To most, Charli XCX’s night at the Brits was remarkable because she won five awards for her era-defining efforts with Brat.
We beauty lovers, however, weren’t merely tuned into her achievements in music but also in make-up. More specifically, the glittery bronze lip she was wearing that the make-up artist du jour Ismaya Ffrench had applied.
The clamours from fans to show precisely which products Isamaya used yielded results in the form of an Instagram tutorial over on Isamaya’s page, and now we all know that Charli went on stage wearing her Isamaya Beauty Metal Refillable Lip Balm in One Penny (£27, isamaya.co.uk), which is part of the Core Collection Isamaya has launched at Selfridges.
I went to meet Isamaya there to talk both about the collection and how on earth she’s created something that was packed with shimmer and dimension without feeling at all drying or tight on the lips, questions that were fuelled by the prevalence of those lip stickers from the 2010s, which looked great but felt ghastly to wear.
The magic in this case lies in the emollients packed into the balm, so you don’t only get the shine courtesy of the particles, but also from the glossiness of the hydrating formula. Isamaya applied some on me and I can confirm that no shards of shimmer poked at my lips, and my lips felt better, not worse, with it on.
I shouldn’t have been surprised; for months now, I’ve been topping my lipstick with the Milk Makeup Odyssey Lip Oil Gloss (£24, cultbeauty.co.uk ) in the shade Adventure, which is packed with tiny glitter particles that add whisper of lavender that is surprisingly flattering to lips. Sadly, it’s now frequently out of stock (probably because it’s so damn good), but I am going to put the icy shade named Globetrot to the test next as I suspect it’ll do similar — namely, update lips with this glittery thing, but also make them look juicy.
This is perhaps at the crux of the new wave of glossy lip popularity: it’s a non-surgical boost to volume, the fastest way to get oomph. Chuck some shimmer in there too, and you get not only a hint of colour but even more fatness of lip, if that’s what you’re after.
My tip? Wear your usual lipstick, then saturate the centre of your lower lip with one of these glittery creations to get the best of both worlds: a hit of the zeitgeist, and a lusciousness of lip in one.
Do you need a microfibre hair towel? The £10 trick for smoothing frizzy hair
Mouth taping: should I start surgically taping my mouth shut at night?
CK One is back: the best 90s fragrances for a spritz of nostalgia
Are British beauty brands now better than French? The 12 must-buys from the serum to the scent
