Beauty Matters: A Eulogy for My Favorite *Discontinued* Lippies
What happens when your favorite lip products get discontinued + dupes that have potentially filled the void
If there’s a beverage goblin, I am someone you would call a lippie goblin. Over the past nine years, I’ve toyed around with many lip products from different brands and price points. A good number of those lipsticks have been repeat purchases, while many of them have been lost in the ether. Today, we honor those lost lippies: the ones that I loved, but were sadly discontinued. I will also include dupes that closely resemble them, so you can potentially check them out in the future!
Let’s jump in!
(A word of caution: I might feature a lot of Happy Skin products here. They made so many amazing lipsticks, and it saddens me that they discontinued so many beloved colors and formulations)
Happy Skin’s Shut Up and Kiss Me Moisturizing Lippie in Best of Friends
Happy Skin has established itself as a reliable brand for MLBB (My Lips But Better) lipsticks for Filipinas. They have MLBB and neutral shades that flatter many skin tones.
The shade, Best of Friends, is my number one favorite from their Shut Up and Kiss Me line. It is described as a “blushing rose,” which is basically a rose with a mix of brown, mauve, and pink undertones. On me, it’s a really pretty color for everyday use, or for something special, like a fake wedding with your K-pop bias. My longing for this lip color actually led me into making this blog post, so it says something about how much I loved this lipstick.
(me wearing Best of Friends)
Potential Dupes: Maybelline’s Super Stay Vinyl Ink lipstick in Peppy! It’s very similar to Best of Friends, but with a little more brightness, warmth, and mauve tones thrown in there. It has a pretty finicky formula, but once you get the hang of it, it can last for up to 10 hours.
(wearing Peppy here)
Happy Skin’s Shut Up and Kiss Me Matte Lippie in Under the Sheets
Another popular MLBB lipstick pick from Happy Skin, the shade Under the Sheets originally appeared in their Forbidden Fruit collection from 2014. It’s described as a warm, rosy brown nude—almost like a terracotta nude pink. On me, it’s a true, seamless MLBB color.
Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures anymore of me wearing that lipstick in the matte formula, but I really liked the color. It was one of *those* MLBB shades.
Potential Dupes: I have three dupes in mind: Sunnies Face’s Fluffmatte lipstick in Plush, Revlon’s Super Lustrous Lipstick in Rose Velvet, and Happy Skin’s Lip Cloud in Unavailable. They’re all similar, but Unavailable is the closest one to Under the Sheets in the matte formula.
NARS Pure Matte lipstick in Tonkin
This lipstick has become a rare Pokemon on the Internet. Carina of Softly Sometimes described it as a “soft, neutral pinky brown” years ago, while my 2015 self raved about it like it’s the Bee’s Knees (Reading my old entries made me realize how much energy I expend on writing something, and how much I’ve become more authentic in writing beauty reviews).
8 years later, I still think that the color is amazing. Yes, I know it is in the same color family as the two that I previously mentioned, but neutral lipsticks have me in a chokehold.
(As for lip swatches, I don’t have pictures of me wearing this lipstick, since the phone that I used at the time I got this lipstick was shitty and slow)
Potential Dupes:
After some digging on the interwebz, the dupes that I have in mind for Tonkin are Sunnies Face’s Fluffmatte lipstick in On Repeat, and the NARS matte lipsticks in Pigalle and Tonka. Tonka is much more brown, while Pigalle is more rosy. On Repeat, on the other hand, is a mix of both shades.
However, if you want to have a similar feel of the old NARS Pure Matte lipsticks, I will suggest you check out NARS’ Powermatte bullet lipsticks. The shade Thunder Kiss is the one that resembles Tonkin the most in my opinion.
Bobbi Brown Crushed Lip Color in Rosy Dream
Every day, I’m grateful for the presence of online stores like Estee Lauder Companies’ The Company Store. It’s where you can find discontinued collections, or extra stocks of your favorite products from your favorite ELC brand at discounted prices.
One of my favorite finds from that site was the Bobbi Brown Crushed Lip Color in Rosy Dream from the Morag Myerscough collaboration in 2020. For those who don’t know, Bobbi Brown’s Crushed Lip Color formula is the love child of Glossier’s Generation G and Ultralip lipstick formulas. This lipstick has a sheer, satin matte formula that applies like a lip balm. I’m still mind-blown by this formula.
I picked up Rosy Dream, which is another MLBB color. It’s my favorite shade from the Crushed Lip Color range because the color reminded me of a toned-down version of Glossier’s Generation G in Like. I also have another one in Cranberry, which is a pinky red shade that has some brown to it.
I’m sad that this wasn’t picked up to be in the permanent range. I could’ve gotten a brand new tube for it, should my budget permit. But for now, I’m keeping it.
Potential Dupes: Glossier’s Generation G in Like was initially on top of my list, but the new shade in Fuzz seems closer to Rosy Dream. Clinique’s Beach Pop is also another potential alternative, as well as Romand’s Juicy Lasting Tint in Peeling Angdoo.
Happy Skin Lip & Cheek Mousse Tints
Does anyone remember the Happy Skin Lip and Cheek Mousse Tints? That lip and cheek tint was my jam back in 2015-2016. I hated wearing blush, but this was an exception.
I owned the shade, Swept off My Feet, which was a pretty pink shade that screamed Barbiecore from the tube, but looked like a natural flush on my cheeks.
Again, I would like to call the attention of Happy Skin: Why did you discontinue this? It was a beautiful product!
Potential Dupes: The PH beauty scene is now filled with a ton of multi-use products, but GRWM Cosmetics’ milk tints, Sunnies Face’s Lip Dips, and BLK Cosmetics’ creamy all-over paints are the closest I could think of when I think about lip and cheek mousse tints. Just choose which one fits your budget and your overall aesthetic.
As for me though, I think GRWM Cosmetics’ Milk Tint in Pablo’s Latte has filled the void left by Happy Skin’s The Morning After, while BLK Cosmetics’ Creamy All-Over Paint in Very Peri is my favorite liquid blush. It swatches as a stark purple, but blends out to a pink on my skin tone.
BLK Cosmetics’ All-Day Matte Lipstick in Honey
When it comes to red lipsticks, there are only a handful of red lipsticks that I genuinely like. This red lipstick is one of those. It’s a ~~neutral red~~ that didn’t make me look clownish.
I miss it, since it was probably the first red lipstick that I enjoyed. However, BLK’s bullet lipsticks broke easily, which made me swear off their bullet lipsticks during their early days. Despite those mishaps, I really liked this color, since it was a very flattering red on me.
Potential Dupes: You may not know this, but makeup brands will find ways to revive popular shades from discontinued formulas or lines. Recently, BLK released a range of satin cream lipsticks in shades of red. I got the shade Rosewood, which is a browny-brick red. Other honorable mentions as dupes of Honey are Revlon’s Rum Raisin, Sunnies Face’s Fluffmatte lipstick in Girl Crush, and Maybelline’s Super Stay Vinyl Ink in Extra.
That’s enough lipstick for today,
Lea