Selena Gomez Is a Scholar of Red Lipstick Theory

Is Selena Gomez lurking on TikTok? At a listening party in London yesterday, she tested one of the app’s favorite beauty trends.

Gomez embraced Red Lip Theory, the idea that a red lip gives a boost to the skin, too. As Alexis Androulakis of The Lipstick Lesbians put it in a June 2024 TikTok: “If you are wearing nothing on your face, nothing but a red lipstick, your skin will look more even. You’re drawing people’s attention with the red lip.” Since then, scores of people have tried a bold lip on an otherwise bare (or, nearly bare) face, including Gomez herself.

Makeup artist Hung Vanngo gave Gomez a cherry red lip—in her own Rare Beauty, of course. Gomez chose to forgo eye makeup at the listening party, letting the powerful lip do all the talking. Later on, she added a subtle smudged-out wing and a swipe of mascara.

Gomez’s statement-making makeup look matched her all-red outfit. Styled by Erin Walsh, she wore a Roland Mouret minidress, Jimmy Choo pointy-toe pumps, and a faux-fur Milkwhite coat. Even her nails fit the brief, albeit in a more oxblood shade. While the monochromatic look makes it hard for any one component to stand out, we couldn’t keep our eyes off her lips. Selena Gomez is proving the Red Lip Theory right in our books.