Welcome to my 3rd part of my beauty series about my favorite lipsticks; you can read my past pieces here.
Today, it's all about nudes. This was hard for me to narrow down, for different reasons than my past two posts. What is a nude lipstick? Many of what I consider "nudes", when I swatched them, just looked, well, pink. They looked no different than my favorite pink lipsticks. I started to panic a little bit internally, wondering if this would work... but finally, I narrowed it down to 3 contenders and had to decide if nude was a different designation than pink.
Ultimately, I think it depends on your skin tone! Nude lipsticks tend to fall into the taupe-brown family; they might have some pink, or orange, or red undertones, but primarily, they will wear as brown, beige, or anything in that family and match your skin tone pretty closely. That's what makes them nude!
One of the biggest battles as beauty bloggers that we face is dealing with problematic attitudes towards make up, one of which is the terms "nude" and "flesh tone." These are old ways of describing makeup that we don't really have new terminology for yet; it harkens back to a time when makeup was only marketed to people who are white, so "nude" and "flesh tone" are primarily thought to be pale, beige skin tones. (The recent dust-up about Tarte's Face Tape foundation is proof that even large makeup brands are still struggling with this one-sided approach to makeup and beauty.) So it goes without saying that, when I talk about nude lipsticks in this blog post, I'm basing that on what I would consider a nude for my skin tone. Hopefully, in the future, we'll have better terminology for these shades!
From left to right: L'Oreal Infallible Lip Paint in Tongue Tied; NYX Cosmetics Soft Matte Lip Cream in Stockholm; and Tarte Tarteist Lip Paint in Birthday Suit.
L'Oreal Infallible Paints Matte in Tongue Tied
I have a funny story about this lipstick. When I first bought it, I posted a photo on my Instagram stories, wondering if it was too orange-brown for me. I got a DM reply from someone I didn't know, picking apart my coloring and telling me it made me look washed out. Oops. Maybe I didn't want to know!
Despite my early misgivings, this has become one of my favorite nude shades. It's definitely more on the brown side; as you can see from my photo and swatch, it's more of a very pale, milk chocolate (maybe chocolate mousse) color, as opposed to a pinky peach tone. Funny enough, it matches the color of the freckles on my arm almost exactly. It's pretty long wearing and retails for $9.99 (but you can often find sales at drugstores).
2. NYX Cosmetics Soft Matte Lip Cream in Stockholm
NYX Cosmetics Matte Lip Cream in Stockholm
If you've been following me on social media, you know this used to be my number 1 lip color. I wore it... constantly. The bottle I took a photo of is actually almost empty; I really struggled to get a swatch! It definitely skews to a more warm, orange-y nude, which is why I like it for summer. I do find that it oxidizes after a few hours of wear, so it becomes a little darker and more suited to my skin tone.
NYX's Soft Matte Lip Creams are pretty divisive; some people love them, so people hate them. They can take a bit to get used to! But I quite enjoy them, even if they aren't as long-lasting as other lips. For a matte, they're very, very comfortable. They retail for $4.95 and are available at most drugstores, as well as Ulta.
3. Tarte Tarteist Lip Paints in Birthday Suit
Tarteist Lip Paints in Birthday Suit
I received this lip paint in a free birthday gift from Sephora, which explains why it is tiny. However, I love it so much, I'm planning to buy a full-size in the future (once I feel like I've adequately saved enough money). I love how comfortable it is to wear throughout the day, how it doesn't slip and transfer, and that it's a nice, pinky-nude shade that is flattering for lots of skin tones. It retails for $20 and is available from Tarte's website, as well as Sephora and Ulta.
If you're in the market for a great nude lipstick, I love the Beauty Crop's GRLPWR liquid lipsticks; their mini set of all their nude shades is only $24.50; you can buy it here**.
**Note: a double asterisk next to a link denotes an affiliate link, which means I receive a small commission for every sale. Affiliate links help me keep Writing Between Pauses running! For more on my disclosure policy, click here.