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Choosing lipstick for your skin tone
Pick lipstick by undertone first, blue-based reds, berry, and plum for cool skin, coral, brick, and orange-reds for warm, either for neutral, warm-leaning depth for olive, then by how much intensity you want against your face. Swatch two shades side by side so the blue or orange lean is visible. If your nude looks gray, it is lighter than your lips; go one or two shades deeper with your own undertone in it.
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VerdictUndertone then intensity
Verdict
Undertone then intensityUndertone picks the family, intensity the shade
Find your tone: Lip color matcher →Reading a lipstick undertone
Lip colors split the same way skin does. Blue-based reds, berry, plum, fuchsia and cool pink sit on the cool side; orange-based reds, coral, brick, terracotta and warm pink sit on the warm side. True reds sit close to the middle, which is why a genuine true red is the shade most often described as universal.
Swatching two at once makes the difference obvious in a way that a single swatch never does. Put a cool red beside a warm red on your hand and the blue and orange leanings separate immediately. Judging one shade in isolation is how people end up owning three variations of the same near miss.
Matching to your undertone
Cool undertones are generally flattered by blue-based reds, berry, raspberry and plum. Warm undertones are generally flattered by coral, brick, terracotta and orange-leaning reds. Neutral undertones can wear both, and olive skin tends to look best in warm-leaning shades with some depth, brick, warm brown-reds and muted berry rather than bright clear pinks.
Nudes are the hardest category, because a nude that ignores your undertone reads as gray or washed out rather than as a soft version of your lips. Look for a nude a shade or two deeper than your natural lip with your own undertone in it, rather than a lighter one, which is the usual cause of the ashy result.
Intensity and depth
Intensity is how much the color separates from your face. A deep berry on light skin is high intensity; a soft rose on the same skin is low. Neither is better, but high-intensity lips pull attention to the mouth and tend to want the rest of the face kept simple, while low-intensity shades sit back.
Deeper skin generally carries saturated and deep shades particularly well, and very pale or frosted shades are the ones that tend to disappear or look chalky. The adjustment is toward pigment density rather than away from color, many shades that look pastel in the tube apply far more sheerly than expected.
Testing a shade properly
Swatch on the lips or, failing that, on the fingertip, which is closer to lip color than the back of the hand. Then look in daylight rather than under store lighting. The question is whether your skin looks even and your teeth look clear, not whether you like the color in the bullet.
Today, swatch a cool red and a warm red side by side on your fingertip, take them to daylight, and see which makes your skin look even and your teeth clear. Then pick the formula: matte reads more intense and exact, sheer forgives a near miss, so a shade that is slightly off often works in its sheer version. The lip color matcher takes your undertone and returns the nude, red, and berry families to look in. A true red that leans neither way is the safest single buy.
FAQ
Common questions
What lipstick color suits my skin tone?+
Match undertone first: blue-based reds and berries for cool undertones, coral and brick for warm, either for neutral, and warm-leaning depth for olive. Then choose how intense you want the color to read.
How do I pick a nude lipstick that does not look ashy?+
Choose a nude one or two shades deeper than your natural lip color, carrying your own undertone. Nudes lighter than your lips are the usual cause of a gray, washed-out result at every skin depth.
Is there a red lipstick that suits everyone?+
A true red, neither clearly blue-based nor clearly orange-based, comes closest, which is why it gets called universal. It still reads slightly differently depending on your undertone.
Should I test lipstick on my hand?+
The fingertip is much closer to lip color than the back of the hand, and the lips themselves are better still. Judge in daylight, and swatch two candidates side by side so the undertone difference is visible.