Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images
It’s always the right time for a new lip trend in the beauty industry – and this tip is very timely. Like the “Kate Middleton effect” of the Princess of Wales in Great Britain, singer and It Girl Sabrina Carpenter is Hollywood’s very own pop princess.
On August 23, the 25-year-old released her new album “Short n’ Sweet”. together with the new Music video for their single “Taste”. If history is any indication, she also just debuted the first shade of a luxury lipstick that will go viral this fall: In the video’s teaser, she can be seen applying the berry-mauve shade “Tonka” from the Prada Monochrome Soft Matte Refillable Lipstick line ($40), using a kitchen knife as a mirror.
The lipstick’s expected popularity isn’t just due to Carpenter’s 38.6 million Instagram followers or her high-profile romance with actor Barry Keoghan. Rather, the last time Carpenter debuted a lip product in a music video (the color-changing Prada Balm, $50, in Astral Pink, in her No. 1 Billboard hit “Please, Please, Please”), it sold out less than 72 hours later.
This time, as she applied her chosen shade—a berry pink with just enough mauve to satisfy the beauty’s craving for a ’90s-style brown lip—it’s safe to predict the sensation this shade and similar offshoots will cause. The fact that it’s housed in the luxury brand’s mirrored chrome packaging, which eerily matches the glitter of the kitchen knife, sets the mood for the next star-studded revelation, when she discovers her boyfriend is dating the hottest young actress of the moment: Beetlejuice Jenna Ortega. What follows is a bloodbath that Scream 3 Starlet.
Monochrome soft matte lipstick from Prada in “Tonka”.
You’ll have to wait (or watch) to find out what happens next. What won’t be a secret, however, is the way Prada’s soft matte formula glides onto lips in a diffused way thanks to Micro-Fit™ technology. While some matte lip products can be drying, the brand’s “soft” matte contains bifidus extract and jojoba oil to mitigate the effect. In addition to the lips, it can also be applied to the cheeks, where it lasts for up to six hours.
Two things are immediately clear. First, that fall textures will be moving away from summer’s penchant for shiny glosses and dewy finishes. And second, that this delightful shade is the fall-ready middle ground between two other lip trends: ’90s nudes and browns (and brown eyeliner in particular), and “anything pink, including pink lips,” according to celebrity makeup artist Monika Blunder.
Prada Monochrome Soft Matte Lipstick in the shade “Tonka”.
Blunder lists two other versions of the fall shade from her line, a cool-toned pink shade “Davy” from the Monika Blunder Beauty Hot Line Lip Liner range ($22) and the berry-fuchsia shade “Constance” from her Cushion Lush Lipstick collection ($32).
Other new launches that lean into the ’90s-inspired penchant for pink-nude tones include the newly released “retro-pink” HIGHR Pamela ($32) from the carbon-neutral lipstick line, which is paired with the fall-approved matte texture and multiple fall-nude color combinations in Spike Valentino’s Buttery Matte Lipstick ($48), which includes seven shades.
How the trends evolve remains to be seen… But even before the weather officially turns cooler, the direction of beauty is clear. Just act fast if you want to try firsthand Tonka, Carpenter’s popular shade from Prada that’s about to make a splash.
