that these items fit the ever-ongoing trend of effortless, no-makeup [makeup] and natural or subtle-looking makeup. Nothing too bold or heavy.”

The more muted, softer palette is aligned with current preferences. West also attributes this to the desire for an effortless, easy look you can apply without a mirror or lip brush. “Everyday wearability is a top factor when finding the perfect shade, and the ’90s nude is currently trending,” she says. “There is a shade for everyone! Today, makeup is a little less performative and more of an extension of your everyday authentic style.” The days of getting up at 5 a.m. to craft the perfect burgundy cut crease, sculpt your brows, and document the entire thing for YouTube are over, and it feels like our beauty aesthetic is more about looking unbothered and carefree than cultivating glamour and a well-timed dose of over-the-top glitz.

That’s not to say that lipsticks have been completely wiped off the face of the earth. They do exist, and there are still options—just noticeably fewer options than there were five or 10 years ago. I often stock up on Juvia’s Place matte lipsticks when perusing the wares at Ulta, for example, but it’s hard to find a simple matte bullet lipstick at my local big-box store; liquid mattes reign supreme there. If brands do offer brighter colors and matte formulas, they’re often in a pencil or crayon format versus the traditional bullet shape. West cites Nars Cosmetics and Pat McGrath Labs as great examples of this shift, and I like Ilia Beauty’s matte crayon.

West says Nordstrom customers like Westman Atelier’s Lip Suede Matte Lipstick because it feels softer than a traditional matte. MAC recently reformulated its signature bullet lipsticks, giving some of its most iconic shades a hydrating makeover. There will never be a world without Ruby Woo, even if matte lipsticks aren’t the trendiest formulas of the moment. Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, which launched with a small suite of nude and brown lipsticks in the ’90s, discontinued its classic bullet lipsticks, and the sheer, creamy Crushed Lip Color formula seems to be its current bestseller.

While many companies are reluctant to share their sales data, we know that the beauty category has grown over the past few years, driven in part by social media trends. Could things be slowing down, especially in the face of economic uncertainty, and is that why brands are focusing on the lip products they know people want right now? 

“Consumer behavior in the beauty industry doesn’t disappear in a downturn—it adapts,” says Kimber Maderazzo, a marketing professor at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School and former beauty executive. “While shoppers may pull back on high-ticket items, they still seek out small luxuries that offer comfort, control, and joy.” Historically, this was known as the “lipstick index,” which Leonard Lauder used to explain why lipstick sales went up during economic downturns. 

But we may want to think of a new name for the lipstick index. “During the pandemic, for instance, lipstick became less essential as mask-wearing rendered it invisible,” Maderazzo says. “Consumers didn’t stop buying—they simply shifted their attention to other products. Skincare, fragrance, lip balm, and eye products all surged as new sources of everyday indulgence.” Lip balm became glossy balms, which became jelly stains, and here we are, with me scouring the shelves to find a matte plum lipstick. 

As someone who has been buying lip products for nearly 20 years, I know that matte bullet lipsticks will eventually come back in style. “Trends come and go in cycles, so while we’re all about jelly-stained lips and barely there balms right now, bold matte lips could totally make a comeback in a few years,” Temple says. 

And in case you were wondering, I did eventually find the magenta lipstick I had been coveting at the Chanel Beauty store: Rouge Allure Luminous Matte Velvet Lipstick in 71 Rupturiste. It’s perfect.