No matter your skin type, lip balms are a universal thing as you don’t need to put as much thought into them. Tinted lip balms are, in fact, my favourite category of beauty. A skincare-makeup hybrid, they nourish and care for the lips while also giving a sheer veil of colour. My curated list of luxury tinted lip balms all have one thing in common – they all feel so luxurious to apply and look elevated to hold and touch.
Pulling them out of my bag to use, or having them sat next to my keyboard, gives me a little moment of joy with every single one of them. As a beauty editor, I’m sure you can imagine that I try a large amount of tinted lip balms, but these 9 come out time and time again at the top of my list. Keep reading to discover your next lip care icon.
Tatcha The Kissu Lip Tint SPF 25
This formula protects your lips from sun damage by blocking out both UVA and UVB rays. It’s so easy to forget about your lips when you apply SPF to the rest of your face. It contains Botanical Lanolin – an emollient that traps moisture in the lips where its needed. There’s also Silk Protein to hydrate and soften.
Favourite Shade: Camellia is a soft red with definite pink undertones. It’s feminine and perfect for all seasons.
Lisa Eldridge Baume Embrace Melting Lip Colour
These delights are 87% natural, packed full of skin-loving ingredients and give a glass-like shine to the lips. They are formulated with plumping jojoba oil and pomegranate flower extract, nourishing hydrogenated coco-glycerides, as well as meadowfoam seed oil – an excellent restorer of dry, chapped lips. However, the real stars of the show are the trio of butters that soften and condition the skin. Shea, murumuru and wild mango kernel butters soothe, hydrate and soften the lips.
Favourite Shade: Sweet Fig is an earthy, pink-toned brown. It’s warm and autumnal and looks great on all skin colours.
Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm
These have achieved cult status for a reason – they are heavenly, and come in the chicest clean-girl aesthetic tubes. They give your lips a serious moisture boost whilst also cushioning it from the elements. Shea and murumuru butters nourish, soothe and condition the lips, preventing chapping and dryness. There’s also softening vegan waxes that give a lovely sheen.
Favourite Shade: Vanilla Beige is a pale, nude, everyday shade for me, that doesn’t require any degree of precision when applying. It’s perfect for ‘no makeup makeup’ days.
Naturium Phyto-Glow Lip Balm
This skincare brand has risen to the stratosphere fast, and for good reason. Their tinted lip balms are just one of many incredible products they make, that are very affordable to most. They all have a yummy vanilla flavour and there’s always new seasonal shades to collect. Formulated with phyto-derived esters, shea, cupuacu butter and plant squalane, this lip balm is deeply hydrating, nourishing and conditioning.
Favourite Shade: Camellia is a delightful, muted, candy pink with incredible levels of glass-like shine.
YSL Loveshine Candy Glow Tinted Butter Balm
With perhaps the most visually stunning lip balm packaging that I’ve ever seen, this beauty is one you’ll be pulling out your handbag at every opportunity. This 98% natural formula offers up to 24 hours of hydration from its maracuja oil. There’s also a blend of shea butter and jojoba oil for further softening and nourishment.
Favourite Shade: Brown Nude is a dark brown that looks amazing on all skin tones and definitely gives autumnal vibes. It’s also slightly pH adaptive so looks a little different on everyone.
Clarins Lip Oil Balm
The Clarins lip oils have had cult status for decades, and their newest creation combines the nourishment of the lip oils with a bit more colour pay-off, in stick form. They promise 24 hours of hydration, and 12 hours of comfort & suppleness. It plumps with hydration, it comforts and it nourishes – with sweetbriar rose oil, jojoba oil and hazelnut oil.
Favourite Shade: Lychee is a muted mauve-pink that looks like a juicy fruit. On pale skin, it’s a ‘your lips but better’ shade of pink, and on darker skin tones, you see the shade a bit more vibrantly.
Charlotte Tilbury Hyaluronic Happikiss
These c-peptide and Hyaluronic acid rich sheer lip tints immediately plump lips with moisture, but also help with plumping over time by boosting collagen production. They give a high-shine slick of sheer colour that makes them lippies kissably soft. Rich in nourishing oils and butters such as cupuacu butter and passion fruit seed oil, you won’t be disappointed with these.
Favourite Shade: Happipetal is an orange-toned brown that has serious seasonal vibes. Giving pumpkin spice season for sure.
Rhode Peptide Lip Tint
Hailey Bieber’s brand Rhode has a dedicated following, and I count myself amongst them. To me, they can do no wrong. Lighter and more gel-like in texture than my other picks, these peptide lip tints feel cooling and hydrating to apply. They plumps and hydrate with peptides, improves skin elasticity and bounce with cupaću, balances the skin microbiome with babassu and moisturises with fatty acid-rich shea butter.
Favourite Shade: Ribbon is a sheer, girly bubblegum pink that would brighten your mood on ever the darkest of days.
Clé De Peau Beauté Lip Glorifier
Clé De Peau Beauté is luxury beauty at its finest. Their Lip Glorifiers have the cutest pink case and moisturise to leave lips comfortable and supple, with a hint of a tint. Formulated with Stearyl Glycyrrhetinate, a medicinal herb, the Lip Glorifiers keep the lips feeling smooth and soft. If you layer them under a lipstick, they even help make the lipstick shade vibrant. Clever!
Favourite Shade: 2 Red looks red in the bullet but comes out as a dark shade of bubblegum pink on the lips, on all skin tones.
Images: Laura Pearson, Brands respectively
