The 10 Best Clear Lip Glosses in 2026

Lip gloss was the gateway drug to a lifelong makeup addiction for many of us. But it’s easy to assume that clear lip gloss is another trend of the past, along with over-plucked eyebrows and chunky highlights. In reality, though, clear lip gloss can still be a versatile addition to your beauty routine.

Clear lip gloss is a basic that doesn’t have to be basic. Beyond the fruity, sticky lip gloss of your childhood is a whole world of glosses that have various features and even some juicy benefits for your lips.

Choosing the Right Lip Gloss for You

Clear gloss seems simple enough. But there are hundreds of glosses from dozens of brands flooding the market. The differences may seem subtle between them, but those subtleties can really affect your gloss experience. Here are a few things to consider when deciding what it is you’re looking for from a gloss.

Performance Features

You can expect more from your gloss than just a glassy finish. Most clear glosses like to boost their performance with some added benefits. Here are a few of the other benefits that modern lip glosses can bring to the table:

Moisturizing

The most common performance boost that brands have been giving their gloss is adding moisturizing ingredients. By adding nourishing oils and humectants into a gloss, the shiny lip candy also serves as a balm to help prevent dryness and peeling. Extra nourishing ingredients have found their way into many glosses.

Long-Wearing

Lip gloss isn’t exactly known for its longevity. In most cases, you’ll need to reapply frequently to keep a gleaming finish. There are a few glosses on our list, however, that have tweaked their recipe to be a little more long-lasting than your average gloss. You can’t expect the same all-day performance that you might get from a long-wear lipstick, for example, but these glosses can greatly reduce your number of reapplications.

Plumping

While the light-reflecting properties of lip gloss can already create the illusion of fuller lips, some glosses have been taking it a step further. They can contain any number of ingredients meant to boost your lips, eliminating creases, increasing circulation, and making them look subtly larger.

Shimmer

Adding a hint of frosty sparkle is a popular enhancement for lip gloss. Many brands will offer a clear and shimmer version of their basic glosses. It’s a festive bit of sparkle that can add extra dimension to your lips and can enhance the full look of your pout.

Tint

Some clear glosses will also add a hint of color into the mix. Rather than being a saturated opaque coating of color like lipstick, a tinted gloss still lets some of your natural color shine through. Typically, some of the pigment will remain even as the sheen fades with time.

Ingredients

Lips are a very sensitive part of the body. Even if you don’t typically have any allergic reactions to body products, the skin of your lips tends to be more sensitive, so you may want to take extra care when choosing which ingredients you want a product to have. Some people have no issues with these ingredients, so we’ve included a few products that contain them on our list. It’s up to you to consider what will be best for your skin.

Fragrance and Flavor

Many glosses will have some scent or taste. In some cases, this comes from the plant extracts in the ingredients. In many cases though, cosmetic companies will use artificial fragrances and color in their products. These can be irritating to those with sensitive skin or asthma.

Many glosses will use the ingredient saccharin to add sweetness without sugar. Some people enjoy this hint of sweetness, while others can find the aftertaste to be unpleasant. Critics are divided over whether or not it’s a safe alternative to other sweeteners.

Mineral Oil

Mineral oil is a common additive in many glosses because it’s light, thin, and shiny. This makes it easier to formulate than thicker plant butters, like shea and coconut. However, mineral oil is a petroleum-derived material. Some dermatologists extoll its virtues as an emollient that locks in moisture, and in most cases, it’s relatively safe to use.

However, many people have concerns about whether it’s really doing our skin any favors. Unlike other plant-based oils that often bring anti-inflammatory properties, antioxidants, and vitamins that can benefit your skin, mineral oil doesn’t have any of these additional benefits. It can also clog pores since it sits on top of your skin, rather than being deeply absorbed.

After carefully going through some of the most popular glosses on the market, we’ve narrowed it down to ten. Here are our favorites.