In February 2020, Christian Siriano sent a Harley Quinn-inspired collection down a New York runway, and the models wore a gloss nobody had seen yet. It was a clear, sparkling shade called Ice, and Allure reported that it was the first Maybelline gloss formulated with hyaluronic acid, with a release slated for that June. I think about that backstage moment often, because Maybelline Lifter Gloss has become the gloss people seem to own in at least one shade. The brand behind it has a sweet origin of its own. Thomas Lyle Williams started Maybelline in Chicago in 1915, after watching his sister Mabel dab Vaseline and coal dust on her lashes, and he named the company for her. That is a brand built on noticing how a real person uses makeup at home, and I hear it in this gloss. The XL wand is big and soft, and Maybelline calls the finish non-sticky. The four shades below run from Ice, a translucent pink, to Moon, a nude pink with multicolored pearl, Stone, a rosy nude cream, and Petal, a warm pink with copper pearl. Start at the center of your upper lip and follow the contour of your mouth, which is the brand's own advice. I went deeper on a related idea in Maybelline Transparent Mascara: A Clear Great Lash Guide.

A few years after the first gloss, the family got spicy. Lifter Plump arrived with chili pepper and the brand's Maxi-Lip blend, and New Beauty described a tingle that takes a second to kick in. Red Flag and Hot Chili are the two shades here, and both deliver that heated sensation on purpose. For a hyaluronic acid lip gloss, the brand is careful about what the original can and cannot do: it says its hyaluronic acid holds moisture so lips look smoother and more plumped, but does not physically increase lip volume. I like that honesty, and it is the right way to think about every gloss in this edit. Then there is Lifter Liner, a sharpenable pencil in Big Lift with hyaluronic acid and jojoba oil. Maybelline suggests lining first, then adding gloss for a lifted look, and it works. Lifter Glaze in Berry Haze is the quiet one, an oil balm with acerola cherry extract that melts on and leaves a glazed, not sticky, shine. If you want to keep going, How One Clear Pot Became a Whole MAC Lip Gloss Family is the one I would read next.

The wider gloss neighborhood deserves a look, and every label has a story. Annie Lawless Jacobs, who co-founded Suja Juice, started Lawless in 2017, and its first product, in 2021, was a lip gloss. Forget the Filler in Blushed Sand is a muted rosy beige with shea butter and rosehip oil. Fenty Beauty launched on September 8, 2017, and Gloss Bomb was one of its three launch products. Hot Chocolit is a shimmering rich brown with an XXL wand and a peach-vanilla scent. Sephora Collection Outrageous Plump in Pink Pout is a shimmer-free bubblegum pink with sunflower seed, ginger root and peppermint oils. Yves Saint Laurent launched its first makeup line in 1978, and Loveshine in 44 Nude Lavalliere pairs hyaluronic acid with spicy ginger oil. What I would skip is grading a plumping lip gloss by how hard it stings. The tingle comes from the formula, and a gentler feel can still give you a lovely, glossy lip.

I keep one Lifter Gloss in a coat pocket and one in the bag I actually use, and that habit says more than any review. A gloss earns its place by how often your hand goes looking for it. Thomas Williams made a lash product for his sister Mabel because she needed one, and more than a century on the same instinct is still pointed at lips. Pick the shade closest to your own mouth, swipe once with the wand, and see how it feels by the end of the day. If it disappears into your routine, it is the right one.