Here’s the thing: lip glosses and lip oils are more marketing terms than actual formula categories. “Honestly, hear it from the developers: We can change the texture, the finish and the after-feel of lip products. This means that the finish can be very different!” says Lou.

So you can have an ultra-moisturizing lip gloss and a sticky lip oil, and vice versa. You can have a highly pigmented lip oil and a sheer tinted gloss. Both products may contain skin plumping agents like peppermint oil or hyaluronic acid, as well as tasty, nostalgic fragrances. These are not strictly defined parentheses!

Cosmetic chemist Javon Ford even considers the categories to be the same: “The difference between lip oil and lip gloss is that lip oil is considered a skin care product that actually nourishes and moisturizes your lips with natural oils, but lip gloss for the lips also does this. “, he says via TikTok. “And it’s not that the oils are so different – sometimes they’re the same.”

It’s very rare that you’ll find vegetable oil as the first ingredient in a gloss or lip oil formula, he adds (except for Kosas Wet Lip Oil Plumping Treatment Gloss, which has castor oil as the first ingredient); often, glosses are just as nourishing as lip oils—lip oils just tend to be thinner in consistency with more diluted color.