How Do I Choose the Best Lipstick for Brunettes?

To choose the best lipstick for brunettes, it's important to consider skin tone and hair color as well as whether you want to wear the particular shade during the day or evening. Brunettes with a strong contrast between their skin and hair color are often flattered by richer, more intense lipstick shades. Those with light brown hair and medium or light skin tones may look better in more subdued lipsticks. Reddish or auburn brunettes with warmer skin tones will suit orange-based lipsticks, while brown or black haired women with a cool cast to their hair and skin should choose lip products with a blue undertone. If you're not sure whether you're warm or cool in terms of your skin and hair coloring, a good way to find your best lipstick color is to try a few peachy-oranges and some purple-pinks in natural light to discover which one suits you better.

Most people will notice that one or the other looks best on them, but if you find that you can wear both orange-toned peaches and blue-based pinks equally well, you could have neutral rather than warm or cool coloring. In that case, you may also be able to choose lipstick for brunettes with brownish undertones. Selecting a light and dark shade of your favorite warm, cool or neutral lipstick can provide you with separate looks for day and evening.

The main thing to remember when selecting your favorite lipstick colors is that if you prefer red over pink or vice versa, this is fine as long as you give thought to orange or blue undertones. Avoid salmon pink if you're cool skinned and cotton candy pink if your coloring is warm. If you have warm tones in your skin and hair, a cinnamon or brick red lipstick for brunettes is likely to be better than a plum or burgundy red. The opposite should hold true if you're cool toned.

If your hair is black or dark brown and your skin tone is pale, you're likely to be able to wear rich, dark shades of lipsticks well. For those with not much contrast between the lightness and darkness of your skin and hair, or you have blond or red highlights, a muted lipstick for brunettes may suit you better. Looking at your hair and eye color when you try on lipstick can be a good way to decide on both a color and intensity that is the most flattering on you overall.