There’s a certain point in every beauty cycle when you realise a product category has stopped being a trend and become part of the furniture. Lip oils have reached that point.
They’ve been hovering around makeup bags for a while now, helped along by our collective desire for lips that look glossy and juicy while still feeling comfortable. The appeal is easy to understand. A lip oil gives you the shine of a gloss with a softer, more conditioning feel, while tinted formulas add enough colour to make your lips look polished without requiring the commitment of a full lipstick.
Rare Beauty has taken that idea and put it into a stick. The Soft Pinch Lip Oil Sticks combine a slick, glossy finish with buildable colour and ingredients designed to keep lips feeling nourished. I put the range through several days of wear to see how they behaved outside the bathroom mirror.
Why everyone suddenly wants lip oils
Lips have a fairly thankless job. They’re exposed to the elements, spend a lot of time in air conditioning and, for those of us who habitually lick them when they feel dry, are sometimes working against their own interests.
The skin on the lips is thinner than the skin elsewhere on the face, which means it loses moisture more easily. That’s where a nourishing lip product earns its keep. An oil can help soften the surface of the lips and reduce that dry, rough feeling, while the glossy finish makes them look smoother and more hydrated.
There’s also something appealing about the texture. Traditional gloss can feel tacky, particularly when Brisbane decides to throw a little humidity into the mix. Lip oils tend to have more slip, so they move easily across the lips and leave behind shine without that heavy, sticky sensation.
Tinted lip oils have pushed the category further into makeup territory. You get the comfort of something you might normally reach for when your lips are feeling dry, with enough colour to make it feel like an intentional part of your makeup.
That’s the sweet spot Rare Beauty is playing in.
I tried the Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Lip Oil Sticks
Rare Beauty has positioned the Soft Pinch Lip Oil Sticks as a hybrid between makeup and lip care, and I put that to the test over several days. The colours in the range give you much to choose from, whether you want something neutral or a real show-stopper of a colour.
My first swipe went on before work, where my breakfast of champions was, predictably, a Coke Zero and whatever I could find five minutes before leaving the house. Glamorous. I wore it through the morning and was pleasantly surprised when I checked my lips a few hours later. The colour had softened into a stain-like wash while my lips still felt comfortable, with none of that dry, tight feeling that can creep in once a tinted product starts disappearing.
The pigment has a massive payoff right from the first swipe. It’s bold but also still slightly sheer and glides on easily. Since the colour starts off strong right out of the gate, it gives it somewhere to go as it wears through the day, settling into a sheer tint. That makes the range easy to wear when you want your lips to look done without having to commit to a perfectly defined lipstick.
I then wore another shade out for dinner (Fortune, a sort of soft magenta), which gave me a chance to see how it behaved with actual food rather than my highly nutritious liquid breakfast. The glossy finish wore down gradually through the meal, while enough colour remained to keep my lips looking pulled together. I liked that the formula never turned into a sticky mess, either. It has the glide you expect from an oil, but feels closer to a nourishing balm once it settles.
And then there is the reapplication, which may be my favourite part. The Soft Pinch Lip Oil Sticks are so easy to swipe on that topping up throughout the day feels more like a small beauty ritual than maintenance. Each pass gives the lips another dose of that juicy finish, while the formula leaves them feeling conditioned rather than parched.
After several days of wearing them, I could feel the difference when the product came off too. My lips stayed soft, which made sense given how much the formula feels like lip balm with colour and shine folded into it.
The staying power sits where I’d expect it to for a lip oil. Drinks barely disturb it, while a proper meal will take down some of the shine. Colour hangs around longer than the glossy finish, leaving behind that soft tint rather than disappearing in one fell swoop. I kept finding myself reaching for another swipe anyway, partly because the formula is satisfying to apply and partly because the extra nourishment makes reapplication feel useful.
The shades have enough pigment to make an impression while still allowing your natural lip colour to show through. The finish gives lips that fresh, dimensional look without requiring precision application. I could apply one in the car at a red light and still come away with a respectable result, although I would like to formally state that I do not recommend doing this.
The verdict
Rare Beauty’s Soft Pinch Lip Oil Sticks (available from Sephora in Australia) make a strong case for why lip oils have become such a fixture. They give you colour with a comfortable, nourishing feel and enough shine to make lips look instantly fresher.
What Rare Beauty has got particularly right is the balance. The formula feels substantial enough to condition your lips, the pigment can be built up depending on your mood, and the glossy finish makes even a quick swipe feel like a proper makeup moment.
For anyone who likes their lip colour easy, comfortable and slightly glossy, this is a very appealing place to land.
In her spare time, she likes long walks down the makeup aisle and performing in Brisbane theatre. You can follow her adventures on Instagram and TikTok @thebeautypalate.
