There’s no doubt the allure of a moist, balmy, plump-looking sheen of colour on your pout is the most-wanted makeup look right now, but the exact hue? It could be said, that’s up to you. Or the skin on your lips, more precisely.
That’s because a new wave of ‘pH-reactive’ and ‘color-adaptive’ makeup is delivering a more personalised shade to the luscious lip looks seen everywhere right now.
It may reveal why you can never get a sought-after product to look exactly as it does on someone else’s lips, but that’s also the beauty of the new lip balms and glosses from the likes of a host of luxury beauty brands including Dior, Tom Ford, Hermès, Prada and more.
If you’ve ever obsessively consulted a mood ring as a child, observing as the colours changed as if by magic – or mood (in reality due to a change in body temperature influencing thermotropic liquid crystals) – you might find similar allure from the clear or slightly tinted lip glosses and balms that promise to deliver a ‘unique to you’ colour when applied.
However, according to Michelle Wong, the Sydney-based chemist, author and educator at Lab Muffin Beauty Science, makeup can’t “detect” your natural skin tone and adjust the colour to match.
“Most colour-changing products – whether lipsticks or blushes – contain an ingredient called Red 27,” reveals Wong, who uses her website and social channels to discuss the nitty gritty of formulations and debunk misinformation around beauty products using scientific explanations.
Red 27 is colourless dye that shifts to a sheer, cool-toned pink when exposed to a pH of 2.5 or above. Because skin is generally around a pH of 5, the contact, and skin’s moisture level both cause a transformation to take place.
“Your skin and lips have lots of water. Water is evaporating through your skin all the time – it’s called transepidermal water loss. So after you apply it, the Red 27 reacts in the watery environment and turns pink, and you see the colour,” says Wong.
The dye itself is colourless and can be mixed into an oil or a wax-based waterless base, meaning the transformation only takes place on contact with skin. Want proof? Swipe onto a dry paper towel and add a spot of water, you should see the pink hue emerge.
Since your skin’s pH is unique, the look after application on the lips will be slightly different, be it lighter or darker, which is where the ‘personalised’ idea comes into effect.
The natural shade of your lips also affects how it appears and as it’s a transparent tint, it can also be applied in layers to create a stronger colour on skin. The dye has a lingering, slightly staining effect that has added to the popularity of these types of lip products, as they last well while leaving a flattering ‘your lips but better’ appearance.
While the formulation is usually only offered in one shade by brands, Dior’s hugely popular Dior Addict ‘colour awakening’ Lip Balm and its glossy version, Lip Glow Oil, have skyrocketed the popularity of the approach by offering it in shades including coral and plum. Tarte also offers several colour-changing shades of its Maracuja Juicy Shift gloss-balm.
Of course, just like a mood ring, this whole approach isn’t new.
Dollar store, ‘colour-changing’ pH-reactive lipsticks were around in the ’90s, and Aussie ‘Lipstick Queen’ Poppy King delighted us with her green-hued ‘Frog Prince’ lippy in the mid 2010s.
The difference between then and now is the elegance of modern products and their skin nourishing compositions.
Well beyond the opaque, high-pigment colour of traditional matte lipsticks, the new colour-adaptive lip glosses and balms deliver a flush of hydration that lasts well and contributes to the healthy, natural-looking result. Supporting ingredients like moisture-holding molecule hyaluronic acid helps plump out fine lip lines and prevents flaking, further contributing to the fresh, youthful and on-trend look they impart.
L-R: Karen Murrell Night Moves Magic Tint; Dior Addict Lip Glow; Poppy King Witch Princess; Tom Ford Soleil Lip Blush; Rose Hermès Rosy Lip Enhancer; Tarte Maracuja Juicy Shift
New colour changing products to try
Poppy King, who now runs her own eponymous lipstick label between Australia and New York, has just released a new colour- adaptive lipstick with a more dramatic appearance called ‘Witch Princess’. Appearing like sparkling asphalt in the tube, the daunting black and silver bullet delivers a shimmering berry hue when swiped on.
“It goes on like a sheer black stocking,” explains King of her new release, “and changes to a beautiful raspberry, smoky pink on the lips.”
Likewise, New Zealand’s own natural lipstick icon Karen Murrell has just added the first colour-adaptive shade to her extensive line-up of lippies.
“Berry-stained, well-oiled lips aren’t going anywhere,” confirms Murrell of dominant makeup trends for spring and summer and into 2026.
“My new shade is called Night Moves, which looks black in the tube but applies a stunning personalised shade of berry,” she says.
“It reacts with your lip’s pH to turn the most stunning shade of just-bitten red, creating your own unique, personal shade.”
The seemingly daunting shade actually works like a lip tint, in that the colour is buildable. If you apply more, the colour deepens.
“We’re all so unique and special in our own way and it’s wonderful to be able to formulate a shade that reflects this,” says Murrell. She reveals things like hormones and even exercise are other elements that can alter our skin’s pH, which means the colour may even be slightly different each time you wear it.
Extending to other areas
While Red 27 isn’t approved for use near the eyes, it is now popping up in blush formulations. Like its hit lip colours, Dior also includes Red 27 in its Rosy Glow Colour Awakening Powder Blush,
where it works in a similar way on contact with the skin.
Rihanna too is a fan, saying she loves the “ease” of her makeup brand Fenty Beauty’s Match Stix Color Adaptive Cheek + Lip Stick, which is a sheer strawberry-colour gel blush. The superstar says she carries it with her “everywhere” and loves blending it on the apples of her cheeks for a fresh, summery glow.
Another area the term ‘colour-adaptive’ gets bandied about is in sheer foundations and BB Creams.
This is where a brand will often claim shades blend well over a number of skin tones, allowing them to offer far fewer shades in a line-up.
This can be misleading, and generally only applies to sheer formulas that cover less of your natural skin tone or use encapsulated pigments. As you rub the product on the skin, the minuscule capsules or pigment particles ‘break’ onto the skin and the colour changes.