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"  Not many cosmetics, having fallen from fashion, have ever staged a major comeback (when we bid adieu to you, pan-cake makeup, we meant it), but lipstick is proving itself to be the exception. It&amp;#039;s been blatantly back for the past few seasons\u2014and judging by the painted pouts at Anna Sui, Jason Wu, and Donna Karan (to name just a few) at the New York spring/summer 2012 shows, it&amp;#039;s not going anywhere anytime soon. It is, however, evolving. Wo\u00ADmen may have taken up their bullets once again, but this time they&amp;#039;re gravitating toward lipsticks that feel more modern: Enter an array of new textures and finishes. Gone are ultramatte finishes and thick, opaque colors. Everything that once seemed dated about lipstick in comparison to lip gloss\u2014the shinier, clearer, less-fussy little sister that has hogged the spotlight since the &amp;#039;90s\u2014is now absent from the equation. The latest iteration of the vanity classic is younger-looking, fresher, and notably sheerer. As Lipstick Queen founder Poppy King says, &amp;quot;Twenty-first-century lipstick has all the glamour and iconic hallmarks it&amp;#039;s always had, but without the same pigment payoff. It&amp;#039;s more like a hybrid of lipstick with a tint or a balm.&amp;quot; King is currently making the final tweaks to Lipstick Queen Saint Eden, a shade she&amp;#039;s creating exclusively in collaboration with our own beauty team for the ELLE Spa at Miami Beach&amp;#039;s Eden Roc Renaissance hotel. Leaning over a beaker of hot, melted-down lipstick next to a fabulously manicured chemist at NuWorld beauty laboratories in Carteret, New Jersey, she assesses the consistency of the near-final product. &amp;quot;Let&amp;#039;s take the pigment load down slightly,&amp;quot; King says, &amp;quot;and bring up the emolliency. I want it to feel wet.&amp;quot; The luscious reddish pink color of the lipstick was influenced, she says, by the storied hotel&amp;#039;s 1950s heyday, but with a distinctly of-the-moment twist. &amp;quot;I wanted to capture the exuberance of that era, but I didn&amp;#039;t want to make a retro, bubble-gum, artificial pink, so I took inspiration from watermelon, which to me is really juicy, natural, and healthy-looking.&amp;quot; The defining characteristic of its modernity, though, is its &amp;quot;see-through&amp;quot; texture. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t mean that it&amp;#039;s a sheer tint; it has body, so you can layer the color if you want more of a punch,&amp;quot; King says. &amp;quot;But it&amp;#039;s also not a full, opaque lipstick.&amp;quot; King believes that the revamped lipstick formulas currently hitting shelves may be just the key to reel in even the most lipstick-phobic. &amp;quot;Women are terrified of the &amp;#039;80s,&amp;quot; she says with a laugh. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s a real fear of going backward toward that full-on, full-face makeup, which we were emancipated from in the &amp;#039;90s. They want to wear lipstick, but they&amp;#039;re also still very committed to the smoky eye\u2014and the new, more see-through shades allow them to wear both without looking like too much.&amp;quot; She watches as the mixture that will become Saint Eden is poured into a mold and placed in a freezer to solidify. &amp;quot;But what I think younger girls especially are picking up is that when you wear colored lipstick, you don&amp;#039;t have to wear very much makeup,&amp;quot; she adds. &amp;quot;A stronger lip with a less bold eye looks really fresh.&amp;quot; Yves Saint Laurent International Make-up Artist Lloyd Simmonds, who has enlivened YSL&amp;#039;s range with the introduction of new shades in the Rouge Pur Couture and Rouge Volupt\u00E9 Perle collections, sees his creations as an entry-level platform for the previously lipstick-averse. &amp;quot;I think that the lighter textures present an easy way to start wearing color on the mouth. YSL is known for strong, intense colors, so we&amp;#039;ve been developing lipsticks that look really beautiful and luscious but are more delicate when you put them on, as well as colors that look very bright and fresh on the mouth but have an almost balmlike texture.&amp;quot; Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have devised a take on the hybrid concept, with the Passion Duo range\u2014lipsticks with a core of defined gloss in the center of each tube. Though they pack a vibrant punch, the gloss component gives them a sleeker, less-dense appearance than old-school lipstick. &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;re applied like a traditional lipstick, but with a surprising result that&amp;#039;s shinier and more luscious,&amp;quot; says makeup artist and global creative advisor for the brand&amp;#039;s makeup, Pat McGrath. &amp;quot;I love that the pigment is really true and has a creamy density that looks rich and full when applied, but the gloss adds an extra dimension. It&amp;#039;s also not sticky like regular lip gloss can be.&amp;quot; There is perhaps nothing more iconically feminine than a classic swivel-up bullet of lipstick: The image itself is cultural shorthand for glamour, beauty, mysterious womanly wiles. (And there&amp;#039;s no underestimating its sexually charged power, particularly when worn in a crimson shade\u2014just look at the blogosphere kerfuffle that erupted when five-year-old Suri Cruise stepped out with rouged lips last summer.) Its return might even indicate a larger shift, toward a rediscovery of polish and grace. &amp;quot;I think what we&amp;#039;re seeing now is really the return to the form of lipstick,&amp;quot; King says. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s a hunger for the actual experience of it\u2014the wind-up bullet and the private moment it takes to put on, versus dipping a wand in a lip gloss.&amp;quot; She smiles as a finished Saint Eden emerges from the lab\u2014a pristine burst of watermelon goodness in a golden tube. &amp;quot;Lipstick,&amp;quot; she says, &amp;quot;is automatically associated with dignity and elegance: two things that will always be relevant and beautiful.&amp;quot; Sheer Bliss            Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupt\u00E9 Perle in Incandescent Orange features a glossy &amp;quot;mirror effect&amp;quot; to reflect light while hyaluronic acid plumps lips and gives long-lasting wearability; Lipstick Queen Saint Eden\u2014the ELLE beauty team&amp;#039;s dream come true\u2014will be available in limited quantities starting this month; Dolce &amp;amp;amp; Gabbana The Passion Duo Gloss Fusion Lipstick in Satin offers the best of both worlds\u2014a creamy lipstick with a satin gloss center. Photo: Steven Krause "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/beauty/makeup-skin-care/tips/a11831/todays-best-sheer-lipstick-610407/>