So sheer it looks like wearing black lace on the lips. Gold flecks that make the lips appear bathed in black candlelight. And after a couple of hours — a barely-there pink tint.
Black Lace Rabbit has been discontinued along with the wider Lipstick Queen range. The near-black tube with its distinctive gold-sparkle bullet is identifiable on eBay and Poshmark. Also check secondhand listings for the Smokey Lip Kits (Black Lace Rabbit + Sinner), which sometimes surface intact. We recommend the alternatives below as your best ongoing options.
Black Lace Rabbit arrived in 2016 as the most quietly radical product Lipstick Queen had ever made — a sheer black lipstick that was not for wearing as black. It was, instead, a veil: a tool for transformation. Worn alone on bare lips, it created what the brand called "a smoky veil" — the lipstick's sheerness meant that on most wearers it registered not as black at all, but as a darkening of the lip's natural colour with a slight grey-cool cast. Worn over another lipstick, it turned any shade "into a sexier, smokier version" by layering the same translucent black veil over the existing colour.
The gold Calcium Sodium Borosilicate flecks — the same interference-glass sparkle technology used in Eden, the Butterfly Ball, and the Frog Prince Gloss — were responsible for the "bathed in black candlelight" effect. Makeup and Beauty Blog described the moment as "pure magic: that moment when the light hits your lips and those tiny golden sparkles dance." After two to three hours' wear, the formula faded from its smoky veil into "a barely-there pink tint," giving the product a second life as the day wore on. The name was itself a metaphor: black lace is not black — it is a pattern of black transparency over skin, which is exactly what this lipstick was.
Black Lace Rabbit launched in 2016 with a concept that was both immediately legible and genuinely novel. The name said everything: black lace is not a solid black surface — it is a transparent pattern of fine dark threads over skin, through which the skin itself remains visible. The effect is one of darkness and mystery without opacity. Black Lace Rabbit applied the same logic to a lipstick: a black pigment so sheer and so finely dispersed that on most wearers it functioned not as a black lipstick but as a darkening, cooling, mysterious film over the lip's natural colour.
The gold Calcium Sodium Borosilicate flecks — the same borosilicate glass interference particles used in Eden and the Butterfly Ball — served a specific purpose here that was different from those formulas. In Eden, the green borosilicate disappeared on lips to leave shimmer. In Black Lace Rabbit, the gold flecks provided the contrasting warm dimension against the cool black base, creating what Makeup and Beauty Blog described as "the moment when the light hits your lips and those tiny golden sparkles dance — pure magic." The brand's own phrase — "bathed in black candlelight" — was perhaps the most precise poetic description of a cosmetic effect Lipstick Queen ever coined.
Candlelight is golden-warm set against surrounding darkness. Black Lace Rabbit replicated this precisely: fine gold Calcium Sodium Borosilicate flecks embedded in a sheer near-black carrier. At normal viewing distance, the gold was imperceptible — the lips registered as smoky and dark. In directional light — candlelight, evening lighting, direct sunlight — the gold flecks caught and scattered the light, creating moments of golden warmth against the dark base. Makeup and Beauty Blog: "at normal distance, shine, not glitter." The effect was atmospheric rather than decorative.
Black Lace Rabbit was sold both alone ($24) and in "Smokey Lip Kits" ($35 each) paired with a Sinner shade — Pinky Nude Sinner, Bright Natural Sinner, and Mauve Sinner. The kits positioned Black Lace Rabbit explicitly as a transformer: start with the Sinner as the base, apply Black Lace Rabbit over the top to create the smoky version. Two kits, two colour families, one system. The Smokey Lip Kit was the brand's version of a complete makeup product line within a single purchase.
The honest topcoat performance of Black Lace Rabbit was well-documented by reviewers who tested it systematically. Auxiliary Beauty conducted the most thorough test, applying BLR over six different lipstick types and reporting the results directly. The key finding: Black Lace Rabbit worked significantly better over light-coloured matte lipsticks than over dark or glossy ones.
The rule: Black Lace Rabbit works best over light-to-medium matte lipsticks. It adds the most visible deepening effect on nudes, mauves, and soft pinks. It works least well over glossy or creamy bases (disturbs the formula underneath) and over very dark shades (the darkening effect is invisible). The gold sparkles show most beautifully against pale nude-pink bases.
The Black Lace Rabbit formula was built on the same Castor Seed Oil and Candelilla Wax base as most of the Lipstick Queen lipstick range, but with two ingredients that appeared nowhere else in the confirmed LQ lineup: Glycine Max (Soybean) Seed Extract and Calcium Sodium Borosilicate — the latter used here in its gold-flash configuration rather than the green-flash version used in Eden.
Glycine Max (Soybean) Seed Extract was the formula's most unusual active. Black soybean extract — specifically the black-seeded variety of Glycine max — is rich in anthocyanins, the same class of pigment that gives blueberries, blackberries, and purple sweet potatoes their deep colour. In cosmetic formulations, anthocyanins from black soybean provide antioxidant protection and have been studied for skin-tone conditioning properties. Beauty Bridge listed it as one of the three featured actives alongside Mango Seed Butter and Meadowfoam Seed Oil.
The sheer black effect was achieved through a combination of low-concentration Iron Oxides (CI 77491 — yellow/brown, CI 77499 — black) dispersed in the Castor Oil base, combined with Calcium Sodium Borosilicate gold flecks, and calibrated so that the Iron Oxide loading provided opacity at around ten percent — comparable to the Saint formula — rather than the ninety percent loading of a Sinner. The result was a pigment load that produced a veil rather than a mask: on light-skinned lips, a visible cool darkening; on deeper-toned lips, barely perceptible. Tin Oxide enhanced the sparkle and interference quality of the borosilicate flecks.
As listed at Beauty Bridge and confirmed by skin-beauty.com:
Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Vegetable Oil (Olus/Huile Vegetale), Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax (Candelilla Cera/Cire De Candelilla), Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Beeswax (Cera Alba/Cire D'Abeille), Ozokerite, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Phenoxyethanol, Hydrogenated Polydecene, Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Butter, Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Hydrogenated Olive Oil, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter Extract, Tin Oxide, BHT, Glycine Max (Soybean) Seed Extract, Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77499), Mica (CI 77019), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891).
Highlighted ingredients are key actives. Calcium Sodium Borosilicate provides the gold-flash interference sparkle — the same borosilicate glass particles used in Eden (green flash) and the Butterfly Ball, here calibrated to produce warm gold rather than green. Glycine Max (Soybean) Seed Extract is the Black Soybean active — uniquely listed in the Black Lace Rabbit formula, not confirmed in other LQ products in this series. It contains anthocyanins (deep purple-black plant pigments) with antioxidant properties. BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) is an antioxidant preservative. Tin Oxide is used to enhance the sparkle brilliance of the borosilicate flecks. Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate is a UV filter. The black pigment is provided by Iron Oxides CI 77499 (black) combined with CI 77491 (yellow-brown), together producing the warm near-black at low concentration. Fragrance-free; the "vanilla flavour" noted by Makeup and Beauty Blog is likely from BHT or a carrier, not a declared fragrance.
Three products that capture the spirit of Black Lace Rabbit — the same sheer black veil concept, the same topcoat darkening function, and the same "soft goth without commitment" wearability.
For fans of Black Lace Rabbit's standalone mode — worn alone on bare lips for a darkening, colour-enhancing veil — Clinique Black Honey Almost Lipstick is the longest-standing, most beloved sheer-dark equivalent. It does not have the gold sparkle element of Black Lace Rabbit, but it delivers the same "darkens your natural lip colour into a more interesting version of itself" quality, and it has been doing so since the 1990s. The formula is comparably moisturising and comfortable. Black Honey reads as a deep plum-brown glaze rather than a black veil, making it slightly warmer and more universally flattering than Black Lace Rabbit alone on most skintones.
For fans of Black Lace Rabbit's topcoat function specifically — those who loved layering it over other lipsticks to deepen and smoke them — Urban Decay Oil Slick delivers the most comparable darkening topcoat in current production. It is a dark iridescent-black gloss that works similarly to Black Lace Rabbit as a transformer: applied over lighter lipstick shades, it darkens and adds a distinctive oily-dark sheen with colour-shifting properties. The formula is more glossy than Black Lace Rabbit's lipstick format, which means it works better over glossy bases than BLR did, addressing that specific limitation.
For fans of Black Lace Rabbit's gold sparkle dimension — those who loved the "bathed in black candlelight" gold-flecks-in-darkness effect — Pat McGrath Lust: Gloss in Black Dahlia is the most sophisticated current equivalent of the visual concept. The Black Dahlia shade is a deep, near-black gloss with warm gold micro-shimmer particles that produce an effect very close to Black Lace Rabbit's "gold sparkles in a dark base" quality. Applied over a nude or pink lipstick, it creates a comparable deepening and sparkling effect. The formula is more opaque than Black Lace Rabbit, so the visual impact is stronger.
"That moment when the light hits your lips and those tiny golden sparkles dance is pure magic. The gold flecks are more Barneys New York than Party City. After a couple of hours it wears into a barely-there pink tint."
Sheer black lipsticks aren't new because Black Honey has been around since the '90s, but this has a spark-tacular twist. The flecks are so fine that it's hard to see them in photos — but that's a great thing in this case. The formula feels moisturising and doesn't latch onto any lip flakes. I also like the subtle vanilla flavour, which tastes yum-o, but I don't detect a scent in case you're wondering. If you're feeling adventurous you can layer Black Lace Rabbit over other lipsticks to deepen them — it's a genuinely useful darkening tool in the right pairings.
"I love wearing this lipstick by itself. Don't believe reviews showing completely black lips — this darkens your natural colour and is SUPER hydrating. It feels like wearing chapstick."
I love this lipstick by itself and also on top of other lipstick shades. Packed with nourishing ingredients like shea butter, vitamin E and black soybean, the formula is conditioning and comfortable. The gold sparkles are beautiful and the formula feels like you're wearing nothing at all — very lightweight. I've been recommending it to everyone. 10 out of 10. The concept is unusual enough to be interesting every single time you apply it.
"The beautiful box far outshone its contents. BLR darkens and mutes light colours slightly, adding a grey cast and shine. It worked best over three light matte lipsticks. Over anything glossy, it made a mess."
The packaging gave me high hopes. The tube is cute. Black Lace Rabbit darkens light matte shades slightly — the effect adds a grey cast and a lot of shine, but the gold sparkles weren't immediately noticeable at a normal viewing distance. It worked over Milani Matte Naked, Urban Decay Backtalk, and ColourPop Trap. Applied over a creamy lipstick, it removed half the base colour from my lips. The concept is the right one but the execution requires very specific base conditions to work. Not a standalone product for me.