Lip Liner Is Getting Blurry

If your favorite celebrity’s lips have been looking a little blurry lately, don’t race to book an eye appointment or grab your glasses—it’s intentional! Your eyes do not deceive you; when it comes to lip color, it’s all a blur.

While ultra-precise lined lips may have reigned supreme for much of the late 2010s and early 2020s, a new slew of products has us giving our sharpeners the day off in favor of something softer. 

The Trend

Consider, if you will, 2016 makeup. It was all about sculpted brows, an extremely defined cut crease, and lips that were lined with mathematical precision, then painted with matte liquid lipstick. That look couldn’t last forever, and beauty fans eventually swapped their Kylie Lip Kits for glossy balms and stains. 

While the traditional lip liner and lipstick combo will never go away, the 2025 version has its roots in K-beauty, where the blurred, velvety, soft and smudgy look is super popular. It was co-signed by Hailey Bieber, who has been a longtime fan of the technique—so much so that she dropped an entire lineup of blurry “lip contours” under her beauty brand, Rhode. 

Makeup artist Kasey Spickard says the blurred trend is all about a “natural, soft-focus ombré effect on the lips.” According to Spickard, the application method “creates dimension, shape, and contour on the lips without harsh lines.” They make your lips look bigger, fuller, and poutier without obvious overlining; the lived-in, undone vibe is perfect for spring and summer. The blurred look also echoes back to the carefree attitude of the “strawberry girl” and “tomato girl” aesthetics of summers past.

How to Get the Look

Forget everything you thought you knew about lip liner… okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but this new generation of liners is much more malleable than your go-to wooden pencil variety.

Like Rhode, other beauty brands have taken notice of the emerging trend and released their own take on blurred lines. Merit’s just-dropped Signature Lip Sheer Liner, Hard Candy’s Lip Blur, and Refy’s Lip Blur Liners are ultra creamy and blendable formulas that make contouring and shaping the lips a breeze, even (and especially) for beginners. 

Rhode’s Peptide Lip Shape is a two-sided pencil with a smudger on one end to create the diffused look without using a brush or your fingertips. “Once you’ve lined, go in with the smudger to diffuse the edges for a subtle blurred effect,” explains Spickard. You can then fill in with a lip color of your choice, though creamy and glossy formulas are the most popular pairings.

But you don’t need a special pencil to DIY diffuse, either. Your regular old MAC Spice or Make Up For Ever Anywhere Caffeine will do just fine in a pinch. With a standard lip pencil, Spickard advises lining lips as usual, then “buffing out over the lip line with your ring finger to achieve a similar effect.” This is one time it’s okay to color outside the lines, so to speak. 

If liner’s not your thing, try one of the soft matte lip Bisou Balm formulas from Violette FR_, which give you that “just kissed” look in a few swipes, or Maybelline’s aptly named Teddy Tint Blurred Matte Lip Tint, which goes on like a liquid lipstick but has a light-as-air, velvety finish. Mwah!