Here's one situation: Your favorite vampy-red lip gloss feels a touch too dramatic for the office and you wish there was a way to take it down a notch and make it go from day to night.
Here's another: You bought a lip color without trying it on and now that you have, you realize the shade is slightly off. Or maybe you did try it on, but it doesn't quite look the same in your bathroom as it did in Sephora. Either way, you dont feel like returning it, so it'll probably just sit in the bottom of your makeup bag for eternity, right?
Wrong—you just need lip toners. Let us explain: Surratt Beauty Lip Lustres are technically a line of lip glosses, but two of the shades—Teinte (a sheer white) and Ton (a sheer black)—act as tints, changing the color of any lip gloss you put on top. The white one makes colors lighter, softer and creamier; the black one gives them a cooler, deeper tone. The change isn't hugely dramatic, but sometimes a little tweak makes all the difference.
Surratt Beauty Lip Lustres in Teinte and Ton, $32 each, barneys.com.