Many, many moons ago, when global lockdowns first began to ripple through the beauty community, the industry resurfaced Leonard Lauder’s idea of a “lipstick index.” It’s a pretty simple concept: When times are tough, people like to treat themselves to little things that won’t break a tightening budget — namely lipstick. Then came social distancing, face masks, and blurry Zoom calls, and lip colors were the last thing on anyone’s mind.

Unless you were a beauty writer like myself. With an end of quarantine now hopefully in sight — knock on wood — I’ve been wondering when and if consumers will return to lipstick, and what a beauty brand might do to tempt them. Enter: Valdé Beauty. Launched this past fall, the still-new makeup line offers only lipstick ($40), lip balm ($40), and the $199 Valdé Armor and Lip set, its gothic-chic take on refillable beauty. It’s impressive. It’s vanity-worthy. It makes you feel cool, as demonstrated by my boyfriend’s utter shock that the lipstick was, in fact, lipstick, after he saw the armored makeup sitting on our kitchen island.

But after months of smothering my lips in only Aquaphor, can Valdé actually make someone want to put on lipstick again? For me personally, the answer was yes. After receiving my engraved(!) press sample in Ebullience, a true red, I felt like a little kid snapping together Legos while assembling the lipstick into the armor. And because I knew I was going to be trying out a red lip, I ended up doing my brows, giving myself a mini facial, and whisking through the rest of my pre-quarantine makeup routine, too; the power of a good lipstick, honestly.

Then I swiped it on. Or, technically, patted. The lip bullet itself has a wide, angled, circular tip, unlike teardrop-shaped lipsticks I’m used to, so I had to be a bit careful to make sure I didn’t get any of the lipstick on my foundation. (Side note: I did. It was super easy to clean up.) The Valdé lipstick feels very, very light on the lips, while still being creamy enough to cover the chapped texture I’ve had since the beginning of winter; think of a buildable K-beauty lipstick that allows you to concentrate the pigment in the center of your lips.

That said, this is where I discovered one of the few complaints one might theoretically have with Valdé: You might need a lip pencil. I’m a smudged-lip fan, so I personally enjoy a red lip that goes slightly above the lines and doesn’t perfectly enhance my Cupid’s bow, but if you aren’t, try either use a brush to apply the lipstick or find a complementary lip pencil color. Either that, or embrace the ultimate French-girl, just-got-kissed lip. It’s freeing.

And then, because we are still in quarantine, I went for a socially distanced walk to test run the shade. The lip color managed to stay in one place between putting on and taking off my face mask — major points — while not feeling drying or like I was wearing anything heavy. The color was shockingly bright; I haven’t worn a bright, opaque, attention-grabbing red lipstick in a minute, and I felt entirely too irresistible while sitting outside without a mask on, surrounded by absolutely no one except a neighbor and his dog about 30 feet away. Most importantly, they’re lipsticks that are just easy to put on then forget about, a strong feat for a 100% cruelty-free and vegan formula. Which will be the golden ticket once lockdown finally, fully lifts, and beauty fans reunite with their favorite lip colors. In a higher-glam near future, I think lipstick will need to be better than ever: beautiful, easy to wear, sustainably minded, and impressive to unbox on Instagram. Fortunately, Valdé does it all. Shop both the lipstick and lip balm on ValdeBeauty.com.