No longer for
little girls playing dress-up, lip balms, as well as other “lip hybrids,” are
bringing in grownup-sized revenues, generating over $19 million in sales, an
83% increase since 2011, according to the NPD Group.

But what’s constitutes
a lip hybrid? The ever-growing category includes lip stains, balms and glosses,
all of which are designed to provide both moisture and enduring color, two
features that are no longer mutually exclusive.

Leading the trend
is Clinique, who
has had much success with their Chubby
Moisturizing Stick Lip Balm,
an emollient pencil that provides long-lasting color. Similar products such as Bobbi Brown’s Creamy Matte Lip Color, which also boasts
intense moisture with long-lasting color, and Revlon’s Just Bitten
Kissable Balm Stain, have also
gained popularity, highlighting that both mass and prestige customers are
looking for something beyond the traditional.

“The thing that
sets Creamy Matte Lip Color apart from a traditional lipstick is its
wearability. It’s moisturizing, highly pigmented for bolder color and has great
staying power,” said Bobbi Brown’s Katie Brennan.

With other
sought-after products, including Allure’s
Best of Beauty 2012 winner Yves St. Laurent’s Vernis À Lèvres Glossy Stain, a long-wear
product that shines like gloss but wears like a matte lipstick, as well as Nars’ Velvet Matte Lipstick Pencil, the ‘hybrid lip’ color category is growing from cool
trend to the next generation of lip products.

“Lip hybrids, such as YSL’s Vernis À Lèvres, have done extremely well in the mass and
prestige markets,” said Karen Grant, Vice President and
Global Beauty Analyst for the NPD Group. “This is a category that we are really watching!”