How To Choose Your Perfect Shade of Lipstick

EYES ON THE PRIZE

Forget complicated tests and guidelines: your perfect lipstick may simply depend on your eye colour. “Have a look at a colour wheel,” Courtney suggests, “The colour that is opposite to your eye colour is the one that will make your eyes stand out most.” This means orangey-reds for blue-eyed girls, and those with green eyes look beautiful in pink lipstick.

Colouring plays a big role in finding the best lipstick for you. Do you know whether you have more warm, cool or neutral undertones? If you’re not sure, look down at the veins on your wrist. If they look blue-ish, you may be more cool-toned. If they look greener, this could indicate that you’re warm-toned. Cool-toned girls should choose lipsticks with blue undertones (think cherry and berry tones), whilst those with warm undertones best suit lipsticks with orange bases (i.e. brick reads and punchy oranges). If your veins look both green and blue – you’ve probably got neutral colouring, which means you can pick products from both the cool and warm camps. You lucky duck.

FIND YOUR HOTTEST SHADE

While you might be tempted to swatch a lipstick on the back of your hand before buying it, Courtney suggests holding off and sampling it on your lips instead. “Make sure that when you try on lipstick, you put it on both lips as opposed to your hand,” she explains. “Your natural lip colour does change the colour of a lipstick.”

When comparing shades, steer clear of department store synthetic lighting and seek natural lighting instead. The natural light will offer a more accurate depiction of what the colour looks like in real life. Courtney’s tip? “You will know a colour suits you when it makes your eyes pop!”

PERSONALISE YOUR POUT

If you still need help finding that perfect shade, companies like Lip Lab can take all the guesswork out for you. The Beauticate team spent a day at the Lip Lab to see what the hype surrounding customisable beauty was about.

Before getting started, we filled out an extensive questionnaire about preferred colours and finishes, which acted as a road map towards out desired lipstick. After an hour of formulating shades and aromas, we walked away with our dream lipsticks and a wealth of tips and tricks to share. Oh, we also got to create a foundation that was exactly customised to our skin colour and type. That meant no more arriving home to discover a mismatched foundation.

YOUR TURN

Keen to create your perfect lippy as well as loads of other makeup products? The Lip Lab can be found at various locations Australia-wide. Find your closest salon here.

Story by Tess Schlink. Photos by Sigourney Cantelo and Alice Mahran