Lipstick Frustration to Lipstick Sensation - Day 4 (With Jay Harper)

 A NEW WAY TO PICK
A LIPSTICK COLOR

The real way to pick “just the right” lipstick color is surprising to most. After 20,000+ in person lipstick transformations, I have come to the conclusion that most women think that lipstick is always supposed to “stand out”; or be a large departure from your base lip color.

This mindset is not entirely bad in and of itself… there are times when a lipstick should be a BIG departure from your skin tone… but if you don’t know what you are doing, it will lead to more frustration than you expected. Also, it could cause you to miss entirely the great everyday lipsticks you really oughta be lookin’ at.

Most people really prefer a no fuss way of wearing lipstick on a daily basis, with the occasional mood for a “more fussy” application of a desired look. In the end, ALWAYS do what your heart tells you. This is not a hard and fast rule, but more of a mind expanding guideline you could choose to incorporate into your daily routine.

STEP #1
CAREFULLY EVALUATE YOUR BASE LIP COLOR

To end frustration, it’s critical that you get a handle on the base color of your lips when they are naked. Get a mirror and take a look girl. Look at the overall tone and hue of the color of your lip skin. Your first step is to give it a name. Use two words. Deep pink? Brown pink? Brown Purple? Light Pink? Rusty Brown? Red Pink? Cherry Red? Orange Red? Orange Brown?

STEP #2
FIND A LIPSTICK COLOR THAT MOST CLOSELY RESEMBLES YOUR BASE LIP COLOR

Finding the one lipstick that just darn near matches your lip color exactly is going to give you a starting point. Upon evaluation, THAT color is where you key your “family” of colors from. I’ll demonstrate at the end.

STEP #3
BUILD A FAMILY OF COLORS IN
THE SAME TONAL RANGE

Keying from the single lipstick color that matches your base lip, build a family of 8 or so lipsticks that are in the same “family”, moving 4 to 5 points on both sides of the starting color, and then include two “power colors”, those are what I call, “Your Intimidator Colors”.

DEMONSTRATIONS

Demonstration #1

McCall W. here is one of our very favorite customers. She has been with us from the beginning.

McCall’s base lip color is a medium pink. Not quite red, not brown, not light pink. The Red Apple Lipstick Color that matches her base lip exactly is Secrets – keeping in mind that the color of the lipstick will come off more thinly than it looks in the photo at 1/4 intensity.

Secrets will perfectly blend with her lips, smooth out the skin, and give a youthful, healthy, well put together sheen…. but you won’t look at her and say “O.M.G. That girl is wearing too much lipstick!!” Instead, you’ll simply say, “Awww Look at that lovely young lady.”

Now, let’s step 3 notches to the right, while staying in the pink family, but heading toward the softer reds.

NOW, Let’s go a few notches in the OTHER Direction, Lighter.

Power Colors?

For McCall, Any of these lipstick colors would be totally safe and within her comfort zone. None of them would look off, or out of place on her, especially if she matched an article of clothing or accessory.

THIS IS FUN! LET'S DO ANOTHER!

Debbie here has much darker lips than McCall. More along the lines of Orange Brown. Her exact match is Push Pop.

Staying anywhere in the oranges, corals, purples, and browns are going to work best for her. So a couple of notches to the right. Keeping in mind all of these lipsticks, especially the darker ones should be worn at about 1/4 intensity and blotted. Debbie also has large enough lips to carry the darker colors, as long as they aren’t too bold.

Couple Of Notches The Other Way

Power Colors?

Is this the exact answer? No, but it’s a great starting point. It will force you to look at, and think about, lipstick colors you might have never looked at before.

EXPERIMENTATION IS KEY

In many of cases of in person lipstick transformations, it’s always the color the customer  would have NEVER picked up … that she falls in love with.

Experimentation is the key, and not only with color, but with intensity. I personally feel that any girl can pull off just about 90% of lipstick colors out there, if she watches her intensity, and her outfit. Here’s a quick example of Ashley, who has super light pink lips, wearing a total departure. And it will pull off just fine, and look right in place with the right outfit… with the wrong outfit, it could feel sort of out of place. Naked lips on the right.

Parting Tips: If you are over 50 – or if you have super thin lips, consider staying away from the super dark lipsticks. A light color, especially if it is closer to your natural lip color or a little pinker, is always going to make you appear more youthful and healthy. Let me just illustrate the point. These photos are from one of my all time favorite makeup books, Staging Your Comeback by Christopher Hopkins.

WAY TOO DARK!

Youthful and Healthy, Hard To Believe It’s The Same Women.
This looks like a lipstick color I make called Foxy – one you might overlook :)

In the end, don’t be afraid. Put your fear aside. Experiment. Have fun. Take time to work with your new color. Try it at different levels. Work it into new outfits. Don’t just swack on a mound of it right from the bullet, freak out and run away. If you are curious what color lipstick and older women should wear, read this blog post.

Tomorrow is Day 5 of our Lipstick Frustration course:

STEP AWAY FROM THE MIRROR, PLEASE

Until Tomorrow,

Jay Harper