When shopping with my bestie this weekend we were looking for a lipstick for her and I introduced her to the world of long-lasting liquid lipsticks, something she hadn’t tried before so I thought I’d put together a little post all about how to find the perfect lipstick, from shade to formula and everything in between.
1. Find Your Shade
Obviously, there isn’t just one shade that will suit you and you can’t ever where another colour! It’s a great idea to build up a little ‘wardrobe’ of lipsticks that all suit you so you don’t end up with loads of unused beauty products rolling around in your makeup bag feeling unloved. Pick a couple of everyday colours that you love and that suit you and then have a couple of party or statement lipsticks that are there for you when you want to amp it up a bit!
First up, the basics – find your undertone. We all have undertones of either yellow or pink. Yellow is warmer and pink is cooler. Either head to a few makeup counter and get some of the makeup artists to tell you which one you are or, at home, simply look at the veins on your wrist. If they’re blue, you’ve got pink undertones and if they appear greener, you have a yellow undertone. If they appear to be both blue and green, you’re neutral with both equal pink and yellow tones and you can wear any almost lipstick colour. Now, to match your undertone to lipstick shades all you have to do is stick to warmer colours if you have a yellow undertone and cooler shades with more blue and purple tones if you have a pink undertone.
If you don’t fancy heading to a makeup counter to try a couple of lipsticks on, it can be quite intimidating, then try some on at home or try a digital makeup try-on with an app like MakeupPlus. This app has been endorsed by Lisa Eldridge, basically the angel of makeup, so I 100% knew that I had to try it out when I saw her talking about it in one of her latest YouTube videos that I watched. You can try on so much more than just lipsticks, you can try out different hair colours, blushers, contour, eyeliners and even foundations. It’s awesome. I used it to try on a tonne of different lipstick colours and I’ve found that I much prefer pinks on me rather than reds. Reds are a bit too harsh and seem to wash me out whereas I’m more comfortable in a pink (I also gave my hair a pink tinge on my final result!).
2. Know Your Formulas & Finishes
There are so many different formulas and finishes on the market today that it can get more complicated than ordering a coffee. From matte to satin to gloss there’s so much to choose from as well as sheer, full colour and so much more. Basically, start by deciding whether you want shiny, not shiny or somewhere in the middle shiny. Then, how much coverage do you want your lipstick to have? Just a wash of colour or a full on power pout? You also need to take your day to day life into account, do you have time to re-apply your lipstick every few hours or do you want something to last all day? There are so many options, the best thing to do is to try a couple on and ask for advice!
3. Set Your Budget
Now, pick how much you want to spend on your lipstick. Do you wear it every day? You could justify a high-end lipstick if you want to treat yourself or you could get a great high-street lippy for around £7 if you only want to wear it now and then! There are so many great options in Boots and Superdug so don’t think that you have to run straight into MAC if you want a lipstick.
Now, when you’re shopping and you fancy something new, you can just ask the girl at the counter for a ‘warm’ or ‘cool’ toned red or pink and the overwhelming selection will slowly be whittled down and you can simply choose what you like without worrying if it’ll suit you or not. Easy!
