I’ve branched out from just coral, LOL! Now, I’ll wear all finishes and shades. For my go-to shades, they’re more a mix of plum, mauve, rosy brown, and coral.
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Yes and no. I’ve sworn off lip gloss to start buying them again. I’ve always like peachy, pinky and nude lip colors. But I’ve branched out and gone for greige and mauve tones.
I’ve always had a thing for bright shades of lipstick. Also, the “everyday” mlbb shade has always been a stalwart purse companion of mine. The one major change has been the addition of some more unusual and diverse shades that 5 years ago, I couldn’t have envisioned myself wearing! Like: true purple UD Jawbreaker, blurple CP So Wavy, gunmetal UD Time or Maybelline Gone Greige, and now I’ve put 2 teal toned products together and loved how that looked!
As a young woman with pale skin and very dark long hair my signature color was a cool red. As an older woman with long silver hair and pale skin I need color and definition. But red can be too harsh. Hot pink works better. Blue reds rather than corals or browns are still my complimentary shades. Thank you for this blog.
Mimi
Yes. I do wear a lot more red. Red is a color I have always lived, but I never was brave enough to actually wear it myself. That has changed.
Believe it or not, 5 years ago, I wore NOTHING on my lips!
I have very full lips. And was teased for them. So I never wore anything on them, because I didn’t want to draw attention!
Now, I wear bright lipstick EVERY DAY! 😀
Go for it, Shannon!
I, too, got rude comments about my full lips in my younger days.
So I wore muted matte lip colors (which were really not flattering ) and used the “make-your-lips-look-thinner” trick of “lining just inside your natural lip line with a brown pencil” which only made me look like I’d been drinking chocolate milk.
Once I got out of adolescence and into college, though, I decided that my lips were fine just the way they are, and started wearing any blasted lip color I liked.
I’m now in my 50s, and still get remarks about my lips, but those remarks are now tinged with envy..
So wear what you want, and *own* it!
From nude to dark cherry then plums and pinks and now back to nudes! I tend to follow the trends when it comes to lipstick.. I first started with glosses, then moisturising lipsticks and now I can manage even moisturising matte and satin lipsticks.. I wonder whether my old lipsticks will ever be on trend again..
Yes! I used to be crazy for bold pinks and purples. Now all I wear are nudes and soft pinks. My lip colors are much more boring and muted these days now that I think about it lol
I use to only wear cotton candy pinks macs cream cup was my favorite or very light nudes (creme de nude).
Now I’m all about darker nudes and natural MLBB pink mauve shades
In high school, I used to be all over glossy, pinky nudes. Think Mac Nymphette. Nowadays my most worn lipsticks are matte or satin pinky-browns a la Mac Soar lipliner. Interesting to see I’ve kept my preference for pink and cooler-toned hues!
They haven’t. When coral was all the rage, it wasn’t for me – it simply clashes with my own skin’s undertones. I don’t like matte lipsticks – I don’t think they look especially attractive nor do they feel all that pleasant to wear (I did buy one Smashbox one – the colour is so beautiful, I broke down and bought it but it does require a bit of “work” to wear it and I am essentially lazy) and I think I’ve been pretty open about my personal feelings about odd shades like green and blue and black – I still just don’t get it and so for me, I’d simply never but any of those shades because I don’t want to appear in public (or in private) with blue lips. The “nude lip” is another trend I’ve avoided from personal preference. So, basically, I’ve always stuck with the colours that are flattering on me and I’ll continue to stick with the colours that are flattering on me.
My coloring is much like Snow White, fair with dark hair, so I’ve always needed a good dose of color on my lips. I’ve stayed true to deeper red-pinks and cherry reds in opaque, creamy formulas. Surprisingly, they’re more difficult to find than you’d think. Most lines showcase lighter muted-roses, bluer fuchsias, raspberries, and magentas, and deeper blue-reds. I had better luck 10 years ago finding the colors I like. It’s one of those huge shade-gaps I’ve whined about in earlier posts. I’ve been forced to adapt and mix lighter pinks with darker reds. Where are all the shades between watermelon and light blue-red? Over the past several years, I think there has been an increasingly inverse correlation between the scarcity of these shades and the rise of nudes in every conceivable color imaginable. From my obviously biased perspective, the nudes appear to hog the shade range of most lines. (No offense intended to those of you who love and wear nudes. I’m just jealous of all the choices you have compared to the few I have.)
Same here, Anne! I’m NW15, dark brunette, with green eyes, so I feel your “pain.”
The pale beiges that almost everyone else seems to love are just so, so wrong for me, but they’re *everywhere.*
Sometimes I shop the “theatrical” lines like Ben Nye to find the clear deeps and brights that I crave.
I’ve branched out from bright corals and dark colors to others such as nudes and reds. I was too scared to try nudes and mlbb shades because I thought they’d be chalky on me.
Another ad nauseum aging diatribe about skin/hair etc.. as I sit here bathed in hormone related sweat.. But we have a core group here whom I know can empathize.
Lately, I have been noticing volume loss in my face and how it is changing my appearance.
Right now I am in the process of doing a balayage blonde on my level 2 to 3 hair because the darkness was starting to drag me down and actually make me look older. For years I’ve been pretty much sticking to the same 3N colour to dye out the grey in my hair and darken my natural which is about a level 6 light brown (I haven’t seen it since my 30’s). This month I have step one of lifting done have some level 7 and 8 blonde (thank you Olaplex) and we’ve toned out most of the nasty brassy, orange tones, my next lift is in August and I’m aiming for level 10 on my tips and graduating to an ashy dark blonde rooted look. In any event, I’m also strategizing makeup to go with the new hair. I feel I look best with one of two approaches for lipstick for my light neutral complexion:
1. Any light rose, toned out mauve griegey lips look ‘natural’ on me and works if I want to emphasize eyes and not have my lips overpower. Most traditional nude colours make me look sallow.
2. Brights: Fuschia, neutral to cool reds with the emphasis on bright. I can wear practically neon colours and my light olive complexion swallows up the colour up so it never looks crazy bright.. Perfect for fast makeup days because I then do not wear much makeup on my eyes ( have eyelash extensions so do not need mascara). This is my preferred summer look right now; naked eyes, bright lips.
My days of dark dramatic lips are over (for my tastes). They age me and make my lips look thinner, sadly. My strategy for fall is to go for more of these muted out tones, but slightly deeper; think Bite Thistle, or Mauvember. I think I will also continue to wear saturated through winter, but slightly deeper; think MAC Russian red.. , D for Danger and maybe a good Magenta. I just ordered ColourPop Heart On and Poppin lippie stixs.
THE end.
I totally get where you are coming from, Wendy. I am finally through the sweat phase and am just waiting for the foggy thinking to clear up. My Doctor swears it will so I am hoping. Some days I feel like I am encased in cotton wool.
My hair came in grey after my chemotherapy when I was 45. At the time I was adamant not to color again as I didn’t want the chemicals. For some reason I have been thinking about it lately. I probably won’t ever do it but seeing lovely hair really gets to me sometimes.
Oh, and less volume in one’s face. It would be okay if I could direct where the volume left and keep it where it is actually leaving!!
All the feels. I’m still getting the sweats at night, and I’m deep into the foggy head/CRS (Can’t Remember Sh*t) phase. I see more gray hair every time my roots grow in. I have some eyelash and eyebrow hairs coming in gray. *sob*
Rosy pinks -> Coral was trendy -> found that coral is not quite flattering on me and mostly too bright & neon -> MLBB nudes (brown/mauve)
Seems that I wear more ‘go with’ than contrast shades. Maybe that’s ‘age appropriate.’ My skintone neutralized a bit, and became less translucent. No longer a straight up pink undertone, prob more of a red. For lips, the yellowed browns, like bite spring, look almost as wrong as pink corals. Getting back into pink via mauves. My hair is still naturally drab blonde, with increasing gray, more in stripes than here and there salt and pepper. People at the hairdresser’s and customers at my night job want to try what I did…but I didn’t do anything. My eyes are ordinary blue. Less eye color, more neutral with a hit of color. Fave all time palette for now is En Taupe. And five years ago, there were no greige lips. Totally all over that one…even for NLD with abh. Even use Mufe ash plum, ash pink, or oldest Nyx Taupe to ‘drape.’ Just ordered S tranquil, as they’re discontinuing it. The grayed tones really suit me now, and play well with the redder or pinker foundations…when I can find them, without ingredients I’m sensitive to. But that does not mean I’m giving up the brown reds (lip/blush) any time soon…or probably ever.
Of course, didn’t read the key word: LIPS. Interesting that this group does extensive thought process on chosen colors, when most of the people I know have one shade, slap in on, then call me to find a dupe, when their only shade is d/c’d. Only shade. Imagine?
I can’t imagine, kjh.
I must admit, however, that my lipstick collection has been pared way down since 2015.
it wasn’t my choice, though.
I had a health problem that took two solid years (you read that correctly!) to be diagnosed and successfully treated.
I was away from home all that time, and many of the 75 or so [mostly MAC] lipsticks I’d amassed had gone rancid by the time I got back home in March 2017.
Now I have my favorite red (Stila Beso), a fuchsia, a deep rose (Too Faced “Hey Gurrl”), a purplish berry (TF “Pitch Perfect”), and that’s pretty much it.
S is DCing Tranquil? I thought they just recently said they weren’t. Now I’m wondering if I should buy a couple more back-ups.
When I first started wear makeup, the mauve lip was super trendy so I would basically live in MAC brave and MUFE N9. However, I really don’t like dark mauve/terracotta lips on myself. I find myself gravitating towards fun dark colors, cool tones or basic warm nudes. It’s usually all or nothing on my eyes so it pairs with these kinda lipsticks.
I wore brown and nude lipstick foreveeeer, my children were small and I put very little effort into my makeup. Now I love wearing bright reds, oranges, corals and pinks.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve been wearing mainly MLBB nudes. My favorite was Laura Mercier’s Discretion, which was very sadly discontinued several years ago. Lipstick was low in importance in my makeup routine.
Last year, I had an event to go to and decided to go outside my box and see what a MUA would recommend for my lips. I was shocked when the Laura Mercier MUA insisted on a bright, dark pink. I agreed to try it on, and I loved it! I couldn’t believe how such a crazy-seeming color totally brightened and flattered my face.
Since then, I’ve become obsessed and amassed a huge collection of lipstick in a wide variety of brands and colors. Shades like MAC Twig, Colourpop Dopey, and KvD Lolita are my favorites, but I also love reds, orange-reds, purples, pinks, and warm browns.
I’ve had a few color failures, such as Colourpop Mess Around and Maybelline Gone Greige, and have learned that corals and lighter pinks (MAC Pink Plaid comes to mind) look dreadful on me, but I’ve mostly been happy with the colors I’ve bought and changing up my look on a day-to-day basis through lipstick.
The main change in my lipstick-buying patterns concerns ethical standards more than shade preferences.
Several of my formerly favorite brands have lost their cruelty-free status, and thus were demoted from Brands I Adore to Brands I Never Ever Shop.
That said, my shade preferences have changed little, though I may be slightly more inclined to go for sheer finishes, and, very occasionally, more subdued colors.
I still love my brights(red, pinks, magentas), but since I’ve entered my mid 50s, I have a dread of going the “little-old-lady-with-bright-pink-rouge-smeared-in-the-vicinity-of-her-lips” route, so I use sheer color or blot, and I now wear colorless lip liner exclusively.
Also, I’ve gotten past my aversion to “My-Lips-But-Better” shades, and now actively seek them.
I credit Too Faced La Matte in “Hey Gurrl” for this revelation; this deep-but-soft rose shade is so ridiculously flattering that it makes me feel good just to wear it.
So I guess one could say that overall my preferences have not changed drastically, but my overall look has softened somewhat.
It changed from not using lipstick to red lipstick (it is uby woo’s fault). I do use other colors, but red is my signature.
I rarely used lipstick for the first 30 years of my makeup-wearing life. When I did, it was something as close to my lip color as I could get, and I didn’t own more than one tube at a time. Frankly, I couldn’t stand the feeling of having something on my lips, not even lip balm.
Starting about 6 or 7 years ago, I got into nudes and off-color nudes (greige, dead beige, etc.) as it suited my anti-attractive aesthetic. That morphed into a bold, deep form of anti-attractive (black, and blackened forms of “normal” — purples, reds, browns,etc.).
Two or three years ago I added entirely non-natural (for lips) colors like blues, greens, greys; I say “added” because I’ve never discarded any colors from my repertoire, only increased my range. Depending on my mood, I’m likely to wear any of the above, or additionally …
Reds and bright, strong, and/or deep berries, which really just made it into the rotation end of last year.
With the exception of pastels and corals of any kind, I cover the gamut. 🙂
5 years? No I think it’s the same!
Yes they have changed from burgundy to shades of pink, soft and deep to reddish browns. I’ll even cover a deep pink with s liquid suede brown. That’s the best color I’ve found on me so far.
Like Mimi , I’ve aged and have similar coloring and the reds can be too stark . Oh but I love the reds…..just not as much . I use much more pinky/coral these days .
In high school, I almost never wore lipstick at all, but if I did, it was a basic “my lips but better” kind of color. I still wear those colors occasionally, but now I love wearing very, very dark reds and purples, greyish taupes and browns. I LOVE brown lipstick, warm or cool toned.
And I used to like red lipstick more (like a bright red), but I almost never wear bright red anymore on my lips.
Yes, I’ve gone from the super bright colors – such as hot pink and coral – to light pink and nude shades! I don’t even have a bright color in my collection anymore!
Oh yes! 5 years ago I wore nude and nothing but nude. Now I’m all about my red, berry or pink lips.
I am late to this question because I have been travelling and only seeing posts every couple of days. I wore Bonne Bell lip gloss in high school and much of college. Those were the days. Over the years I have fluctuated in my taste and with the explosion of new finishes I am loving the choices. I have difficulty with nudes because my lips are naturally very pigmented and I don’t care for the feeling of obliterating my natural lip color to wear a nude. I don’t think it looks attractive on most women. I stay away from anything in the orange family but I have finally found a couple of corals that I can wear. My go to lips are berry’s and reds. Now that I have vertical lip lines both below and above my lips and very thin upper lip to begin with I have to really prep my lips or they will bleed like crazy. Liquid lips would be the answer to bleeding lips if the formulas were not so drying and uncomfortable to wear. I still wear them but by adding a balm underneath or a gloss over which defeats the purpose. I hate to sound like a broken record but would love to see the original Max Factor Lipfinity formula back again.
For a long time my lip preferences were for red, berry and brown/coppery shades that I still love today. However in the past 5 years I have grown to love softer shades of peach and ginger. I still prefer lipsticks to lip glosses, but some of the newer versions of lip cremes are tempting me too.
Lips are one place where I have and will always wear frosts, shimmer, metallics, & even dare I say glitter! Yup, no matter the trend, I want sparkly lips.
All I used to wear was chapstick. Then my best friend raved about her favorite liquid lipstick and that’s what started it for me. Later she convinced me that I could in fact pull off bright red and that’s what started my love of bright lip colors and trying lip colors out of my comfort zone. These days I wear anything from light pink too dark purple. I love bright colors and dark.
Well, wood rose and rust colors were in. Then browns, nude lips ruled for quite a while, now bright mattes and glossy nudes seem to be capturing the trends.
Not much change in 5 years I have always experimented with different colors. I used to wear more reds now I’m more into berries and plums, corals also for Summer especially but still love reds actually. I don’t think hot pinks or fuchsias look good on me but I will wear them to spice up a manly looking jean shirt for example. Being pale I’m very fair the type who never tans just burn like a shrimp writhing 15 minutes in the sun. Have pink under tone, dark wavy brown hair and green/hazel eyes. Light nude lipsticks make me blah does not add happiness to my face. I need bright colors. Also thin lips and I guess aging does not help there they’ll get thinner I suppose. I envy full lips! I would be blowing kisses back at the silly construction workers when they whistle. If I had those full lips or to the fire fighter hotties. Lol! (JK!) I think full lips are so sexy unlike mine. Recently I tried barely there and just peachy mattes from WetnWild and seriously, they don’t do me any favor. I’m not into blue, black, green lip color but surprisingly tried a few vampy reddish and wine shades and they look good. So this winter I’ll be vampy. I love to play with different colors as long as it suits my skin sometimes more o less I’ll still experiment is fun. I love WetnWild lipsticks matte just wish the casing functioned better but the product itself I find great do not dry my lips I always wear chapstick under anything since I love the outdoors and run/walk for hours so I need to save my lips. Chapstick to the rescue cannot have enough chapstick.
I have gone a little bolder and wear reds, pinks and some light purples and still wear my corals and berries. Don’t wear much lipgloss anymore. And I now use lipliners.
I had always been up for pretty much anything as far as lip colors go, including unconventional colors, glitters, metallics, you name it.
I have gotten much more into vampy lip colors, and grays and greiges over the last five years.
I still love everything I ever did – pales (my absolute fave), nudes, and bright purples and pinks. I have opened up to oranges though, and mattes. While I still love shimmer/metallic/frost the best, I can and do wear mattes as well. And red…while it will never be my favorite, I have gone from no way to once in a while. I blame subscription services for that.