The Halo Lip Will Be 2026’s Biggest Beauty Trend, According To This Celeb Makeup Artist

The world went mad for lip liner this year, and in 2026, we’ll be experimenting with new ways to use it. Enter Katie Jane Hughes—makeup artist, founder of her eponymous KJH Brand, and the woman behind some of Dua Lipa, Lily Allen, and Hailey Bieber’s most show-stopping looks—who has taught countless beauty fans a thing or two about makeup application (head to her TikTok if you’re not there already). Her prediction for next year? “Crisp, hard-lined lips are out, and soft, pillowy, blurry lips are in.”

Think of it as a kind of “halo” lip. Hughes first encountered the look early on in her career, while assisting on a photoshoot. Rather than keeping a bold red lip sharply defined, the makeup artist softened and blurred the edges with a brush. “It looked super effortless,” Hughes recalls. “I just thought, oh, that’s cool.” Now, she name-checks fellow makeup artist, Nina Park, as someone who nails the look time and time again.

Now this soft, diffused lip is back — and it’s here to make your lips look cushiony-soft and that little bit fuller, but in the most natural, girl-next-door way.

The toolkit is simple: a matte (not shimmery) cream bronzer, a fluffy pencil brush, and a lip contour crayon. Then you can get to work. “Take a bit of cream bronzer and really work it into your brush,” Hughes advises. “Then skim that bronzer around the perimeter of your mouth, creating this bronzey halo.”