Big smoky eyes, a sun-kissed look or just a simple soft natural makeup all call for and look great with a nude lip. The trick is to not only choose the best nude lip shade for you but ensure your lips are well prepped before application.
Firstly, no matter what you are wearing, keep your lips in tip top condition. Exfoliate either using your usual exfoliator, an old toothbrush gently rubbed over your lips along with coconut oil or a lip balm or you can buy a specific lip exfoliator – to remove dry, flaky skin and reveal fresh skin underneath. Gently, gently does it, your skin is delicate. For super dry lips, if may take a few sessions to get there. Follow up with hydrating lip balms and you’ll keep them soft and kissable. Nudes don’t look great on dry lips so keep them exfoliated and plump.
You don’t want your lippie or gloss ‘bleeding’ into your surrounding skin and you don’t want the nude lippie fading into your skin tone so that you can’t tell what is lip and what is skin. To combat both of these, always use a lip liner. It is a MUST that your lip liner matches your lippie.
Gently line your natural lip line with the lip liner. If you have a lip that is thinner than the other, then slightly over-draw that lip (or both if you have thinner top and bottom lips) so that you are half on your natural lip line and half off. Doing it this way gives the most natural finish. Over-draw too much and it will be so obvious you are trying to make your lips appear fuller. Lightly fill you lips with the liner. This will help give your lippie longevity and helps lips look less harsh as your lippie starts to wear off before you get the chance to touch up.
You don’t want a nude shade that is too much like your skin tone or too pale. Your lips will blend into your skin which can leaving you looking a little ‘unalive’ shall we say.
Fair skin: go for something that has a little pink to it. This will help ensure your look is fresh, alive and healthy.
Medium skin: usually you can go for any type of nude you want. Nudes with a peachy tone or a caramel tone will look great.
Darker skin: go more for chocolate tones, anything too pale and things won’t look quite right.
Now pucker up buttercup, those lips are going to look sexy and oh-so-kissable.
