Kylie Jenner Is Bringing Back The 90s Brown Lip Trend

And we're hoping it's here to stay.

Kylie Jenner attends the Acne Studios Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 27, 2023 in Paris, France.
(Image credit: Peter White/Getty Images)

In all honesty, I really like Kylie Cosmetics’ lip products. When the lip kits took off in 2015, I was skeptical, especially since their price point was way out of range for me and my part-time college job salary. However, when I finally tried them, I found that so many of the brand’s promises are true: The formula stays on all day (or all night), it never smudges, and because a little goes a long way, one tube lasts for ages. While the liquid lipstick works well by itself, the key to guaranteed longevity is the brand’s signature liner, which Kylie Jenner herself likes to line most of her lips with (not just the edges, à la 90s beauty) before applying the lipstick. 

This week, though, Jenner mixed up her classic makeup routine in a TikTok makeup tutorial, where she mixed and matched three products that typically aren’t marketed to be worn together. The first product was her new Precision Pout Lip Liner in the nostalgic cocoa shade, which she applied generously around the edges of her lips, using her finger to smudge the pigment inward. Then, she applied the liquid lipstick from the lip kit shade “Better Not Pout” on the inner parts of her lips, using her finger once again to distribute the product for an ombré effect. Finally, she capped off her routine with the Gloss Drip shade “Fall In Love”—a translucent red shade of gloss that gave her lips a high- shine look.

@kyliejenner

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The routine is a departure from Kylie Cosmetics’ prescribed lip kit routine, and hearkens back to the ombré lip trends of the 1990s, which heavily incorporated brown lip shades and tremendous shine. Naomi Campbell, in particular, pioneered the trend of pairing brown lip liner with clear lip gloss—something that women everywhere, but especially Black and Brown women, incorporated into their own lip routines. 

Naomi Campbell and J.Lo in the 90s

Naomi Campbell and Jennifer Lopez rocking the ombré brown lip trend, a staple in Black and Latinx beauty in the 90s.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Given that Jenner is a trendsetter herself—and that other celebrities, like Megan Thee Stallion, have also been seen sporting a 90s lip—it looks like these lip trends are about to come back. To keep ahead of the curve, and to replicate Jenner’s exact look, check out the products from her tutorial below.

Get the Look

Gabrielle Ulubay
Beauty Writer

Gabrielle Ulubay is a Beauty Writer at Marie Claire. She has also written about sexual wellness, politics, culture, and fashion at Marie Claire and at publications including The New York Times, HuffPost Personal, Bustle, Alma, Muskrat Magazine, O'Bheal, and elsewhere. Her personal essay in The New York Times' Modern Love column kickstarted her professional writing career in 2018, and that piece has since been printed in the 2019 revised edition of the Modern Love book. Having studied history, international relations, and film, she has made films on politics and gender equity in addition to writing about cinema for Film Ireland, University College Cork, and on her personal blog, gabrielleulubay.medium.com. Before working with Marie Claire, Gabrielle worked in local government, higher education, and sales, and has resided in four countries and counting. She has worked extensively in the e-commerce and sales spaces since 2020, and spent two years at Drizly, where she developed an expertise in finding the best, highest quality goods and experiences money can buy.

Deeply political, she believes that skincare, haircare, and sexual wellness are central tenets to one's overall health and fights for them to be taken seriously, especially for people of color. She also loves studying makeup as a means of artistic expression, drawing on her experience as an artist in her analysis of beauty trends. She's based in New York City, where she can be found watching movies or running her art business when she isn't writing. Find her on Twitter at @GabrielleUlubay or on Instagram at @gabrielle.ulubay, or follow her art at @suburban.graffiti.art