Lancôme Lip Idôle Butterglow Lip Balm Review 2025

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After Lancôme launched its Lip Idôle Squalane-12 Butterglow Hydrating Lip Balm, the buildable, lipstick-balm hybrid promptly became the talk of many a TikTok girlie and Reddit reviewers, all of whom praise the product’s pigment power that doesn’t sacrifice the deep hydration that a perfect pout so desperately needs to look flawless.

The ingredient we can thank for this ideal balance is, first and foremost, squalane. It’s a skin-identical emollient — commonly found in the best hydrating serums or hand creams — that mimics the lipids naturally found in your skin barrier. Squalane helps prevent skin’s moisture loss, mitigates signs of aging, smooths the skin, and does all this without clogging pores. Lancôme’s Lip Idôle Hydrating Lip Balm is also boosted with shea butter to soften skin, jojoba oil (providing antioxidant protection and, once again, moisture), as well as ceramides (which, like squalane, hold hydration inside the skin barrier while granting firming and plumping effects). The balm’s superpowers don’t end there: It contains plenty more oils, waxes, various flower extracts, and vitamin E.

While all of this sounds good on paper, the proof is in the pudding… or, in this case, the numbers. This tinted lip balm from Lancôme has over 44,000 hearts on sephora.com and an impressive 4.8-star average on ulta.com, plus more than 2,000 five-star reviews directly on the brand’s site. Lancôme’s bestsellers also seem to consistently find their way into the hands of celebrities like Olivia Rodrigo (who used the Lash Idôle Flutter Extension Lengthening Mascara at the 2025 Grammy Awards), Isabella Rossellini (whose bold red lip look at this year’s Golden Globes was courtesy of the L’Absolu Rouge Drama Matte Lipstick), and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (the actress’ makeup artist for the Oscars chose the Lip Idôle Hydrating Lip Balm in question, specifically in the Don’t Be Chai hue). These starlets show how advantageous Lancôme makeup is when you’re faced with the bright lights and camera flashes of the red carpet: paying dividends in volume, shine, definition, and other covetable attributes. But how do the brand’s formulas — particularly a hot-right-now lip one — stand up to everyday wear, on the kinds of days when you want your makeup aesthetic to feel fresh but you may not have time for hourly touchups?

In the spirit of a beauty writer who doesn’t immediately trust the word “buzzworthy,” I set out to see if the 90-year-old Parisian brand’s only lip balm offering was, well, actually worthy of all that buzz. I took the Lip Idôle Squalane-12 Butterglow Hydrating Lip Balm for a spin in the Mauve-tivation shade, using it for a full week at work during which I talked, ate, sat at my computer, and occasionally went out for walks in the area.

Having trialed no shortage of lip products spanning balms, lipsticks, lip oils, plumpers, liners, and glosses, I’m one demanding journalist when it comes to the criteria a beauty buy has to fit in order for it to become a personal recommendation. I needed this balm to cling to my lips for over two hours without having to keep coming back to the tube; offer a range of intensity levels that could be controlled via the number of times I swiped my lips with it; have a texture that felt creamy without stickiness; and, once a day has passed by, leave my pout feeling more hydrated than what I started with. Read on for my honest review of how it lived up to (and surpassed) these expectations.

How We Tested Lancôme’s Lip Idôle Squalane-12 Butterglow Hydrating Lip Balm

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Lancôme Lip Idôle Squalane-12 Butterglow Hydrating Lip Balm Review

The first thing I loved when swiping the Lip Idôle balm on my top and bottom lips was its scent. Usually, the best lip balms on the market have an almost-medicinal fragrance or else something that’s overwhelmingly sweet and completely unserious. This pick, however, benefits from a multifaceted scent profile marked by a kind of mintiness (I later read the fine print and realized this was due to peppermint oil). And although its presence didn’t translate to a cooling sensation on my lips — something the best lip plumpers are known to bestow — I still appreciated this sensory bonus.

Beyond a more-than-pleasant smell, the tinted balm also had the most balanced texture I’ve experienced in a long time: something that was ultra-rich and creamy (it’s called “Butterglow,” after all!) but didn’t have the stickiness that’s part of some hydrating lip products’ DNA. Indeed, the balm felt lightweight, and I never felt like I was smacking my lips each time I opened my mouth.

Color-wise, the lip balm’s biggest accomplishment is that it’s buildable to the highest degree, meaning I could swipe once before heading to work — which granted an almost-blurred subtlety that was perfect for an office setting — or thrice to complete a going-out ensemble that demanded something bolder. More layers did not in any way translate to heaviness or garish oversaturation, which is a win for springtime: when freeing yourself of stifling layers and thick coats presumes doing a bit of the same in the lip department. Even a single layer stuck to my skin for the duration of a day and into the evening, working overtime as I chewed on sandwiches, drank from my HydroFlask, bit my lips in frustration over writer’s block, and engaged in similar pursuits at which comparable lip balms would balk.

Another reason for the Lip Idôle Squalane-12 Butterglow Hydrating Lip Balm‘s viral success — and constant OOS notifications online — is that its range of shades honors and flatters every skin tone. Mine, light-to-medium but with some traces of olive in there, did well with Mauve-tivation: part of the balm’s berry family but more multidimensional than your typical pink, being dark enough to brighten the complexion in a contrast play of sorts (though perhaps this was just an imagined placebo effect!). If you’re interested in tapping into the nude lip trend that’s been taking over awards shows and celebrity MUAs’ makeup bags as of late, you better hurry: there’s only one beige hue that hasn’t sold out yet on Lancôme’s site, and I guarantee it won’t be around for much longer.

Now, as far as hydration goes — a major element of this balm, even present in its very name — I truly felt like it fulfilled all original claims related to the matter. I’m not the kind of gal that walks around with chapped lips all the time (I drink my mandatory liters, thank you very much), so I wasn’t looking for some miracle cure, but what I can say is that lipsticks and tints which make my pout parched, or else are mattifying, are big no-nos in my book. Because of its aforementioned ingredient list, this Lancôme star was skin-nourishing to the max, functioning almost like a kind of clear, unscented balm formula made with dry lips or hands in mind. The hydration my lips received did, in fact, last for entire days, though I didn’t notice the product reducing fine lines in any significant way.

Will I continue using Lancôme’s Lip Idôle Hydrating Lip Balm this season and beyond, for a chic, one-and-done lip look that proves makeup doesn’t have to come at the cost of skin care? You better believe it, and I hope you join my Lancôme fan club.

Shop Lancôme Lip Idôle Squalane-12 Butterglow Hydrating Lip Balms

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Meet the Author & Testers

Stacia Datskovska is a senior commerce writer at WWD. Previously, she worked at ELLE DECOR as an assistant digital editor, covering all things luxury, culture, and lifestyle through a design lens. Her bylines over the past five years have appeared in USA Today, Baltimore Sun, Teen Vogue, Boston Globe, Food & Wine, and more. Prior to joining ELLE DECOR, Datskovska learned the ins and outs of e-commerce at Mashable, where she tested products, covered tentpole sales events, and curated gift guide roundups. She graduated from NYU with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and international relations. Datskovska regularly reports on beauty’s latest and greatest, including celebrity-used Lancôme gems.

Claire Sullivan is a contributing beauty editor for WWD, where she writes and edits beauty, fashion, and lifestyle stories. She has over eight years of experience as a writer and editor for national media outlets including Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Weddings, InStyle, and Byrdie. She’s tested hundreds of products during her time as an editor, including hundreds tinted and hydrating lip treatments and the best Lancôme beauty products.

Adam Mansuroglu is the Director of Commerce for Footwear News and WWD, overseeing strategy for shopping content on both brands, along with writing and editing shopping guides, product reviews, and shopping trend stories across fashion, beauty, home, and lifestyle product categories for men and women. Before his current role, Mansuroglu was a fashion editor and stylist at Cosmopolitan Magazine, a Style Editor at BestProducts.com, and a Senior Style and Gear Editor at Men’s Health Magazine. Mansuroglu has been tapped as a shopping expert for editorial websites such as Wirecutter, and his writing has also appeared in Out Magazine, Esquire, and other publications. Mansuroglu has been testing hundreds of hydrating lip balms over the past three years.