The best hooks for lipstick and blush reels, from 1,063 that went viral
The opening lines of 1,063 viral lipstick and blush reels: which kinds of hook show up most, which travelled furthest, and 16 real ones to learn from.
Nine words, all lower case: "baddies have at least one of these lip glosses". It came from an account with 1,243 followers and reached 5.1 million views.
Lipstick and blush reels sell a colour, and the most common hook here teases a shade before it shows it. We took the first line of every one of the 1,063 viral lipstick and blush reels in Aubrium's library, from 772 creators, and sorted them two ways: how common each kind is, and how far it went. Our page on the best hooks for Instagram reels does this for every niche at once. The full list of niches is on what goes viral in each niche.
76% of viral lipstick and blush reels put the hook on screen as text, and the middle hook runs 9 words, with shorter ones travelling further. Curiosity gaps are the most common kind. The furthest-travelled kinds are rare: POV hooks and number lists both reached 40 times their creator's followers, from 4% and 1% of these reels.
Aubrium's library, 22 October 2026.
What kind of hook works best for lipstick and blush reels?
Curiosity gaps are the most common. The two kinds that went furthest, POV hooks and number lists, are both rare.
The curiosity gap is the habit here: 20% of these reels tease a shade or a result without naming it, like "Nobody's talking about this shade". Yet the middle one got to just 17 times its creator's followers, near the bottom of the chart. Transformation teases reached 27. POV hooks and number lists both reached 40, but POV opens only 4% of these reels and number lists 1%, just 12 reels. Then there are the 21% with no real hook, which simply start on the colour. They landed at 23 times.
16 lipstick and blush hooks that went viral
Sixteen of them, picked by hand across ten kinds of hook, with the views and the creator's followers on each. Use the type filter to narrow them down.
- Curiosity gapText and spoken
Nobody's talking about this shade
- Curiosity gapText and spoken
Rating my lip gloss pulls.
- Curiosity gapSpoken
You just need to see it once.
- Transformation teaseText on screen
Try this Blush Hack !! ✅
- Transformation teaseText on screen
ranking my rhode lippies ✨
- Transformation teaseText on screen
That glossy lips with just two products 💄💋
- RelatableText on screen
baddies have at least one of these lip glosses
- RelatableText on screen
When the lipstick shade looks perfect online but NOT on your face
- RelatableText on screen
When the blush blindness makes it to the ID photo
- POVText and spoken
POV : you finally see Pan after 5 years of using the too faced bronzer
- AspirationalText on screen
A lipshade made for every skin tone ✨
- CalloutText on screen
you have pigmented lips
- Bold claimText on screen
"black is the most universally flattering color"...
- WarningText on screen
LADIES, this is your sign to over line your lips, rather than OVERFILL them.
- QuestionText on screen
want bigger lips?
- NegativeText and spoken
No. No. No, no, no, no, no. Exactly.
How long should a lipstick and blush hook be?
Keep it short. A typical hook here is 9 words, and the ones under that did better.
47% are 8 words or fewer, and those reached 22 to 24 times their creator's followers at the middle. Hooks past 20 words dropped to 10. A shade name and one reaction fit easily inside eight words.
Should you say the hook or show it?
Write it. 61% of viral lipstick and blush reels show the hook as text and nothing else, and that's the version that went furthest.
With text alone, the middle reel reached 27 times its creator's followers. Saying it got 12, and text read out loud as well, 15. With a swatch or a lip filling the frame, a written line can sit beside the colour without talking over it.
How do viral lipstick and blush hooks start?
The word "this" opens 31 of the 440 English hooks, more than any other. "I" (29), "the" (26) and "POV" (17) come next.
- this 31
- I 29
- the 26
- POV 17
- if 16
- you 13
- let's 9
- I'm 8
- how 7
- so 6
- when 6
- lip 5
The first word of 440 English hooks on viral lipstick and blush reels, and how many start with it.
Four shapes from the library, each one a real lipstick or blush hook:
POV…
“POV : you finally see Pan after 5 years of using the too faced bronzer”
When… / If you…
“When a blushaholic meets a lippieholic”
I… / My…
“My Flormar lip combo”
A question
“want bigger lips?”
Keep reading
A hook is one line of the reel. For the rest of it, from faces to sound, read how lipstick and blush reels go viral. Close by: the hooks on viral makeup haul reels, makeup tutorial hooks and eye makeup hooks.
Questions people ask
What's a good hook for a lipstick reel?
Curiosity gaps lead, opening 20% of viral lipstick and blush reels. The kinds that travelled furthest are rare: POV hooks (4% of reels) and number lists (1%) both reached 40 times their creator's followers for the middle reel.
How long should a lipstick or blush hook be?
Short. A typical one is 9 words. Hooks of 8 words or fewer reached 22 to 24 times followers, and past 20 words only 10.
Should a lipstick hook be written or spoken?
Written. 61% of viral lipstick and blush reels use text alone, and those went 27 times their creator's followers, against 12 for a spoken hook.
Do blush reels need a hook?
Not always. 21% of viral lipstick and blush reels skip it and start on the colour, and they still reached 23 times their creator's followers.
What word do lipstick and blush hooks start with most?
"This", on 31 of 440 English hooks. "I" comes next on 29, then "the" on 26.
How we did this
We looked at every lipstick and blush reel in Aubrium's library on 22 October 2026: 1,063 reels from 772 creators with 1,000 to 100,000 followers, each of which reached at least twice its creator's follower count and at least 10,000 views. We counted every reel filed in Aubrium's lipstick and blush niche; a reel can sit in more than one niche.
Hook types, delivery and on-screen text are labels Aubrium's reader puts on every post. Hook length and first words count the 440 reels with an English hook in words. Every number here describes reels that already went viral, so none of it is the odds for a new one.
Changelog
- First version.
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