Now here’s the thing: Lip glosses and lip oils are more marketing terms than actual formula categories. “Honestly, hear it from the formulators: We can manipulate the texture, finish, and after-feel of lip products. That means the finish can vary widely!” says Lu.
So you can totally have an ultra-hydrating lip gloss and a sticky lip oil, and vice versa. You could have a highly pigmented lip oil and a sheer tinted gloss. Both products can include plumping agents, like peppermint oil or hyaluronic acid, as well as yummy, nostalgic flavors. These are not strictly defined brackets!
Cosmetic chemist Javon Ford even considers the categories one and the same: “The difference between lip oil and lip gloss is that lip oil is considered a skin care item that actually nourishes and moisturizes your lip with natural oils, but lip gloss does that, too,” he says over TikTok. “And it’s not like the oils are that different—sometimes they’re the same.”
Very rarely will you find a plant oil as the first ingredient in a gloss or lip oil formula, he adds (aside from the Kosas Wet Lip Oil Plumping Treatment Gloss, which features castor oil as the first ingredient); oftentimes, the glosses are just as nourishing as the lip oils—lip oils just tend to be thinner in consistency with a more diluted color.
