By Lesley Downey
Ever since a certain someone married a certain prince, the blogosphere has gone wild for Meghan Markle’s bridal makeup looks–featuring an easy-to-wear nude lip color. The trick with wearing nude lips is to take a cue from your own skin tone before you delve in–cooler undertone skin plays well with pinky nudes, while warmer complexions can handle more peachy or bronzy tones. Here are some of my favorites–and some tricks for wearing them.
Best for Daytime–This easy to wear pinky-nude is sheer, so some of your natural lip color shows through making it the perfect gateway color for the makeup-shy.
Best Gloss–These long-wearing Bobbi Brown glosses are a perennial favorite of mine, in Nude and Buff–to wear alone or over another lip color or over a liner to make it intense. Though they are a little heavier on the lips, they keep your lips glossy longer than most formulas.
Best Matte–This is the cashmere sweater of lipsticks– an understated matte-taupey nude that feels creamy and luxe. Refinery 29 also agrees, Brit Charlotte Tilbury’s shades are so very Meghan.
Best Splurge–Tom Ford. Nothing beats that little moment of luxury applying a fancy-schmancy lipstick. Tom Ford’s formula is all that–look for Nude Vanille if you are fair, or Sable Smoke for medium skin tones.
Best OG Nude Range–Bobbi Brown built her makeup empire on 11 original lipsticks to fill the gap in the marketplace of wearable neutral shades. From palest flesh tone to deepest bronze, Bobbi has something for everyone–Uber Beige caught my eye as that perfect, not quite brown, pink or beige tone—somewhere beautifully in between.
Best with SPF–Toss this in your pool or beach bag to protect the delicate lip area–all the while looking polished and subtly glowy with this bronzy tint.
Best Evening Nude–YSL’s shade is the little black dress of lipsticks–it can be dressed up and intensified with lip liner for more of a wearable femme-fatale effect.
Best Cheap Thrill–These Milani lip pencils can be worn alone, shaded all over the lips with balm or gloss on top or used traditionally to define your lip line. Check out shades 03 All Natural, 04 Nude, and 09 Spice.
Lesley Downey is a Charlotte-based beauty writer, tennis hack and beginning oil painter. She is a kitchen comedian for her three kids, and trophy wife to her husband Bill.
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