Quick Summary: Glossy Lips Makeup Trend
- Fenty Beauty’s Gloss Bomb Stix High-Shine Gloss Stick just landed five new shades at Ulta, and shoppers are already asking for a restock.
- Glossy lips have been the dominant lip trend of 2026, replacing matte across the Golden Globes red carpet and spring runway shows.
- Lisa, Ariana Grande, and Sarah Snook all wore transparent or glossy finish lips at the 2026 Golden Globes instead of traditional matte lipstick.
- Rihanna has worn multiple glossy lip looks this year, from a rose gold frosted red carpet moment to a berry gloss combo on a NYC date night.
- The technique matters as much as the product. Layering a hydrating balm, sheer color, and clear gloss recreates the look at any price point.
- This is a style and beauty trend piece, not a confirmed vs. rumored story. Every claim is sourced to a named beauty or entertainment outlet.
What Happened
Glossy lips have taken over 2026 makeup, and Rihanna just gave the trend its biggest push yet. Fenty Beauty’s Gloss Bomb Stix High-Shine Gloss Stick landed new shades at Ulta this week, arriving right as celebrities and runway shows have spent the whole year quietly replacing matte lips with shine.
What does the glossy lips makeup trend actually look like in 2026?
The 2026 version of glossy lips isn’t the sticky, heavy gloss from a decade ago. It’s a lightweight, mirror like shine layered over hydrated lips, often paired with a soft, blurred edge instead of a hard lip line. Formulas now feel more like a treatment than a topcoat.
Runway Live’s spring 2026 coverage traces this shift to fashion month, where a gloss-balm hybrid texture showed up across the board. Beauty trend forecaster DeRoest, quoted by Who What Wear senior beauty editor Jamie Schneider, described it as a move away from both the precision of matte and the heaviness of old school gloss, toward something more skin like.
The blurred edge that goes with it has its own technique. Runway Live’s runway trend recap says makeup artists backstage built it with a lip liner close to the natural lip color, then pressed a sheer lipstick or balm inward over the top instead of outward, so the color melts into the skin instead of sitting on top of it.
That in-between texture is exactly why the trend has stuck around all year instead of fading after one red carpet moment.
Why is Rihanna’s Fenty Gloss Bomb having a moment right now?
Fenty Beauty just expanded its Gloss Bomb Stix line at Ulta, and shoppers are already asking for more. The $27 stick combines lipstick level color with gloss level shine, and the new shades sold out fast enough that fans are calling for a restock.
Parade reports the new shades include Sweet Whiskey, a rich mahogany, Birthday Suit, a peachy nude, Black’r Berry, a deep berry, Lu$t Bunny, a rosy nude, and Midnight Ballerina, a plum brown. Since Fenty Beauty launched in 2017, Rihanna has built the brand around formulas that work across a wide range of skin tones, and the Gloss Bomb Stix line has become one of its most consistent bestsellers.
This drop lands at exactly the right moment. Glossy lips were already the dominant lip story of 2026, and Rihanna’s own brand just handed fans an easy way to buy directly into the trend she’s been wearing all year.
Which other celebrities are wearing glossy lips this year?
Rihanna isn’t the only one. The 2026 Golden Globes were light on traditional red lipstick, with several A-listers choosing transparent gloss or a glossy, contoured lip instead of full color.
Runway Live reports that Lisa and Ariana Grande both wore transparent gloss on the Golden Globes red carpet, while Sarah Snook’s makeup artist Mary Wiles used a warm, barely there red with a glossy finish to keep the shade feeling current rather than old fashioned. On the runway, glossy lids showed up at Prada, Bottega Veneta, and Marni, extending the same high shine logic from lips to eyes.
Rihanna herself has worn the look in more than one setting this year. Elle India reports she stepped out in a rose gold frosted lip on the red carpet, and Who What Wear covered a separate NYC date night with A$AP Rocky where makeup artist Hector Espinal built a glossy berry lip combo using Saie’s Glossybounce Lip Gloss Oil and Dior’s Lip Glow Oil. Elle India also points to Madelyn Cline as one of the trend’s cooler, more subtle interpreters, favoring a soft shimmer over Rihanna’s higher shine finish.
How do you get Rihanna’s glossy lip look at home?
The technique matters more than any single product. Start with a hydrating lip balm, add a thin layer of color, then finish with a clear gloss focused on the center of the lips where light hits hardest.
Girlactik’s 2026 lip trend guide breaks the method down into a few repeatable steps:
- Prep with a hydrating balm five to ten minutes before applying any color, so the gloss doesn’t settle into fine lines.
- Layer a stain or sheer lipstick first, then press a clear or tinted gloss over the top instead of dragging it on.
- Focus extra gloss on the center of the lips for the “vinyl lip” light reflecting effect rather than coating the whole lip evenly.
- Choose lightweight, non sticky formulas with hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid so the shine lasts without feeling heavy.
The price range on this look is wider than it looks. For the exact Rihanna hero product, Fenty’s Gloss Bomb Stix runs $27 and delivers the color-plus-shine combo in one step. A step down, Who What Wear’s beauty team has covered Rhode’s Raspberry Jelly Peptide Lip Tint as a close dupe with a similar hydrating, high shine finish. On the budget end, e.l.f.’s Glossy Lip Stains cover the same technique for a fraction of the price, which makes this one of the easier celebrity beauty looks to recreate without spending like Rihanna does.
Is 2026’s glossy lip trend different from old 2000s lip gloss?
Yes, and the difference comes down to formula. The sticky, heavy gloss that defined the early 2000s has been replaced with lightweight, buildable textures that feel closer to skincare than to old school makeup.
Elle India’s coverage of 2026’s frosted lip revival makes the same point about the Y2K adjacent shimmer trend running alongside it. The new formulas deliver a pearlescent, high shine finish without the chalky, drying texture that made shimmer lips feel dated the first time around and eventually fall out of favor. Runway Live describes the broader gloss-balm category the same way, built for comfort and wearability rather than pure shine for its own sake.
That formula upgrade is a big part of why this revival has lasted through spring and into summer instead of burning out the way earlier frosted lip moments did.
Will glossy lips stay trendy through the rest of summer 2026?
Glossy lips aren’t just a standalone lip story either. Runway Magazine’s 2026 season recap notes that smoldering bronze eye makeup has become one of the year’s defining eye looks, and it’s most often paired with bare, glowing skin and a glossy lip rather than a full matte face. That pairing is part of why the trend has spread so easily beyond red carpets and into everyday makeup routines.
All signs point to yes. Runway Live’s spring 2026 beauty coverage calls the glossy lip shift a season long consensus rather than a passing microtrend, and that read lines up with everything from red carpet choices to Fenty’s newest product drop.
Dior Beauty backstage makeup artist Jamie Coombes, NARS senior artist Jen Lyons, and Sculpted By Aimee founder Aimee Connolly have all separately named high shine, “shellac looking” lips as a top summer 2026 trend, according to Runway Live. Runway shows, red carpet choices, and a major beauty brand’s own product calendar rarely line up this cleanly behind one look at the same time.
With celebrity makeup artists, runway shows, and major beauty brands all pointing the same direction, glossy lips look set to carry through the rest of the season rather than fade out early. The bigger question isn’t whether the trend holds, it’s which finish you land on inside it, Rihanna’s high shine version or the softer, blurred take Sarah Snook and Madelyn Cline have been wearing.
Timeline
- Spring 2026: Fashion month shows a gloss-balm hybrid texture across multiple runway collections, according to Runway Live.
- 2026 Golden Globes: Lisa, Ariana Grande, and Sarah Snook wear transparent or glossy finish lips on the red carpet instead of traditional matte lipstick.
- Earlier this year: Rihanna wears a rose gold frosted lip on the red carpet and a glossy berry lip combo on a NYC date night with A$AP Rocky.
- This week: Fenty Beauty expands its Gloss Bomb Stix High-Shine Gloss Stick line with five new shades at Ulta, per Parade.
Sources
- Parade, “Rihanna’s Lip Gloss Just Got New Shades at Ulta, and Shoppers Say They ‘Need a Lifetime Supply'”
- Runway Live, “Lacquered Lips: Why Gloss Is Replacing Matte in 2026”
- Runway Live, “Runway Makeup Trends 2026: The Looks Defining the Season”
- Elle India, “Frost Is Back: Why Your Next Lip Look Should Be Icy”
- Who What Wear, “Rihanna Wore ‘Winter Berry’ Lipstick on Her NYC Date Night With A$AP Rocky”
- Girlactik, “Makeup Trends for Lips 2026”
- Runway Magazine, “The Best 2026 Makeup Trends According to Runway Magazine”
Final Takeaway
Glossy lips didn’t just survive 2026, they became the year’s defining lip trend, and Rihanna’s Fenty Gloss Bomb restock is proof the moment isn’t slowing down. Between Golden Globes red carpets, spring runway shows, and now a fresh product drop, every signal points the same direction. If you’ve been on the fence about trying a glossy lip, this is about as clear a green light as beauty ever gets, and with Fenty’s new shades already restocking, there’s no better week to finally try it.
FAQ
Is the glossy lips trend still popular in summer 2026? Yes. Runway shows, the 2026 Golden Globes red carpet, and Fenty Beauty’s newest product drop are all pointing to glossy lips as the season’s defining lip look, not a passing moment.
What makes Rihanna’s Fenty Gloss Bomb different from regular lip gloss? It combines lipstick level color with gloss level shine in one $27 stick, which is part of why it’s become one of Fenty Beauty’s most consistent bestsellers since the brand launched in 2017.
Which celebrities besides Rihanna are wearing glossy lips? Lisa, Ariana Grande, and Sarah Snook all wore glossy or transparent lips at the 2026 Golden Globes, and Madelyn Cline has become known for a softer, shimmer forward take on the same trend.
How do you recreate a glossy lip look at home? Prep with a hydrating balm, layer a sheer color, then press a clear or tinted gloss over the center of the lips rather than the whole lip for a light reflecting, vinyl finish.
Is 2026’s glossy lip trend different from 2000s lip gloss? Yes. Today’s formulas are lightweight and hydrating rather than sticky and heavy, which is a big reason this revival has lasted through spring and into summer instead of fading fast.
Are there budget alternatives to Fenty’s Gloss Bomb Stix? Yes. Rhode’s Raspberry Jelly Peptide Lip Tint and e.l.f.’s Glossy Lip Stains both use the same hydrating, high shine approach at a lower price point.
Does the glossy lips trend pair with other 2026 makeup trends? Yes. It’s frequently paired with smoldering bronze eye makeup and bare, glowing skin, which is part of why the look has spread from red carpets into everyday makeup routines.
Debate Poll
Which 2026 glossy lip take wins: Rihanna’s high shine, full gloss finish, or the softer, blurred shimmer that Sarah Snook and Madelyn Cline have been wearing?
- Full gloss, all the way. If you’re going shiny, go all in like Rihanna.
- Soft and blurred wins. The subtler shimmer look is more wearable day to day.
Why did you vote that way? Drop your take in the comments.
Ready for the revision pass, or straight to image prompts since this one came in clean on the first draft?
