[unpaid/sample/affiliate/ad] Up until now, I can’t say that I’ve found a lip stain that feels like home. They’re always too drying, too patchy or just too dramatic for me. If I’m honest, the new Huda Beauty Lip Contour Stains are too deep in colour for me personally – even the lightest looking shades – but they’re a high score on ease of use, non-drying formula and contoured lip look.

This, for example, is Rosewood which is usually an earthy pink. The tips of the stains are clever – fat on one side for filling in the lip with colour, thin on the other side for an easy swipe around the lip edges. Even though they’re not particularly drying, this matte feel is not for me – I put balm on the finished lip straight away and liked it a lot better.

There are eight shades of the Huda Beauty Lip Contour Stains – £22 each.

I don’t think I’ve applied this carefully enough – in fact, that’s a good tip – once you’ve drawn around your lip border, spend extra time filling in the middle. Speaking of filling in – you don’t even need to fully fill in. You can use a bit of balm or gloss and pull in some of the border colour to get a graduated lip colour to a greater or lesser degree as shown below.

I mean it’s a look – it’s not for me but I like the middle graduation look the best. Maybe I’ll try it.

Update: I just tried it! I used Toasty Brown and Tatcha Lip Balm.The best thing about this ink is that it tolerates oil in the form of gloss or balm without immediately disappearing giving it a longer life than most of the inks I’ve come across. They’re £22 HERE.