Tips for Choosing: Your Perfect Nude Lipstick

Whether you are seeking an everyday staple or the perfect understated companion to your smoky eye, finding one's perfect nude or neutral lipstick is often a crucial task for any makeup-loving maven. The process, however, can be somewhat intimidating as with one false move, your lips can seem to disappear, you can look corpselike, or else your face just looks out of balance. But as with all things in the world of beauty, there is certainly something, if not multiple things, out there for everyone, and this includes nude lipstick. Here are my tips for finding your best.

Recognize Your "Nude" May Not Look Nude at All: This is especially true for those of us who have naturally pigmented lips. If you do have a naturally darker lips to begin with, the milky beige or brown colors that the makeup world has trained us to perceive as "nude" will often be too light for us and wash us out or else, the pigment of our own lips will break through the color we try to put on, making it appear splotchy and inconsistent. Instead, it might be better to look at the sheerest formula you can find that coordinates with your natural lipcolor and use that as your "nude" to give the most natural-looking effect while still having a balancing compliment to a bolder eye.

Consider Your Natural Lipcolor as a Clue: Having said all that above, regardless of how light or pigmented your lips are and what you are looking for, your natural lipcolor is a great indicator of what to look for a beige or brown color if you are on the hunt for the more traditional nude lipstick. Neutral lipcolors may look very similar at first glance, but they all have different little hints of other colors within their hues. Experiment with neutrals that have hints of your natural liptone, be that peach or mauve or pink, to assist you in finding your best brown-toned neutral. For example, my lips are naturally quite red in tone and my best most natural-looking lips, therefore, tend to be sheer reds or berries like Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey or Glossier Gen G Lipstick in Jam. If, however, I am looking for a brownish neutral, I will default to brown lipcolors that have that red undertone such as MAC Twig or Bareminerals Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Maverick.

Look At The Whites of Your Eyes: Finding out your skin undertone and knowing the undertone of the colors you are trying on is always helpful, but it is especially important in finding your most flattering nude lipstick. A good trick for finding the undertones that harmonize with you the best, in trying out nude lipsticks especially, is to look at the whites of your eyes. As you experiment with different tones and undertones, keep a watch on how the whites of your eyes look as you change out the lipsticks. A nude lipstick that is too warm (yellow or orange-based) for your skintone will cause the whites of your eyes to appear slightly yellowish, while ones that are too cool (blue-based) will make the whites of your eyes look filmy or gray. If there is no discernible change, you probably have come across your ideal undertone for your nude lipstick and can play with the lightness and depth and color leanings that way. For more on the importance of color undetone in makeup and how to find out which undertones will suit you, check out my article here.

Avoid Matte Lipsticks At First When Testing: Matte lipsticks tend to be not only pigmented but also very thick and opaque on the lips. When testing more nude lipsticks, this opacity can look very pasty and chalk-like on the skin, making the effect very stark and difficult to read what tones will suit you best. Start with sheerer or more satin lipsticks or even glosses to get a sense of what nude color family you want to work with and then test out more opaque options later.

Keep in Mind That It Will Balance With Eye Makeup: In particular if you are trying to find the lightest of your nude shades, these can be especially intimidating to try on when your eye makeup is minimal because having the lips so light will seem to make the face fuzzy or skew it out of balance, but sometimes, the lightest of nude lipsticks will be just the thing when your eyes are super played up. It is often said that the heavier you go with eye makeup, the softer the lips need to be, but I think it is even more so that the lighter you want the lips to be, the stronger your eye must be to have the lightest of colors work for you.

Whether it is a seashell pink, a soft beige, a coffee brown, a terracotta peach, or a brick red, there is a myriad of neutral and nude lipsticks out there, and many great colors exist for everyone. I hope these tips will be helpful for you in finding your perfect match. As always, though, remember that these rules are bendable and to always go with what you like and makes you feel the most confident and beautiful version of you.