The yellow lip gloss with 12.5 million TikTok views that actually warms up your lips
A tube the colour of melted butter, comments swearing off pink forever, and a video racking up 12.5 million views on TikTok: yellow lip gloss has all the hallmarks of a divisive trend. But before you write it off as not for you, it’s worth understanding what it actually does on the lips, and why it looks so strange in the packaging.
What the formula really does on your lips
Makeup artist Jamie Greenberg explains that most yellow glosses are translucent. They work on the principle of colour theory: they neutralise purplish undertones and let warmer pinks come through. In practice, you don’t necessarily see yellow on your mouth, you see a golden warmth instead. It’s essentially the opposite of the blue gloss that was everywhere last winter, which did the reverse and cooled that warmth down.
Steve Kassajikian, makeup artist and artistic director at Urban Decay, notes that the product’s shine creates the impression of more defined, present lips. This effect depends primarily on the formula and the light, much like flattering lighting changes how a face reads. The final result often has very little to do with the raw shade visible in the tube.
The visual shock at the point of purchase is easy to explain: we’ve been conditioned to associate lips with families of pinks and reds. The packaging gives little indication of what that transparency will actually produce on skin. Between an opaque pigment and a translucent veil, the result is radically different, and many products are designed as filters, not flat colour.
Four shades of yellow, four distinct effects
Jamie Greenberg identifies several distinct families within this trend, each pulling the result in a different direction. Choosing without knowing these distinctions is often why a shade surprises or disappoints.
- Honey yellow: delivers a subtle golden veil, close to a natural filter, ideal if you’re mainly after warmth.
- Butter yellow: leans more coral, suited to those who love peachy tones.
- Amber: offers a deeper gold for a richer, more statement effect.
- Shimmering gold: catches the light with pronounced highlights and behaves almost like a highlighter.
When choosing, it helps to think in terms of texture as much as colour. A heavily glittered gold gloss behaves nothing like a transparent yellow that barely shifts your base tone. The confusion often comes from a market that mixes shades and finishes without explaining them clearly.
How to actually work it into your makeup routine
The most accessible approach is to apply it directly onto bare lips. On TikTok, it’s also frequently paired with a blurred brown liner to define the edges without any stiffness. In both cases, the goal is the same: a golden light that warms the whole face.
Both makeup artists also recommend layering. Used this way, the gloss acts as a translucent modifier, it subtly shifts the colour of a lipstick without covering it. Over a warm red, it can pull towards tomato. Over a cool pink, it nudges towards peach. If a go-to colour feels too cold, layering this on top can soften it without overhauling your entire kit.
Steve Kassajikian also points out that yellow tones can be particularly harmonious on medium to deep skin tones, where they add warmth. On fair, cool-toned skin, he recommends very sheer formulas or applying it as a layer over another product. The real variable to consider is the level of transparency you want, more so than the colour itself.
A trend worth watching, with no obligation to follow
Yellow gloss is not a must. The trend plays on the idea that an intimidating colour is reserved for certain people, as though daring to wear an unusual shade were some kind of confidence test. In reality, that mechanism is driven first and foremost by a beauty norm that turns a colour into a challenge.
The industry manufactures urgency, then rebrands it as fun. If your pinks, your reds, or your clear gloss work for you, that’s enough. Watching this trend as a visual experiment, without making it a rule for your lips, is just as valid a choice as embracing it.
