How to Choose the Right Lipstick | Avon

Everyone’s got them. Hidden away in make up bags and bathroom cupboards across the country are lipsticks that seemed to be just what we were looking for – the everyday nude, a great red, a vibrant summery pink – and they were, for a day or a week until we noticed they weren’t exactly right, that they didn’t really suit us. Is there a way to avoid making expensive mistakes with lipsticks?

Choose the Color.

Look for a color that is like your own natural color, but to take it up a notch. So if your lips are pale, your lipstick color could be beige, sandy or pale pink. A medium lip tone needs browns and roses, while dark lips can wear raisin. If you are very dark and have purple or dark brown lips, go for chocolate and blackberry colors. For evening, take your daytime color to a richer intensity. If you chose a berry lip-gloss during the day for example, a satiny burgundy would look more dramatic at night.

Beware your skin tone!

Another factor that can make your lipstick look right or all wrong is your skin tone.

Everyone’s skin tone (rather than their skin color) tends to have a warmth or coolness to it. Warm skin will have yellow undertones and maybe some orangey red. Cool skin has red undertones, tending to the pink.

Typically someone very fair or with high coloring is a cool skin tone, though you can have a medium skin and be cool. Equally, very black skin with a blueish undertone is cool. Likewise fair skin can be warm as well as the more obviously warm olive, Asian and lighter black skins.

Determine your tone type.

If you’re not sure whether you are predominantly warm or cool, try these tips:

1. Which suits you better, gold or silver jewelry? Whichever lights up your complexion best, reveals whether you have warm or cool skin tones. Gold looks great on warm skin, while silver enhances cool skin.

2. The inside of your arm can be revealing. If the skin is pale and your veins look bright blue, you’re a cool skin tone. In warmer skin veins are less obvious.

Once you’ve discovered your skin tone, apply that to lipstick. Broadly speaking, warmer shades of lipstick or those with yellow and orange undertones will suit a warm skin tone – think cappuccino, caramel, certain browns with hints of gold and bronze. For cool skin, good choices will be in the blueish pink spectrum, light pinky reds and blue-toned reds and classic beiges with pink undertones.

Enjoy shopping for the best lipstick at Avon.