Makeup How To: Choosing the Right Lipstick Shade

Lipstick is one beauty fashion accessory that will never go out of style. There’s nothing more elegant, feminine, or sexy than a woman applying a luscious layer of creamy lipstick. Even though lipstick should be a must-have for every basic makeup kit, many women don’t even own lipstick simply because they’re not sure how to choose lipstick the right shade for their complexion. If only they knew how easy it was to find a shade that would enhance and compliment their natural beauty!

Start Simple
If you’re just beginning to delve into the wonderful world of lipstick, there’s one simple rule to remember: you can’t go wrong with a lipstick that’s one or two shades darker than your natural lip color. This rule works for lip gloss, too. Simply apply your stick or gloss to one lip, leaving the other lip bare. If the color appears only a bit darker than your natural lip, you’re good to go.

If you’re not able to apply the lipstick or gloss directly to your lip (if you’re shopping at a drug store, for example), you can use the sample swatch on the packaging to find out if it compliments your natural hue. Similarly, when shopping online, print out the photo of the lip product and hold it near your lips to determine if it’s a good match.

A Little More
If you want to move away from shades that closely match your natural lip color, you can use your complexion to guide your choices.

For fair skin, apricot-nudes, light corals, and most pinks look wonderful. Darker shades, especially browns, are the fair complexion’s worst enemy.

Medium skin, the most common skin tone, looks beautiful when enhanced by rose, mauve, and berry shades.

Dark complexions, including brown and black skin, is best enhanced by deep plum, red, and chocolate hues. Brown, purple, caramel, walnut, plum, and wine are the shads to remember for deep skin tones.

What About Red?
How to choose red lipstick is one of the most common makeup cosmetic questions. The trick with red lipstick is to go by the complexion’s undertones, rather than the overall skin tone.

Cool undertones are best complimented by pink-reds, such as berry, blackberry, and brick. Blue-toned reds also look fantastic, and will provide a whitening effect for your teeth!

Warm undertones look best with orange, brown, tawny, tomato, warm, or golden shades of red.

One Last Tip
Bobbi Brown, well-known and beloved makeup artist, states in one of her books, “If I had to teach someone just one thing about lip color it would be this: Find a lipstick that looks good on your face when you are wearing absolutely no makeup.”