Despite my well-documented love of frequent snacking, there was a time when I rarely bit into a croissant with bare lips when I could have done so wearing two coats of duochrome glitter atop a vibrant crimson red. This is a great litmus test for the staying power of any given product, but also, I just have a thing for color. At my old office my desk was littered with piles of lipstick in every formula imaginable. Instead of a drawer full of office supplies, I had a drawer full of rotating lip options (as well as a drawer full of snacks for testing out their wear time). I needed my mattes, my semimattes, my cream-finish hues, my high-shine lacquers, and a stain or two. My rules used to be simple: I had very little patience for any shade that was supposed to be undetectable. I preferred something you could spot from a mile away—bonus points if it was the deepest version possible of plum, oxblood, or navy blue.

It feels strange to say this, but I have now abandoned all of the above. Over the last few months, I’ve effectively replaced my once overflowing drawer with a single product. In an unexpected turn of events, it’s precisely the kind of undetectable color that I used to pick up, point at, and ask, “Why do you exist?”

It began with a nondescript black-and-white tube from Bobbi Brown that I mistook for a regular lip balm. My lips get chapped from swatching multiple formulas per day—occupational hazard—so I thought I would take a half-hour break and let them chill out with some moisturizer. Turns out, what I actually picked up was the brand’s cult favorite Extra Lip Tint, a featherweight formula that comes in seven shades. The one I use is called Bare Pink, and in the tube, it’s the La Croix of lipsticks, possessing only an echo of color from far away, the kind of pink so translucent you just assume it will go on colorless. This is not the case.

While Bobbi Brown doesn’t bill it as such, Bare Pink is the perfected version of those beloved nineties mood glosses. Naturally, I used to own several of those, each promising to work some pH-based sorcery to go from crystal-clear to your “perfect” shade. As my perfect shade is not a skin-clashing iteration of clown pink, that magic trick never really worked out for me. But Bobbi Brown’s version is different. Once it settles onto your lips, it transforms them with just the right amount of brightness and warmth. It’s not even pink so much as it is a suggestion of the shade, like you happen to have a bit more blood circulating below the delicate skin and suddenly your whole face looks better and more awake too. Because it’s subtle, I don’t even need a mirror to apply. One mindless swipe has me covered for the next few hours; it’s so faint that it doesn’t even leave a noticeable imprint on coffee cups.

I wear it with everything from a bare face to a full-on smoky eye. It’s not just the color that’s perfect; the balm also pulls double duty to provide instant relief when my lips are feeling dry (as it is currently winter, this means all the time). It contains a powerhouse combination of olive, avocado, and jojoba oils to nourish and soften—this makes for a finish that’s not waxy in the slightest and melts into skin instantly. Oh, and have I mentioned that this is the first plumping product I haven’t hated? Instead of using mild irritants to create an unpleasant reaction, the balm uses its oil-packed formula to great effect. It sort of seeps into my tiny lip lines, filling them in and smoothing them over. (Think of the visual effect of your favorite clear gloss, but imagine if you couldn’t even feel it on your lips.) My mouth looks instantly plumper, and I don’t feel like I’ve just experienced an allergic reaction, which is definitely the way I prefer things.

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