The Best Lip Oils and Lip Glosses

If your lips are dry and you still want to look done, this is the one. The texture is closer to a balm than a gloss, so it fills in flaky patches instead of sitting on top of them and highlighting every crack. In Byrdie's editor roundup of products for dry lips, it ranked first overall on a moisture-retention scale measured at one and four hours after application, ahead of five pricier options.

The color is barely there on purpose. Shades like Pink Sugar give you a hint of tint that reads as your lips looking healthy rather than your lips looking painted. If you're the kind of person who wants makeup that nobody can point to, that's exactly right. If you want actual color payoff, it's the wrong product — layer it over a lipstick instead, which is how a lot of owners use it.

Owner feedback lands on the same word again and again: comfortable. It's rich without the heavy, gluey drag that makes you want to wipe a gloss off. Summer Fridays cites an independent consumer use study of 39 participants in which everyone agreed their lips looked healthier right after application, and the ratings pattern from thousands of buyers backs up that this isn't a fluke of a small panel.

The tube is the unglamorous reason it works so well. A squeeze tube with a slanted tip means you're not dragging a wand through a product this thick, and you're not dipping a finger into a pot when your hands aren't clean. You can apply it without a mirror. Small thing, but it's why this ends up in a coat pocket and gets used daily instead of living in a drawer.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The shine fades faster than the moisture does. Several owners note that after a couple of hours the gloss has thinned out even though their lips still feel soft, so plan on reapplying if you want the finish to hold through an afternoon.

It's expensive for what is, structurally, a lip balm. You're paying a prestige markup for a formula that a drugstore brand could plausibly approximate, and buyers who love it still bring up the cost. The sweet, buttercream-and-sugar flavor is also a matter of taste — if you dislike scented lip products, this one won't win you over.

No other formula here matches this level of shine. Dior builds the Lip Glow Oil around upcycled cherry oil pressed from fruit pits, in a formula that's 98% ingredients of natural origin, and the payoff is a wet, glass-like finish that photographs well and doesn't look greasy in person. If the glass-lips look is what you're after, this is the shortest route to it.

The color story is genuinely different. The tint reacts with your own lip chemistry, so 015 Cherry lands differently on different people — buyers with deeper skin tones report the coral and berry shades reading warm and flattering rather than chalky. You get a personalized wash of color from a single tube, which is useful if you've spent years finding out that a shade that looked great on a swatch looked wrong on you.

Texture is where it earns the upgrade label. It's thicker than a thin oil but nowhere near a syrupy gloss, and owners describe it as gliding on with no drag. A little goes far. Several report a single tube lasting close to a year with daily use, which softens the price math considerably even though the sticker is still the highest here.

Feedback isn't unanimous on the tack factor. Most people call it non-sticky; a minority say there's a slight tackiness that keeps hair off their lips on a windy day. If you're highly sensitive to that sensation, it's worth knowing before you commit at this price.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Wear time is ordinary. It doesn't last meaningfully longer than glosses that cost a fraction as much, and you'll reapply after meals like you would with anything else in this category.

The shade is sheer by design, so if you want the tint to actually show up you'll need to build it or layer it. And at this price, buying more than one shade gets hard to justify.

There's essentially no scent or flavor, which most people like but a few find oddly plain for a product that leans this hard on cherry in its story.

It's not a compromise product. NYX Butter Gloss earned Allure Best of Beauty recognition four consecutive years through 2025, cited specifically for the non-sticky formula and for matching or beating glosses that cost about three times as much in blind consumer panels. That's an unusual thing for a drugstore gloss to pull off once, let alone repeatedly.

The shade range is the real argument for buying it. With more than 30 colors, you can pick a true nude for work and a deeper berry for evening without thinking about the cost, which is not a decision the luxury options let you make casually. Owners with fair, olive and deep skin tones all report finding shades that read natural rather than frosty.

The texture is creamy and slightly cushiony without the glue-like pull that made older glosses miserable. Buyers routinely say it feels more like a tinted balm than a traditional gloss, and the dessert-adjacent scents — think angel food cake, tiramisu — are either the best or worst part depending on your tolerance for sweet.

It's also the one to hand to a teenager, keep in a gym bag, or lose without caring. When something is inexpensive and cruelty-free certified by PETA, you use it instead of saving it, and a gloss you actually use beats a nicer one that stays in the box.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Longevity is short, even by gloss standards. Multiple owners describe it as wearing off within an hour or two, and it smudges easily if you're used to a long-wear lip stain.

The conditioning is surface-level. It feels moisturizing while you're wearing it, but it won't repair chapped lips the way a butter balm or a treatment oil will. And the sweet scent is strong enough that people sensitive to fragranced lip products should skip it.

A lot of products in this category call themselves oils and behave like glosses. This one doesn't. The texture is genuinely thin and it sinks in, and owners who've tried several formats consistently single that out as the difference — it softens the lip surface instead of sitting on top of it.

Honey is doing real work here, not just marketing. Mirsalehi bee garden honey is a humectant, which means it pulls moisture toward the lip surface, and Gisou's own wear testing reports up to six hours of measurable surface hydration after application. Pair that with jojoba oil and you get a formula that leaves your lips better than it found them.

If you avoid synthetic fragrance and prefer short, recognizable ingredient lists, this is the strongest option in the guide. The scented shades — Watermelon Sugar, Honey Gold, Mango Passion Punch — lean fruity and sweet, and the watermelon in particular is strong. Owners either love it or find it too much, with very little middle ground.

It layers well, which is how we'd actually use it. Over a lipstick it boosts shine without breaking up the color underneath; on bare lips it's a barely-there wash. That flexibility makes it more useful than its thin texture might suggest.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Because it absorbs, the shine goes away fast. Several owners report needing to reapply within an hour, and a few say closer to 40 minutes. If you want visible gloss that holds, this isn't it.

The packaging has a weak point. More than one buyer describes the small plastic stopper inside the bottle's neck chipping or breaking off and falling into the oil — annoying, though it doesn't stop the product from working.

It's very close to our top pick in spirit — a sheer, buttery balm with real shine — and a lot of people will be happy with either. Laneige adds its Berry Mix Complex of blueberry, raspberry and strawberry extracts for antioxidant protection, plus hyaluronic acid for the surface-level plumping effect that gives the glass-lips finish its bounce.

The reason it wins so much loyalty is that it's easy to keep everywhere. The slim screw-top tube doesn't leak in a bag, and owners describe buying multiples to stash in a purse, a car and a nightstand. That's a habit product, not a special-occasion one, and it's part of why this is among the most-bought lip items in the category.

The scents are a genuine feature. Berry, vanilla, matcha, pear and grapefruit all get named favorably by owners, and the tint is subtle enough that even the more unusual flavors don't leave visible color. If you like a scented lip product but find dessert-sweet formulas cloying, these land softer.

It's a good bridge if you're curious about Korean skincare-meets-makeup but don't want to overhaul a routine. You get the dewy finish and the treatment ingredients in a format that behaves exactly like the lip balm you already own.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's glossier than a nighttime treatment should be. Owners hoping it would replace a thicker overnight lip mask generally report that it's too light and too shiny for that job.

For a tinted balm, it's priced well above the drugstore, and buyers say so directly. The color is also very sheer — if you want anything approaching real pigment, look elsewhere.