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alt title(s): Femme Lesbian 
The Lipstick Lesbian is what many straight men, in a case of wishful thinking, like to imagine all lesbians are like. She dresses in a more typically "girly" fashion than the stereotype Butch Lesbian (and wears makeup, hence the name), making her conventionally attractive while still gay. Main-character lesbians on TV tend to fall into this category more often, as it's often seen as "safer", unless the show is going for "edgy". They also often have long fingernails, exactly unlike most lesbians...
A related term is "femme". However, the implication is that, while a "femme" would be attracted to a "butch", Lipstick Lesbians are attracted to others of the same type. Also note that in LGBT communities, lipstick lesbians tend to be described as 'more feminine' than average straight women or whose expression of femininity is 'over-the-top'. The Japanese term for "femme" is "Neko" (Meaning "cat"). Ellen Degeneres jokingly coined the term "chapstick lesbian" to describe those who fall somewhere in between the two extremes of "lipstick" and "butch".
Note that Lipstick Lesbians do exist, making this a case of Truth In Television to a degree. They just aren't nearly as large a proportion of the real lesbian population as the fictional one. Keep dreaming, straight boys.
The opposite of Butch Lesbian. Related to, and perhaps a direct result of, Girl On Girl Is Hot. See Schoolgirl Lesbians, another form of catering to Yuri Fanboys via character type. Lipstick Lesbians who don't take the "girliness" to extremes can be seen as Distaff Counterpart to the male Straight Gay, while ones who do, depending on your perspective, can either be seen as counterparts to the Hard Gay (in terms of over-emphasizing the "expected" characteristics of their sex) or the Camp Gay (in terms of going whole-hog into "femininity").
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
- Chizuru Honshou from Bleach could fall into this trope, since she is (physically) attractive and feminine but quite, quite gay.
- She also likes her girls girly, what with her pursuing the very feminine Orihime, Kunieda and Michiru while telling Tatsuki that she's too boyish for her
- Michiru Kaioh from Sailor Moon; however, with her girlfriend being the more masculine Haruka, some might say it would be more accurate to describe her as 'femme'.
- Subverted in the Canadian dub, as well as the Italian and Russian dub. She is revamped as straight in all of them
- Then again the majority of fans avoid the English dub (and likely many others) like the plague... Also the inconstant dubbing in some of them turned her a bisexual, and in the English one, an incestuous one at that.
- Yasuna from Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, sort of. Hazumu likely counts too.
- Possibly Minto of Tokyo Mew Mew, but when she says she loves Zakuro it could mean either romantic love or just the obsessive admiration for the celebrity and Onee Sama.
- Lavinia from Soukou No Strain. Bunny suit, anyone? And let's not get started on episode seven.
- Jun and Nene from Maka Maka qualify to a large extent (although they are bisexual).
- Maya Ibuki from Neon Genesis Evangelion is pretty clearly one of these, as shown in End of Evangelion. A hallucination of Ritsuko appears to Maya, tells her "I need you", and gives her a very tender hug...with her knee planted in Maya's groin. That, and Maya's joyful returning of the hug, is definitely jam-packed with subtext.
- Akko and Mari from Girl Friends. Particularly prevalent since much of the plot includes shopping for clothes, getting makeovers, and hairstyling.
- Hazuki from Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito, who has long billowy black hair, a pretty seifuku, stunning blue eyes, and is just slightly gayer than an entire pride parade reenacting the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The object of her affections is even more feminine, though bi- or pan-sexual.
- Yamato from Loveless acts as the more "femme" of the female Zeroes, as opposed to her fighter Koya.
- Rally Vincent from Gunsmith Cats probably qualifies, since her creator supposedly said she's a lesbian (and she kissed Misty in a recent volume.
Comic Books
- DC Comics's current Batwoman is a Lipstick Lesbian. She was 'outed' in a cunningly-written magazine interview several months before the character premiered, and her first comic appearance was in a stunning party dress that caused jaws to drop both in and out of the comic.
- Like Ellen, Batwoman's on-again/off-again paramour The Question could be described as a "chapstick lesbian". She is neither overtly butch nor femme and wears unisex clothes.
- Karolina Dean of Runaways qualifies as well.
- Sydney Krukowski from Dykes To Watch Out For refers to herself as femme, although the way she looks and acts isn't that different from her girlfriend Mo (who is sometimes considered butch.)
Film
- The female protagonists of Mulholland Drive fit this trope to a T.
- Judy Squires in Better Than Chocolate, who is also a transwoman. Frances, the woman she's in love with, is more of a "chapstick lesbian."
- Maggie, the main character, is pretty femme-y as well
- Amy and Lucy, the main couple from D.E.B.S. fit this character trope. Ninotchka, Lucy's unsuccessful blind date also fits.
- The lesbians in V For Vendetta, whose names completely escape me. Was it Valerie and...Anna?
Live Action TV
- Linda in Seacht.
- Remy Hadley ("Thirteen") in House is something of a Lipstick Bisexual.
- Jaye's sister Sharon in Wonderfalls
- Many characters in The L Word, which makes the occasional guest spots by real-life celebrity lesbians all the more jarring: they never look as Hollywood-feminine as the main characters.
- Laura Dern as "Susan" in the "outing" episodes of Ellen.
- Averted by the title character of Ellen, who has (hilariously) referred to herself as a "chapstick lesbian".
- Spencer and Ashley's relationship in South Of Nowhere takes up a considerable amount of attention within the show.
- Willow and Tara from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Though it's worth noting that seemingly everyone in Sunnydale is abnormally attractive.
- DC Jo Masters from The Bill has been described like this, although she doesn't really advertise it. Rather large in the chest department, she had Eddie (the male crime scene examiner) ask her on a date. She told him they'd go for a drink and she'd explain.
- Serena Southerlyn of Law And Order - though we only find this out via one of the biggest Wall Bangers of all time.
- Out of Practice, a failed show on CBS, had a central character who screamed this trope to the heavens. She dressed provocatively, threw herself at women, and couldn't open her mouth without bringing up the topic of her sexuality.
- Both Emily Fitch and Naomi Campbell from Skins - though they both, somewhat ironically, tend to wear a lot of plaid, button-down shirts.
- After her coming-out storyline, Beth Jordache from Brookside (played by Anna Friel) was labelled as a "lipstick lesbian" by the British media, receiving equal attention from young women and young men.
- Both Camille and her girlfriend in Stargate Universe are this.
- A minor character on an episode of Reba is one.
- Susan and Carol in Friends.
- One use for the Dolls in Dollhouse. Also Mags who is more of a chapstick lesbian or at least circumstances have turned her into one when we meet her. What she was like before the end of civiliztion is unknown.
Video Games
- Leliana of Dragon Age proves that it is possible for an Action Girl to be a Lipstick Lesbian: yes, she loves talking about hair and shoes and you can buy her a pet bunny/pig thing which she named Schmooples, and she's very soft-hearted and romantic. She is also aggressive and merciless in a fight, and can become terrifying late in the game as one of the party's primary damage-dealing characters.
- Subverted in the sense that she's technically bisexual (she'll romance a male PC), but leans towards girls.
WesternAnimation
Webcomics
- Nanase from El Goonish Shive pays attention to her hair, wears a good bit of make up and prefers wearing a skirt to pants. Compare this to Ellen, and she's pretty damn girly.
- Of course, she also occasionally shows a horrible temper, some tomboy mannerisms, and eagerly volunteers for a Gender Bender for a party, making her an odd example of both extremes.
- She volunteered for the Gender Bender because she thought it would make it easier to show her true feelings (she wasn't yet out at the time), not because she had any real desire to be a guy. She does do the whole martial arts thing, but her appearance is generally feminine.
- Kinda subverted recently, as she cut her hair really short and started wearing giant boots, which is at least slightly butch-y.
- Jessica McIntyre of Loserz. See this strip
 .
- Both Lia and Fiona from Yu Me Dream are definitely feminine enough to be considered Lipstick Lesbians.
- Amber from Khaos Komix, with her perfect curls.
- Daphne from Penny And Aggie. Her girlfriend Sara sports a look that's part Butch Lesbian (short, boyish hair and feminine-symbol jewelry) and part Lipstick Lesbian (appropriately, lipstick).
Web Original
- Decades of Darkness has Julia Gordon. And First Lady Anna Mitchell, which causes a scandal in Columbia and prevents her husband from reelected for a third term.
Real Life
- Tristan Taormino
- Portia de Rossi. Meanwhile, her wife, Ellen DeGeneres, has jokingly referred to herself as a "chapstick lesbian."
- Truth in Television: Leisha Hailey and Alexandra Hedison, who play lipstick lesbians Alice and Dylan on the L Word, are both femme lesbians whose famous dates are more often chapstick lesbians than butch.
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