I remember my first lip stain the way some people remember a kiss behind the bleachers. It was the early 2010s, and Revlon’s Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm came in a marker-like tube that left behind the prettiest flush and lasted all day. Then one day, it slipped to the bottom of a bag and disappeared forever. I’ve been chasing that high ever since. And as it turns out, the rest of the beauty industry was, too.
Lip stains, to be clear, never lost their luster. Lightweight, long-wearing and buildable, they simply shifted to the background for a while, drowned out by mattes, then glosses, then oils. Now, they’re back.
The Cult-Classic That Started It All
Beauty lovers have been staining their lips for centuries, with crushed beetles and beetroot among the earliest versions. But, Benefit Cosmetics’s Benetint Cheek & Lip Stain helped bring the category mainstream. Originally created in 1977 as a nipple tint for exotic dancers, it became a cult-classic that still sells every 11 seconds.
Meanwhile, K-beauty was pushing the category further. Charlotte Cho, cofounder of Soko Glam and one of the first people to bring K-beauty to the States, remembers Berrisom launching its peel-off Lip Tint Pack in 2014: It was a thick gel that dried down before peeling away to reveal long-lasting color.
By 2016, Etude House had adapted the same concept into a viral brow tint gel. Neither product crossed over to Western shelves through traditional channels. They arrived the way the best beauty products often do: in someone’s suitcase.
The Staying Power
Simply put, stains use dyes while most traditional lip products rely on pigments. “These dyes—typically Red 27, Red 21 or FD&C yellow or blue—absorb into the skin and wear away gradually as you eat, drink and go about your day,” says cosmetic chemist Ginger King.
The Comeback Catalyst
Korea’s peel-off format took a while to catch on here, but Wonderskin kicked things off in 2020 with the launch of its Wonder Blading All-Day Lip Stain. Then SACHEU’s Peel-Off Lip Stain went viral in 2023 and the trend became a stateside obsession. By 2025, it was everywhere, including on Billie Eilish’s lips. She applied it in a TikTok video before a concert, cementing what beauty lovers already suspected: Lip stains were fully back.
The numbers agree: The global lip stain market was valued at $7.7 billion in 2025 and is projected to nearly double by 2035. This season, we’re reaching for stains of all kinds—lip, cheek, brow—when time slows down, we pour a glass of wine with friends, and we can’t be bothered to reapply.
Staining Ovation
A new generation of stains is building on the legacy of the originals.
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