One woman’s perfect nude lip color is another woman’s bane of her lip-loving existence. Everyone has a different natural lip color. Is yours a pale pink beige? A deep brown? A pinkish peach? Do your lips have a hint of purple in them?
I gravitate toward warm pinks — or pinks with hint of peach or brown — that fall somewhere in the middle of the nude spectrum. MAC’s pink Subculture Lip Pencil is pretty much my natural lip color.
I’m also a fan of MAC Patisserie Lipstick (also a warm pink) and Hourglass Dreamer Girl Lip Stylo (more of a neutral pink), my current go-to’s at the moment.
How about you? What does your perfect nude lip color look like? Does someone make it now?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Totally unrelated to nude lips, but do you ever drink almond milk? I like to put it in my coffee because sometimes regular milk gives me a tummy ache.
Well, I like to try different brands, and I found a really tasty one at Target by Califia Farms.
I’ve only had the Unsweetened Almond Milk flavor, but it’s smooth and doesn’t have a funky aftertaste. I like how it feels on my tongue, too. It has a thicker consistency, so it’s almost like regular milk.
I’m having it right now in a cup of Folger’s Simply Smooth (which I highly recommend if you ever get a tummy ache from coffee), and all I have to say is YUM!
My lips have a lot of blue/purple in them so my perfect nude falls somewhere in the mauve range. Anything too tan/orange/brown is totally wrong. I’m sure I have a perfect nude in my stash but being that I’m a lipstick hoarder, I’m constantly buying new lippies. I do like the UD Vice lipstick in Rebel that was in Sephora’s 10 Days of Kissmas but that might be a little dark for a nude. Maybe a MLBB.
Hi Joyce,
I’m a lipstick hoarder, too. 🙂 Do you have a fave brand/formula? I’m partial to anything creamy and moisturizing; the MAC Cremesheens and the Hourglass Lip Stylos are my fave at the moment.
Me too, very much the purple end of the range. The best I’ve found so far is MAC Flaunting It, but it was a limited edition. When I found more in a discount store I bought all I could find!
I keep meaning to try some of the NARS lipsticks (Dominique caught my eye)
I’ll have to try Reble, if I’m ever in the USA at the right time I’ll try Bites Mauvember…
Rosewood is my perfect nude shade, or brownish nudes. pink based ones are the bane of my existence.
Brownish nudes are super pretty! Love them.
Gurl. The struggle to find a good nude lip is real for me. I’ve looked for years. Years! I have Olive skin so “normal” nudes make me look really washed out or dead. Pink nudes i feel make me look too Princessy or juvenile. I found the perfect nude for me in Kat Von D’s Lolita. Lurve it. I bought it just as her lippies went 40% off a couple months ago and I’m already halfway through the tube. I recently discovered Lorac at Ulta so I might test some of their shades next!
Also if your like almond milk consider giving cashew milk a try too! I like it even better than almond milk. It’s creamier!
Hi Jaclyn,
I’ve always wanted to try cashew milk but haven’t had the opportunity to give it a taste. I know that the Target near my house has some by Silk! The cartons are all big though. Why can’t they make tiny little child-size ones?! Le sigh.
Does it have an aftertaste similar to almond milk?
That’s a good question, I honestly don’t remember! It’s true that the cartons are big I don’t think they come in single serving sizes but at least it stays fresh for a long time in the fridge!
That’s true! I might just go ahead make the jump. I’ve always loved cashew milk so I’ll probably be into it.
I am far from olive skin but Lolita works for me, KvD certainly has something right with that color
I’m intrigued by this color! I need to stop by Sephora (haha… “need”) to buy some gift sets so I must remember to swatch it! Thanks, Jaclyn!
I have more pink/blue tones in my lips so my perfect nude is more pink rose or berry tones. Right now my go to lip colora are either Apoline in Nars Audacious lipstick or Bobbi Brown Neutral Rose Luxe lip color. I am not a fan of the brown tones anymore.
I have tried Almond milk but find it usually too sweet for my taste. I only use milk for coffee, so I don’t mind the real dairy stuff.
Off topic of lip color, have you caught the buzz on the new NARS foundation. It’s probably not for my skin type, but it looks like they have expanded their shade range. I just wish they had some more mature models. Need to feel more love for us over 55 gals.
Hi Jane,
I have heard about that foundation! I’m waiting on it to hit my doorstep. 🙂 Will give you the details once I give it a go!
Have you ever tried Trader Joe’s Low Acid French Roast coffee? I sometimes have trouble with coffee but that one has never bothered me. It’s become my favorite coffee!
Hi Megan,
I had no idea! Is it seasonal or year-round? If it’s already ground I’m so in! Tell me more…
Thankfully, it’s year-round! I think it only comes in whole bean but they should have a grinder you can dump the whole container in near the coffee section.
That’s a relief! I don’t need to fall in love with yet another thing that’s going to disappear in a few months. 🙂 Lately I’m all about the sliced Brioche, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before it disappears from the shelves.
Oh man, the eternal struggle for the perfect nude lipcolour! I’m pretty pale (MAC NC15) so a lot of nudes look too pigmented on me. Tbh, my perfect nude is probably a tinted balm – I love the Fresh Sugar tinted balms (but you can’t get them here in Aus) and my ride-or-die, repurchased more times than I can remember – Clinique chubby stick in Super Strawberry.
Actually I recently bought a Christmas gift set of the Clinique Pop Matte lip colours, and I really love Blushing Pop – it’s more brown than I normally wear, but it’s such a pretty colour and a nice change. Plus easily the most comfortable matte lip colour I’ve ever tried.
Hi Janet,
Ahh, those Clinique sticks are lovely! Do you guys get Neutrogena down there? They make similar balms for a little less and they’re great.
Hi Karen, I really like Faux from the MAC Satin line or the Matte MAC Mehr. I usually don’t use a lip pencil to line my lips because I’m too lazy. Lol.
I really like something with a bit of sheerness – my favorite is LORAC Hydrating Lip Stain in Comedienne, which is peachish. My lips naturally veer a bit plummier though.
my lips are pretty brownish/purple around the edges but more pink around the center. My ‘perfect’ nude lip is nyx abu dhabi which i’m really trying to dupe in a bullet formula. Depending on the rest of my makeup i’ll reach for something more pinky like clinique chubby stick in curviest caramel or something more peach like mac posh tone
My perfect MLBB nude shade is Urban Decay Sheer Rapture. It’s a mauve pink matches the outer edge of my lips perfectly (the only part of my lips with any color). I also adore Urban Decay 1993 for more of a warm brown nude shade. I wear it A LOT. I also really gravitate to rosy browns a lot. Shades like Nyx Root Beer Float.
My lips are naturally mauve brown, so actually a lipstick that mimics completely my upper lip color is MAC Dearly Beloved (from MAC Kiesza collection), but here the thing: it looks cooler on me so I can look washed out if I don’t use blush and bronzer.
That’s why I have two different kind of nudes:
-Nudes that are like my lip color and I actually love/hate them because I look washed out; Kat Von D Lolita is in this category, I simply look strange with it if I don’t use blush or bronzer. Also MAC Amor Prohibido could be in this category but it gives me enough pink to work.
-Nudes that make me look healthy, they’re on the pink or sheer red/purple (purple always runs pinker on me) scale and actually my gold standard is Maybelline Baby lips in Cherry Me.
About almond milk, I don’t buy it here because it’s really expensive but we drink soy milk; because Alisson doesn’t eat/drink dairy because she’s intolerant.
I have an olive skin tone and very pigmented lips and there are very few nudes I can wear. No cool toned pinks or peachy shades because they wash me out. I can only wear nudes that have some brown in them. My favorite is NARS Barbara. Other shades that I can wear are: Urban Decay’s Stark Naked and Carnal, MAC Persistence, Kat Von D’s Lolita, and Too Faced’s Sunday Funday – thanks to a helpful Sephora employee who helped me pick out this shade for a friend’s birthday who has a deeper olive skin tone than me. She loves this lipstick and it will be my next purchase. It works for me, too!
Hi Kerstin!
I consider my skin more like a golden undertone (I can’t consider it olive because I can’t see a lot of green but a lot of yellow on it) think Karen’s skin color but yellower. And for me is really hard to pull nudes with a lot of brown, Lolita is a color I can make it work but I’m not thrilled about it, instead UD Sheer rapture looks stunning on me.
Hi Efrain!
UD Sheer Rapture is a really pretty color. I will check it out the next time I am at Sephora. Plum colors I recommend are: Bobbi Brown’s Luxe Lipcolors in Hibiscus, Soft Berry and Downtown Plum. You should check them out!
Hi Efrain,
I used to drink soy milk and rice milk when almond and coconut were hard to find. How do you like it? I find it has a funky aftertaste compared to the other non-dairy milk options.
So smart of you to have an arsenal of nude lip colors! So, with the shades in the first category — the ones that you have a love/hate relationship with — perhaps try layering/blending with a deeper, richer mauve brown lip pencil? Something that’s close to your lip color. I find that doing a slightly darker pencil around the edges softens the pale shades and makes them more wearable.
I love nude lips! I have so many nude-ish lipsticks, but I think my most “perfect” MLBB nude ever is Urban Decay Sheer Liar (in the Revolution purple wavy packaging, I haven’t tried Liar in the new Vice lipstick formula). It’s so pretty!
Hi Katie,
Me too. I remember those Sheer versions of Revolution; unfortch I think they may be discontinued soon because they’re all on sale on the UD website for $15. You might want to stock up!
I’ve recently discovered my PERFECT nude lip colour – Kat von D Everlasting Liquid lipstick in Lovecraft.
Love that it’s not overly drying on my lips too, and it lasts all day at work (I’ve ordered a couple of other colours too now!)