Picture the scene: You’re 13 on school break for three glorious months. The sun’s shining and you’ve met up with your BFFs for a bike ride. You all decide to stop at a corner store for a little treat, empty your pockets in a collective pile of change and hurray! Just enough for each of you to get a popsicle.

That’s the mood summer’s biggest lip trend aims to capture. The innocence of summers past, a time of utter and complete freedom, when emails and credit card bills didn’t exist. When your hair was always a little wet from swimming, and the colour of your lips gave away your favourite freezie flavour.

It’s called popsicle lips, a look consisting of a subtle stain, most often in a bright, fruity shade like strawberry or grape or tangerine. The application is a bit blurred, not too neat at the edges, which renders it supremely low-maintenance. Sometimes, there’s a slight ombré effect, with the centre of the mouth being slightly darker. You know, as it would be if you’d eaten an actual popsicle. 

It’s just the thing if you don’t feel like babysitting your lipstick all day. (Some slight smudging is actually welcome here.) The light wash of pigment also provides a totally wearable way to incorporate punchy colour into your makeup. It’s fun, it’s easy and it’s the absolute perfect look to rock on a patio.

A post shared by FENTY BEAUTY BY RIHANNA (@fentybeauty)

We all can thank Rihanna for helping make popsicle lips a hit. Fenty Beauty’s Poutsicle Hydrating Lip Stain, a gorgeous water-like tint with a juicy finish, recently went viral on TikTok, leading the product to sell out. (Marked up versions have even begun finding their way on eBay.) But not to worry, we scoured the web for the best dupes on the market. Summer’s not over yet, folks—time for some popsicle lips.

You can’t go wrong with the brand’s cult-classic Benetint, a rosy stain originally developed for an exotic dancer who wished to stain her nipples (yes, for real!), but might we suggest giving this Gogo shade a try? The same great liquid tint formula in a cheerful cherry shade. It adds a beautiful burst of colour on both lips and cheeks.

Made with 95 per cent natural-origin ingredients, this transfer-proof tint tops lips with a lovely veil of colour. The finish is semi-matte and the slender applicator mimics the precision of a lip liner. Bonus: The cherry oil in the formula serves up to 24 hours of hydration.

Clarins might be famous for its lip oils, but this ink-like stain is equally deserving of praise. It’s forget-it’s-there weightless and spiked with aloe and raspberry to hydrate and soothe. And the wear is incredible. In trials, it was actually shown to last for up to 300 kisses. Yup, they tested that!

This product is actually limited-edition so you may want to move fast. It’s a satin stain enriched with hyaluronic acid and vitamin E so it won’t ever feel drying. Part of Charlotte Tilbury’s Look of Love collection, the shades are designed to replicate just that, making you look blissfully happy with a hint of joyful colour on your cheeks and lips. 

While Fenty’s Poutsicle goes on glossy but then leaves behind a soft tint, this liquid lacquer from Lancôme retains its stunning, wet-like finish for hours. The colour can be built up from sheer to full-coverage and the moisturizing formula feels amazingly comfortable on lips.

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