If your TikTok For You Page has been flooded with the same frosty pink lipstick since late 2025, you’re not imagining things Ballerina Shoes lipstick has become one of the most viral beauty products of the year, selling out at Target, Ulta, and CVS locations across the US and generating millions of views across platforms. It’s L’Oréal Paris Colour Riche Original Satin Lipstick in shade 135, priced at around $12, and it’s responsible for single-handedly reviving the frosted lip trend that dominated early 2000s beauty.
What Is Ballerina Shoes Lipstick?
Ballerina Shoes is shade 135 of L’Oréal Paris Colour Riche Original Satin Lipstick a creamy, frosty light pink lipstick that L’Oréal officially describes as a “light warm yellow-toned pink.” In practice, most wearers find it reads as a neutral cool-to-warm baby pink on the lips frosty, pearl-shimmered, and distinctly reminiscent of the Y2K aesthetic that defined late 90s and early 2000s beauty culture.
The base formula is L’Oréal’s classic Colour Riche Satin enriched with 75% caring ingredients including argan oil, vitamin E, and omega-3 which smooths the lips in a single coat, doesn’t smudge or feather, and leaves lips feeling hydrated rather than dry. The formula itself is not new. It’s been in the L’Oréal lineup for years. What’s new is the cultural moment that sent this particular shade viral. For a full breakdown of every L’Oréal Colour Riche line and how this shade fits within the broader portfolio, our complete L’Oréal lipstick guide covers everything you need to know.
Why Did Ballerina Shoes Lipstick Go Viral?
The virality of Ballerina Shoes has three converging explanations:
The Elle Fanning Oscars moment. One of the strongest accelerants of the Ballerina Shoes trend was content creators recreating Elle Fanning’s Oscars makeup look and multiple L’Oréal Paris partner creators specifically identified Colour Riche in Ballerina Shoes as the exact pink shade Elle wore. This celebrity connection gave the product immediate aspirational context and drove significant search traffic overnight.
Y2K beauty nostalgia. TikTok’s beauty nostalgia cycle had been building toward frosted lips for several months. In the late 90s and early 2000s, frosted lipstick was a red carpet staple worn by everyone from Kate Moss to Paris Hilton pearlescent, light-reflecting, and deeply associated with the Y2K aesthetic. Ballerina Shoes arrived at exactly the moment the cultural appetite for that look peaked. The shade’s cool, icy shimmer translates perfectly to the Y2K content aesthetic, and creators instantly recognized the reference.
The $12 price point and wide availability. Unlike designer viral beauty moments, Ballerina Shoes was immediately purchasable at Target, Ulta, CVS, and Walmart for around $12. Low barrier to entry accelerates viral trends more than any other factor in beauty, and the accessibility meant millions of people could participate rather than just watch.
What Does Ballerina Shoes Lipstick Actually Look Like?
The shade is a frosty, shimmery baby pink L’Oréal officially describes it as “light warm yellow-toned pink,” but on the lips it reads as neutral to cool, with a pearlescent shimmer that creates a dimensional, ice-like quality. This frosted finish is the defining characteristic and what makes it feel so distinctly Y2K.
The shade reads differently by skin tone: on fair to light skin it creates the classic frosted baby pink seen in viral videos; on medium skin the yellow warmth can read slightly peachy; on deeper skin the pale base tends to appear ashy or chalky without modification.
Does Ballerina Shoes Work on All Skin Tones? The Honest Answer
This is the most-discussed aspect of the Ballerina Shoes trend and the community is genuinely divided. The most honest assessment: as a standalone shade applied directly from the tube, Ballerina Shoes works most naturally on fair to light skin tones. Applied straight to medium and deeper complexions, the pale, frosty base can conflict with the lip’s natural warmth and create an effect that looks ashy or chalky.
However and this is important there is a widely shared technique that makes it work across a much broader range of skin tones:
The liner trick: Apply L’Oréal Colour Riche Lip Liner in a warm shade (Toffee To Be or a matching nude for your skin tone) all over the lip before applying Ballerina Shoes on top. The warm liner base neutralizes the cool, pale frostiness and creates a more blended, flattering result on medium and olive complexions. Multiple TikTok creators with medium to tan skin have demonstrated that this pairing produces genuinely beautiful results.
For deeper skin tones: Content creators on TikTok have specifically flagged that the shade doesn’t translate well to deeper complexions without significant modification. The recommended alternatives for deeper skin wanting the same frosted aesthetic are L’Oréal’s Sugar Plum (a plummy frosty shade), MAC Angel applied over a matching base, or CoverGirl’s frosted picks with warmer pink undertones.
For a broader look at how to match lipstick shades to your specific skin tone and undertone the same principles that determine whether Ballerina Shoes will work for you our complete guide to finding your perfect nude lipstick covers the undertone-matching approach in full.
How to Wear Ballerina Shoes Lipstick Correctly
The most consistent advice across every beauty creator who has covered Ballerina Shoes is the same: this shade requires cohesion from the rest of your makeup. As one TikTok commenter put it, “when a lipstick doesn’t look right, it’s the rest of the makeup. Some things need cohesion, you can’t just put on a frosty lipstick and expect it to look good.”
The Cohesion Principle
Frosted lips work best when the surrounding makeup mirrors the same cool, luminous aesthetic rather than fighting against it. The most flattering Ballerina Shoes looks pair:
- Minimal base makeup — Skin-like, dewy, or glazed-skin finish rather than heavy matte foundation. The frosted lip is the statement; the face stays fresh.
- Subtle, cool-toned eye makeup — Soft pink shimmer shadow, a light mascara coat, and clean liner rather than bold contour or warm bronzer.
- No heavy blush — Frosted lips and heavy pigmented blush compete. A light, cool-toned blush or no blush at all lets the lip breathe.
- Highlighted, dewy cheekbones — The shimmer of the lipstick reads better when the face itself has luminosity rather than a flat, matte finish.
Application Tips
Line with a warm nude first. L’Oréal’s own recommendation is to pair Colour Riche lipstick with a matching lip liner. For Ballerina Shoes specifically, a warm-leaning nude liner (Toffee To Be) all over the lip provides a blending base that makes the frosted shade more wearable across skin tones.
Apply from center outward one coat delivers the full frosted effect. For a subtler result, wear Ballerina Shoes as a sheer topper over a nude, a pink, or even a red lipstick to add frosty luminosity without the pale base being the primary color.
Best Alternatives to Ballerina Shoes by Skin Tone
If Ballerina Shoes doesn’t work for your complexion, or if it’s still sold out at your local store, these alternatives deliver a comparable frosted effect with better skin-tone compatibility:
For fair and light skin — MAC Angel — MAC’s iconic frosty light pink is a legendary Y2K shade that reads similarly to Ballerina Shoes with slightly more wearability. Available at MAC stores, Ulta, and Nordstrom.
For medium skin — Revlon Super Lustrous in various frosted pink shades — Revlon’s frosted finish lipsticks offer warmer pink bases that suit medium complexions more naturally than the pale Ballerina Shoes base. Makeup artist Erin Parsons specifically endorsed CoverGirl’s frosted picks as well-suited alternatives.
For olive and warm medium skin — CoverGirl Bronzed Peach — A frosted warm shade that combines the pearl finish with enough warmth to complement olive and golden undertones without the ashy effect of cooler frosted pinks.
For deeper skin — L’Oréal Sugar Plum — A deeper, plummy frosted shade specifically recommended by multiple creators as the Ballerina Shoes alternative for deeper complexions. The cooler plum base catches light the same way but with far more contrast and visual impact on deeper skin tones.
Is the Ballerina Shoes Lipstick Actually Good?
Yes with caveats. The formula itself is genuinely excellent: the Colour Riche Satin is hydrating, non-feathering, and delivers comfortable all-day wear, which is why it’s been an L’Oréal bestseller for years. The shade is genuinely beautiful on the right skin tone with the right surrounding makeup.
The caveats are real too: the pale, cool frosty base does not universally flatter. The “Ballerina Shoes on everyone” format that proliferated on TikTok somewhat overstated its universal wearability. And the frosted lip trend it revived comes with the same cohesion requirements it always did you can’t wear it in isolation and expect it to look effortless. Context matters.
But at $12, it’s a low-risk way to experience one of 2025–2026’s most distinctive beauty moments. And if it doesn’t work straight from the tube, the liner-base technique or the topper application almost always produces a version that does.
