Expert Tips for Nude and Bold Lip Looks

Whether you’re opting for a nude or bold lip look, the MINERALIST Lipstick Collection offers so many ways to play. With 25 color options that range from peachy beige to bright crimson to chocolate plum, there are shades for every occasion and mood. Plus, this clean, vegan lipstick range provides two times the color for rich, saturated payoff and two times the hydration for ultra-comfortable wear. 

As a rule, when looking to find your most flattering nude or bold lip color, it’s best to start with your skin’s undertone. The easiest and most common way to determine your undertone is to think about how your skin reacts to the sun. If you burn or flush easily, you’re likely cool-toned. If your skin burns first and then tans, you’re probably neutral-toned. Finally, if your skin tans easily, you’re most likely warm-toned.

When wearing a nude lip, the goal should be enhancing your complexion, but note that a true “nude lip” may wash your skin and lips out. To avoid this, you should always be mindful of your natural lip tint, as a lip color that you swatch on your hand may appear differently once applied to your lips. Quick tip: MINERALIST Lipstick in shade Memory is one of our most universal nude hues, as it is super balanced in terms of coolness to warmth. 

In terms of choosing your perfect statement lip shade, most of MINERALIST Lipstick’s bolder colors are pretty universal. Wisdom, for example, is a bright orchid shade that really compliments all skin tones because it doesn’t skew too warm or cool. Another great universal color in the collection is classic redshade, Courage, which looks amazing on everyone. Quick tip: When picking among similar bold shades, look to your skin’s undertone to help guide you. For example, if you have warm undertones, go with a warmer red shade vs. the cooler option. 

As a rule, a nude lip allows you to create a gorgeous canvas for any beauty look you want. Whether you want to pair your lip with a stronger eye or color-infused cheek, going neutral on the lip allows you to really get creative. On the other hand, when you go bolder with your lip color, you really want to let your lips be the star. I personally love pairing a bolder lip with something simple and clean, like a touch of shimmering eyeshadow or a classic cat eye. Whatever the look you’re going for, both nude and bold lip colors should be in your beauty bag arsenal so you can easily go from your minimalist to maximalist looks, whenever you want to. 

Bold Lip Tips

A Touch of Shimmer

Balance your bold lip with a soft wash of shimmer on the eyes, and a finishing coat of mascara for a classic power lip look. This allows your look to feel complete without lips and eyes competing.

Blush Helps Balance

Once your bold lip is applied, you may want to layer additional blush on your cheeks to balance and harmonize the intensity of lips. Lips and cheek color should always stay in the same color family, which is generally either warm or cool. Cool color families tend to include pinks, mauves, and berries, while warm color families include peaches, corals, and oranges. By choosing shades in the same color family, your lips and cheeks will create an all-over balance.

A Timeless Cat Eye

A great go-to eye look to pair with your bold lip is a classic cat eye, which keeps the look timeless and fresh, while still allowing lips to remain the focus. Use a liquid liner like our ultra-pigmented LASH DOMINATION Liner for a more vintage look, or take a more modern approach with a softer diffused look using a pencil liner (i.e. ONE FINE LINE Micro Eyeliner) and blending outward with an angled brush (I love our Expert Shadow and Liner Brush) to elongate. 

Some Finishing Touches

Keep your bold lip color looking neat and tidy with a few expert tricks. Apply your shade in ORIGINAL Loose Mineral Foundation or our Tinted MINERAL VEIL Finishing Powder to prevent bleeding, using the Max Coverage Concealer Brush to press the bristles along the lower and upper lip edges and keep your lip shape perfect. You can also add a little bit of highlight onto the cupid’s bow, to give the illusion of a fuller top lip (Our ENDLESS GLOW Highlighter is a great option). You can also use a lip liner to help create a fuller lip shape, whether it matches the lip color perfectly or simply matches your natural lip color.

Nude Lip Tips

Go Smoky

A nude lip pairs perfectly with a smoky eye, because it allows you to keep your eye the focus while still creating balance. Note that your nude lip can have a touch of color in it (i.e. pinkish undertones) as long as it is still within the same color family and tone as your smoky eye look. I love using our BOUNCE & BLUR Eyeshadow palettes to create easy, color-infused smoky eyes, which perfectly compliment your nude lip look.

Sun-Kissed or Monochromatic

Whether you want your nude lip look to be complimented by sun-kissed, glowing skin or a monochromatic wash of color, I have a few tips to get you there. For an effortless sun-kissed look, go for lip and cheek shades that are all in the nude/warm family (i.e. using a flush of bronzer as your blush and/or a wash of shimmer to the eyes). Our All Over Face Color Loose Bronzer and BOUNCE & BLUR Blush in Blurred Buff are my go-tos to create that glowing look. If you’re looking to achieve a harmonious monochromatic balance, you can pair, say, all pink shades together on eyes, lips and cheeks. I love using the shade Believer from our GEN NUDE Eyeshadow Palette in Neutral on the eyes, MINERALIST Lipstick in Grace (which has a slight touch of pink) on the lips and BOUNCE & BLUR Blush in Pink Sky on the cheeks. 

Eyeliner to Enhance

Nude lips look great with dynamic eyeliner looks. For example, you can opt for a nude lip with a classic winged liner, using a liquid liner, or go more diffused with your liner look with pencil liner that’s diffused and layer with shadow for a smoky effect. The choice is yours.

Some Finishing Touches

To create a fuller lip effect, use a lip pencil in the same undertone as your lips to slightly overdraw your top and bottom lips. If you want to add a hint of shine or shimmer use a gloss over top, apply to the center of the lip, pressing lips together to slightly diffuse the shine. By keeping color focused in the center of your lips, you help draw the eye to the fullest part of your pout.

Meet Carly

Carly Giglio (@carlygiglio) is a celebrated celebrity makeup artist and beauty educator with a passion for color, glowing skin and celebrating her client’s unique beauty. With almost a decade of industry experience, including red carpet and editorial photoshoots, brand creative campaigns and New York Fashion Week, Carly is all about the details when it comes to creating beauty looks.

“My makeup and artistry philosophy is about enhancing each individual’s natural features, not covering them up,” says Carly. “I love helping people to feel their best and most confident, while exploring the possibilities with makeup.”

A self-taught makeup artist, Carly first discovered her passion for color and artistry at a young age through her love of painting and a background in fine arts. One of her favorite aspects of working in the beauty space is connecting with people and making them feel good about themselves through the power of makeup – transforming a blank canvas into a work of art.

“I love creating beautiful, glowing skin with elements of color and luminosity throughout, and I’m all about seamless builds of color and structure,” Carly says. “But the best payoff is seeing how confident my clients become once they learn some simple makeup tips.”

• Share this article
• Tweet this article