Down, but not out! After being shunned during the Covid-19 pandemic, lipstick has managed to make its way back into people’s makeup kits, even daring to get a little bit wild during the summer season. But now the focus is on fall and its warm, rich colours, with the return of a trend straight out of the 1990s: brown lipstick. The shade is winning over the younger generation on social networks, as well as at New York Fashion Week.

More than 100 million views

For several weeks, and especially as fall approaches, brown lipstick has been spreading at speed on social networks, to the point where the hashtags #brownlipliner, #brownlips and #brownlipstick have reached over 156 millions, 90 million and nearly 85 million views respectively on TikTok.

The result is a host of tutorials celebrating this key trend of the 1990s, reminiscent of Rachel Green’s iconic beauty looks in the hit show "Friends." By turns matte, glossy, dark, light, sophisticated or natural, warm or icy, brown lipstick can be worn in almost any way. Users all seem to agree on two points: the need to use a pencil to define the lip line and enhance the colour, and the need to keep face and eyes simple to avoid a makeup overload.

But social media users aren’t the only ones to have embraced this trend. The celebrities present at New York Fashion Week also seem to have jumped on the brown lipstick look. Avril Lavigne, Julia Fox, Paloma Elsesser, Emily Ratajkowski and Elsa Hosk all flaunted the color on the fringes of the spring-summer 2024 shows held in the Big Apple, while many designers swapped red and pink for brown hues on the catwalks. This was the case at Sergio Hudson and PriscaVera, among others.

Cherry Cola or Brownie Glazed?

In recent months, all signs have been pointing to the return of brown lipstick. It started back in 2022 with "brownie glazed lips," which brought controversy for Hailey Bieber, the star who helped popularize the look. More recently, the "Cherry Cola lips" trend celebrates a brown shade reminiscent of the famous soda, albeit with a cherry red tint. Then there’s "espresso makeup," which gives pride of place to warm, deep brown shades.

Although the comeback is still in its infancy, brown lipstick could shape up to become one of the major inspirations of fall 2023.