When Hannah Campbell posts a makeup review, her 492,000 TikTok followers have questions.
Campbell is prepared for these questions — in fact, she mostly addresses them preemptively in her signature wear-test videos, in which she checks in throughout the day to show how long a makeup product lasts. She always starts off with a disclaimer: “Welcome back to another brutally honest review. … And, as always, honesty only here, because you guys already know I am not afraid to get kicked off PR lists.”
“If it’s a lip product: ‘Does it fade?’ ‘How fast does it fade?’ ‘The glossiness — how long does that last?’ ‘How long does the color stay around?’ It’s different for every product. But everybody’s got specific things they want to know. And sometimes I forget to cover things. So they’re in the comments, like, ‘How about this?’ ‘How about this?’ So, I’m answering questions,” Campbell told Glossy.
Long-lasting makeup — able to withstand face masks, meetings, dinners and dates — is increasingly top of mind for everyday consumers; it’s no longer solely the concern of celebrities being photographed on the red carpet.
Stage makeup is where long-wear has its roots, but in the 1970s-1980s, its modern form began to take shape with the use of film-forming polymers and silicones in cosmetic chemistry, enabling longer-lasting formulas. Products like Estée Lauder’s Double Wear Stay‑in‑Place Foundation, first launched in 1997 and reformulated this year, and Revlon’s ColorStay Foundation helped to define this era. Today’s polymers are even more advanced, ushering in a new generation of long-wear formulas, some of which were designed to stand up to Covid masks.
In 2020, long-wear makeup got a kitschy new entrant when Wonderskin burst onto the scene during the height of Covid-era mask wearing with wipe-off lip stains promising all-day wear. Since then, the brand raised a $50 million Series A, in May 2025, and two of its SKUs, including the aforementioned $22 Wonder Blading All-Day Lip Stain, launched at Sephora in September 2025. More launches at the retailer are set for September.
On its e-commerce site, the brand has also expanded into long-wear makeup for brows, complexion, cheeks and more. “Everybody who had to wear a mask — nurses, doctors — they still wanted to look decent and sane, because the world was going insane. But what was happening [in the world] didn’t allow for regular makeup to be worn,” said Marina Kalenchyts, co-founder and brand director at Wonderskin.
In 2023, Sacheu, which is sold at Ulta Beauty, debuted the $14 Peel Off Lip Liner STAY-N. The product was born in 2022, when the brand’s co-founder, influencer Sarah Cheung, posted a video using a peel-off brow tint as a lip liner. Today, that post has over 2.1 million views. Based on that buzz, the brand quickly concepted a version specifically designed for lips, said CMO Michelle Miller. It was a success on its own, but then, in 2024, Billie Eilish included it in a “GRWM” video. From there, Miller said, “everything kind of changed.” Today, Eilish’s video has over 164 million views.
The Sacheu lip stain is perfectly engineered for TikTok. Users apply the product to their lips, allow it to dry for 15-20 minutes and then peel it off, leaving the stain behind — providing a visual, social-friendly moment. Today, according to Yipitdata, Sacheu’s product is the No. 1 lip liner at Ulta and Target.
Beyond viral brands like Sacheu and Wonderskin, a wave of recent launches suggests the popularity of long-wear formulas is here to stay.
Within the past couple of weeks alone, DIBS introduced the $26 Cool Blush Cheek Stain, Kulfi introduced the $24 Lassi Lips Staining Lip Liner, and Summer Fridays introduced the $22 Flushed Lip Stain 12HR Transfer-Proof Lip Tint, which follows similar marker-style lip products from brands like Huda Beauty and CoverGirl. Violette FR’s $29 Lip Nectar Hydrating Lip Stain expanded its shade range, and Laneige introduced the $23 JuicePop Box Lip Oil Stain 12HR Hydrating Tint.
According to founder and CEO Priyanka Ganjoo, Kulfi’s new liner was inspired by its 2-year-old Lassi Lips Staining Long-Lasting Moisturizing Lip Oil, which was inspired by its Heirloom Satin Lipstick.
“We’ve always kept very close to our customer feedback,” she said, noting that when she saw customers using the lip oil’s pointed applicator like a liner to stain their lips, she knew she should create a longer-lasting liner. “The feedback we’ve gotten, as compared to the peel-off liners, is how much more user-friendly it is to use these gel pencils [which are] retractable, sharpen-able [and just] easy,” she said. “if you have thinner lips or if you have mature lips, those peel-offs are really not designed for you, because [they’re] not going to give you the precision you want. It’s going to give you lines in your lips. And our product really solves for those pain points.”
DIBS Beauty already has the No. 1 prestige blush at Ulta Beauty and is the retailer’s fastest-growing brand, according to CEO and co-founder Jeff Lee. “Blush is a very crowded category, and because we already have a great hero, our Desert Island Duo Blush + Bronzer Sticks, we were very intentional about going back in,” he said, regarding the brand’s just-launched liquid cheek stains. “There are liquid blushes out there, and there are creamy blushes out there, but the consistent feedback we got is that [blush is] the first thing that fades, and that was really the genesis for this.” While he said he believes the brand’s existing sticks do have great lasting power, “the fact is that customers want blush in all manner of formats, and we hadn’t addressed it in a liquid or cream function yet.”
Spate also told Glossy that Sacheu Beauty’s popularity is growing 122.3% year over year across platforms, Wonderskin is growing 49.2%, and Kulfi is growing 87.7%. All three brands have ratings that are considered “very high popularity” on Spate’s popularity index. This signals “very high awareness among consumers,” said Mathilde Riba, a market insight analyst at the company. According to Riba, TikTok is driving the bulk of those scores, indicating that the conversation around these brands is loudest on that platform.
There are several factors contributing to the rise of long-wear makeup, and its modern new era — and they go beyond mask-proof makeup in 2026. Lee, for example, pointed to cost-conscious customers who are hyper-aware of value. “The customer is more and more educated — she’s more attentive to how much product she’s getting and how long that product will stretch her,” he said. As is the case with other liquid blushes like Rare Beauty’s Soft Pinch Liquid Blush, with DIBS’ new cheek stain, a little goes a very long way, making its 1.05-fluid ounces a deceptively large amount of product.
Ganjoo pointed to the slow death of “clean girl” makeup, which, as Glossy Pop has reported, has given rise to a return of a more colorful aesthetic that consumers have taken to, nostalgically comparing it to 2016 trends. “Trends always [come and go] and shift, and I think people are looking for more expression through their makeup. … People want more creative makeup, more high-performance makeup,” she said.
Plus, once customers adapt to the new behavior required by a product like Sacheu’s peel-off liner stains, Miller said, they stick with it. “Seeing is believing. It’s easy to see [the results]. You kiss your hand, you wipe your face, you put a mask on — it’s like, ‘Whoa, why weren’t we doing this before?’”
Week in review
Rhode became the first brand to make Sarah Pidgeon (“Love Story’s” Carolyn Bessette Kennedy) the face of a campaign when it debuted new shades of its Peptide Lip Tint and Pocket Blush on Tuesday. Pocket blush in Candy Apple, Rhode’s first red, and Teacup, a raspberry pink, will launch on March 9, alongside Peptide Lip Tint in Pretzel, a shimmery mauve, and Sweet Pea, a pearlescent warm pink. Of course, color-coded phone cases will debut then, as well.
Fashion designer Lela Rose teamed up with heritage boot maker Lucchese for a collection of luxury boots and apparel, with luxury price tags: $1,295–$1,895 for the boots and $490-$2,490 for the clothes. The collection, which includes super-feminine takes on cowboy boots, marks the designer’s first foray into footwear.
Whitney Port (1.4 million Instagram followers), originally of “The Hills” fame, debuted a capsule collection of tennis apparel with new brand Courting on Wednesday. The collection includes minidresses with halter straps and graphic sweatshirts that bring a bit of edge to the sport’s usual preppy aesthetic.
Tina Chen Craig’s UBeauty debuted its Barrier Bioactive Mist, which claims to have a serum’s power in a face mist’s format. It features ectoin to hydrate and protect the skin alongside a microbiome complex featuring a postbiotic ferment said to help support the skin’s moisture barrier
Summer Fridays became the latest brand to introduce fragrance, on the heels of Rare Beauty doing so last summer. Its new scent, Sunlit Vanilla, was inspired by its hero vanilla Lip Butter Balm. In addition to vanilla, key notes include vanilla and bergamot.
For the first time since the brand launched in August 2025, Hung Vanggo Beauty has added to its collection, with the launch of the $26 Glossy Lip Hue Hydrating Lip Shine with Hyaluronic Acid. It comes in 12 shades, including glossy versions of hero lipstick colors like Vanggo Red and New York Red.
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