I love a good nude lip just as much as I love a good red lip, however, selecting a nude lip can be difficult and the wrong shade can make you look all sorts of sick and diseased. BUT finding the right shade, can give you the best natural day time look and a great pout for an evening look with a smokey eye. So how do you get that perfect shade?

I used to pick a nude lipstick solely on if I liked the colour just by looking it, then once I’d put it on I was mad because it just wouldn’t look good on me . I looked pale, washed out and as if I died 100 years ago.
I never took my skin tone into consideration and this is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you have to consider when choosing the right nude lipstick for yourself, your skin tone.

The nude colour should be a shade to two darker than your own lip colour, as well as taking into consideration if you have COOL or WARM skin undertones.
How to determine if you’re warm or cool? Look at your wrist underneath your palm. If your veins are GREEN, your undertone is WARM and if they are BLUE your undertone is COOL.

GENERAL RULE
Before I get into details on how to select your perfect nude, the general rule states that more fair skin tones should go with cooler tones and medium to darker skin tones should go with warmer tones.

Fair skinned:
Should avoid beige tones.
Choose rosy-pink, apricot/peach tinted shades.

Golden skinned:
Choose light and creamy caramels or warm beiges.

Olive skinned:
ANY! These ladies are in luck as your skin tone works with pretty much any nude, rosy or beiges.

Yellow skinned:
Think light creamy latte or mocha tones.

Darker skinned:
Choose bronze and nude browns.

WRIST TEST:
Swatch the lipstick on your inner wrist, right underneath where your palm ends. The right shade for you is a shade or two darker than the skin there.

SUGGESTIONS:

Fair skin: Think MAC’s Creme d’Nude or Relvon’s Soft Nude

Olive skin: MAC’s Freckletone

Darker skin: MAC’s Coconutty or Honeyflower