Don’t Know What Red Or Nude Will Suit You? A Makeup Artist Tells You How To Pick The Perfect Lipstick!

I’m the kind of girl who won’t be caught dead on any given day without lipstick on. Without a swipe of my favourite lipstick, I find that I look dull, washed out and zombie-esque. And while I’ve painstakingly built up my collection over the past few years with my fair share of trial and error, I want you to have the easy way out. So, I caught up with Navreet Josan, National Artist, M.A.C Cosmetics India to understand how to pick the perfect lipstick. Keep reading for her expert tips and tricks!

How do you pick the perfect nude lipstick?

I would suggest you do not go for a colour that is too light, it’ll wash you out. You want a nude that has a tinge of colour, essentially, I would suggest you pick a colour that’s 1-2 shades darker than your natural lip colour.

I feel that every woman should have a pink nude, a peach nude, and a beige nude for sure. If you want to only pick one nude out of these three, you want to look at the colour of your lips and see which of these three tones is more prominent. Usually if you’re fairer and have naturally pink lips, a pinker nude shade would look better, shades like MAC Mehr, Mocha work really well. For deeper skin tones, a plum or chocolate nude would work. Taupe is a great option.

 

Pro tip: If you have pigmented lips, you can always use a nude lip pencil that matches the colour of your lips all over, that’ll help you neutralise the pigmentation on your lips and you can use any lip colour on top of that.

How do you pick the perfect red?

One colour that works well on every skin tone is a shade like Ruby Woo, it’s the right mix of tones so that’s why it’s able to look flattering on every skin tone. Otherwise, when you’re picking a red, I’d suggest going for a shade that’s more on the warmer spectrum, that’s going to work better on normal to darker Indian skin tones. If you have a fairer skin tone you can choose an orange-y red, or a blood red these shades will stand out more and look flattering.

How do you choose a darker lips shade?

With those colours you really want to see how bold you want to go. If you want to stay on the softer side, you’d want a reddish-bordeaux.  A reddish wine colour is great too! If you’re willing to go bold, the more black a lipstick has, the darker it’s going to be, the bolder it’ll look. It really depends on what’s your style. One thing you need to remember when you’re wearing a darker shade, you want to leave the rest of your face clean – apply just a little bit of mascara, do your brows, finish your skin and a little bit of contour and blush. But keep the rest of your makeup clean and let the lip colour be an accessory on your face, to achieve a look that’s modern.

There are a lot of mistakes that a noob would make while applying lipstick. What are they and how do you correct them?

• Not prepping your lips for lipsticks. People love to experiment with matte lips, which are still in at the moment, but if your lips are not exfoliated or hydrated with a little primer or lip conditioner. Rather than making the lips look beautiful, it ends up looking textured.
• Even though the trend is wearing red lipstick in a way that’s more believable (more natural), wearing a bright lipstick in a way that looks very haphazard can look quite horrible. Instead, use a lip liner and take a Q-tip, dip it in some makeup remover and clean up the edges. You could also use an angular brush with a little bit of concealer and go around the edge of your bright lipstick so it looks a lot cleaner. A messy bright lipstick or a dark lipstick really doesn’t look good.
• Also, when wearing lipstick, don’t forget to also add a bit of concealer to make your skin look more even, and polishing up the rest of your features to make the look finished.

When should you wear a matte lipstick and when should you opt for a glossy finish?

When it comes to bright or dark colours, I prefer using mattes, or metallics.

For nude lipsticks, you can experiment with glossy textures, they look beautiful and they add a bit of a softer look to your face and they are very on-trend at the moment.