If you thought we’d make it through a Y2K revival without the return of frosty makeup, you’d be sorely mistaken. I’m honestly shocked it’s taken so long. The fact that low-rise jeans and trucker hats got their moment before shimmery lips is a bit surprising.
But digging up beauty products from the early aughts isn’t as easy as heading to your local thrift store. Until recently, if you wanted a frost lipstick reminiscent of the early ’00s, the only place to buy one was eBay. Who knows if they were used, how long they’d been opened, or if it was even safe.
But the people who wanted frosty lips à la Pamela Anderson (hi, it’s me) didn’t care. Makeup artist (and historian) Erin Parsons is known for collecting old makeup products, but she never thought it would lead to reviving a trend when she posted a video reviewing and trying on discontinued MAC Frost lipsticks. The video went viral, but it wasn’t initially a plea to get MAC and other brands to bring back their OG shades or even convince anyone else that metallic lips were cool (spoiler alert: both happened).
Parsons isn’t the only one though. Makeup artist and content creator Emily Harper also collects vintage makeup and shares try-on videos on social media. Although frost lipstick has gone away almost entirely since the 2010s, it was a mainstay virtually every decade before it, Parsons tells me.
Immediately after frost lipsticks were popular, the industry moved on to matte, long-wearing formulas, which quickly flipped on its head when the 2020s brought the “clean girl” wave of lip balms and lip oils. With so many years away from frost, it actually feels new again, Parsons says. According to Pinterest’s inaugural beauty trend report, “frosted makeup” is up 286 percent, while “metallic lips” and “frosted lips 2000s” are both up 52 and 42 percent, respectively.
When you’re wearing jorts and taking pics on your digital camera, it just makes sense to finish the look with a frost lipstick, right? But Parsons was really just excited about how good the formulas were when she first started testing them on camera. You want to keep that deeper outline but soften the transition so it all melts together.” As far as the rest of your makeup, you’ve got options.
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