The Halo Lip Will Be 2026’s Biggest Beauty Trend, According To This Celeb Make-Up 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 – make-up 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 make-up 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 make-up 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 make-up 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 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.”