What lip color do you want to wear but rarely do?
I love those cotton candy pinks on others and in the tube, but I rarely feel like they work on me unless I go for a really smoky eye.
— Christine
Explore Temptalia
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Compare Any Two
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
Enjoyed this? There's More
80 Comments
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
Comments on this post are closed.
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
Soft coral pinks and soft baby pinks, they look so sweet and innocent, but they almost always look terrible on me! Most are too light, and the pink clashes with my yellow undertone
My 2 bluesy ones: UD Time and Colourpop So Wavy. I love them both, but have yet to wear them out and about in public. So far, I only wear them at home or in my apt. courtyard. I’m spineless, I know.?
Blue!
I think brighter colors in general like bold pinks or fuschias. Think MAC Candy Yum Yum or Girl About Town.
I really like beige nudes and brown-toned pinks or reds, but as I’m rather fair skinned (NW10-15 range), it doesn’t always quite work out. Warm pinks are pretty much a no-go for the exact same reason.
Dark wine or dark berry colors, and purpley magentas and fuschias – I like the way they look but wear a more sheer wash of them rather than a full, opaque application.
I love have that minimal makeup and red lipstick look but red is too much for the office.
My darker reds, like the gorgeous Paramount from Mac. It looks so beautifull on me, but I feel so made up when I wear it.
I agree ouineque! I love a red lipstick, but I also feel so made up when I wear them. Reds are also so high maintenance–at least for me!
Yes, I agree, it is high maintenance! But some wear off nicer then others (that crumble and so on). We just have to settle for not having completely flawless red lips the whole day, and start wearing red more often. Hihihihi. After reading all the comments here, I really feel like start ‘practicing’ with sheer or semi-opaque colors and go more opaque little by little, since we like it so much. It’s a shame isn’t it!
Have you thought about applying it with your finger? This can make it look more casual. Just press it on until you get the desired look.
Thanks Angelcat47! I know this trick to stain your lips but I somehow forgot about it. It’s indeed a good way to make a darker lip more effortless. I’m gonna try it out on of these days!
Nudes. Nudes looks awesome in everone but I feel they wash me out except when I go for a really bold eye look but it’s not usual.
Barbie pinks.
I would love to wear a simple, pinky nude lip. Can’t. Lord knows I’ve tried, but any and every variation with my coloring looks like I have a band aid on my face and ages me 10 years. I think it looks beautiful on so many people, but I can’t pull it off.
Gosh. Easily red or dark purple (think MAC Heroine). No rarely. Never 🙂
Black! 🙂
Me too
Reds. They’re too high maintenance for me.
Red! And really vampy deep burgundies and purples. But while I envy strong lips on others, I just never really feel comfortable with lipstick. Plus I am always worried that they are going to transfer and get ruined once I start eating/talking.
A pinky nude, but I look dead whenever I try one. I’m talking DEAD, as in a walking DEAD woman. Just no —
Me too! I posted the same above. I love the look and want so much to have it as an option, but it’s BAAAAAD on me too.
YSL Rosy Coral – famous from the Korean drama. I’ve only put it on once or twice and have never left the house with it.
Purple and blues!!! My teeth are not white enough for them on top of that, being as pale as I am the contract is lacking and make it even more noticeable that my teeth are not white…. 🙁
I love the unusual color fad thats trending right now. I would love to wear a blue lipstick but I don’t think I ever will…
Red, I feel like I can only wear it for special occasions even though I would like to wear it out more often.
I feel like brown lips just wouldn’t look that hot on me, so I’ve never tried them. I see so many girls pull them off so well… I should probably just go out there and try it, but I just never have!
haha ok, so I think orange is THE WORST color and I hate it, but lately I’ve been thinking of trying a bright orange lipstick like UD Crash or KvD Halo.
Got halo, ’cause I thought I had swatched it. Now, I love orange. Taj Mahal is a fave, and I thought halo would go well. Turned out I was wrong. Halo, on me is very yellow and major metallic. Not great. Retuned and said, put it on the tester. Just FYI, so you know that it’s a real yellow orange. I share some of your likes, like Besame noir red. Caveat emptor, which in makeupese translates to lip swatch before you buy.
Thanks for the heads up! I’m definitely going to head in to my nearest Sephora and swatch before I buy an orange lipstick.
And yes! Besame Noir Red is such a fantastic lipstick! It’s getting close to edging out MAC Sin as my most-worn red 🙂
Been lemming Besame Noir Red myself for some time, because like both of you, I love deep, dark, vampy reds. It’s just one of those shades that always looks great on me.
Because of my yellow undertones, I used to avoid orange lipstick like the plague, but have been experimenting. The red oranges look better on me than true oranges, but a sheer orange can look flattering. I’ve been trying Colour Pop because they have a ton of orange lipsticks for cheap, so if one doesn’t work out, I don’t feel so bad. Then if I find one I like, I can buy more, or cross-check for dupes under Temptalia to find lippies from UD, Maybelline, MAC, BITE that might work as well
Red for sure.
Nudes. They’re so trendy that I feel like I should have one or two in my wardrobe. But I have yet to find one that doesn’t make me look like a corpse.
Essence, the darkest nude. Flatters almost everyone.
Red or anything bright! I tend to keep those for special occasions and go for softer colors for my everyday looks. But I love red!
Orange and nude, mostly because it takes FOREVER to find one that works with my cool skin.
I can’t think of one. I wear them all, including the crazy colors. But I’m lucky in that I work from home and can get away with that.
Berries, like cranberry etc.
Red and purple. I love it in Matte But I rarely wear it
Anything outside the realm of “normal”: black, blue, that awesomely weird purple-gray Smashbox lipstick you just swatched.
And red. I’m too intimidated by it. But I love it so!
Any lipstick that is an extreme, whether it be a very pale nude, or a very dark, vampy tone of any color will look aweful on me. I stick to mid-range tones and the occasional true red. It’s just what works.
Red .
And I love the new urban decay lipstick colour in conspiracy . But I don’t think I would ever wear it .
I adore Mac’s Ruby Woo and have had compliments. However, when I wore it I was looking in every reflective surface for the entire day checking for transfer, so I gave up on it ?
I Love red lipstick but I rarely wear it although it Looks really good on me.
If I wear red I feel Quite uncomfortable and have to Look in the mirror very very often because I am always afraid that it does not Look acurate. I once had red lipstick on and the Wind blew a hair onto my lips and I Took the hair away. At home I looked into the mirror and I had a red line across my face. There was lipstick on the hair and When i Took it away It painted a line across my Face. So I was walking around, Shopping etc with this red line on my Face and NOBODY told me about it.
Purples and vampy colors. I love them but in the Caribbean its like summer most of the year so those colors aren’t really appropriate.
I would love to wear hot pinks like Candy YumYum, but I’m afraid it won’t look good on my skin tone. I have Dangerously Red and I’m kind of afraid to wear it.
Other colors I’d like to wear (more often) are blue (Witching Hour in particular. I know it’s also really purple but it shows up 50% blue on me) and grey(ish) colors like Stone and RiRi Nude. Both look suprisingly good on me, but I feel like they are not every day colors, yet I don’t find them dark enough for night time. I feel a bit stupid, because I wear very dark reds, browns and purples any day of the year, no matter where I’m going or what time it is. I would even feel completely comfortable wearing a true black, but I’m afraid to wear pinks and don’t know when/where to wear greys. ?
Pinks and purples
Blue/gray/black! I feel like I can actually pull these colors off but there’s certainly no place for those colors at work!
Same as you, those light pinks look terrible on me but I love how they look on others and in the store. Makes me look like I have a dark orange face and yellow teeth!
I really like dark Browns. But in public people stare at the lip color and give me an uncomfortable look… Haha
Orange… I love it on everyone else, but when I put it on it looks horrible!
I don’t wear bright reds or really dark dark lipsticks. I also don’t like very light lipsticks on me with my coloring. If it is a sheer lipstick/gloss I will do Dark and maybe Light.
I adore luscious Apricot shades! When I see them in a tube or on a woman’s lips, I think…”how beautiful”. I have purchased 2 or 3 shades and when I put them on, I looked awful…so disappointing. I’ve always heard that we gravitate towards colors that look good on us, maybe I’m looking at the wrong shades of Apricot!
Hot, bright, or light reds — wish I were more confident to wear them, but I just feel that they are so glaring.
Darker reds are a little more wearable for me.
RED which I love, and think looks good on me, but I feel like most of the time it’s just too much. Most of my coworkers and friends where minimal makeup so I just feel too done up in red. I need to get over that since I love red lipstick
You’re right – you do need to get over it. We only go around once, so enjoy rocking your red lips!
neutral toned purples (my teeth aren’t white enough for them), vampy wines and purples, black, blues and greens. recently got into corals and oranges, which actually look quite good on me! so I’ve been wearing those a lot more. I also need to wear red more often, I have so many beautiful reds but I mostly only wear nudes and pinks
Dark red lipsticks and too light pink lipsticks. I like red lipsticks but prefer reddish pink lipsticks and medium pink lipsticks. I feel they look better on me.
Purple! I’m told it looks good on me but I haven’t found one I love yet. I really want to wear this color!
The softer coral/pink colour looks lovely on those with really cool undertones, but it doesn’t work well on me with my red hair.
I am so pale that I just cannot find a nude that works well with my pale and cool undertones. They all make me look ghastly. I cannot wear corals or just haven’t found the right coral/orange yet, either.
Barbie pink like MAC candy yum yum. I bought these kind of shades and never wear out sadly.
Any lilac or lavender colors. They are sooo beautiful, especially colourpops marshmallow for example but I can’t find a good outfit to go with it! If anyone has any ideas other than just all black or all white let me know 🙂
Definitely deep, dark shades of plum, berry, wine, and purple. I really love them but they just don’t look good on me. And it’s weird because I see other people with my colouring (MAC NW15-20) wearing them and they look great, but on me, they just don’t work. Hmm. Maybe it’s a perception thing…..
Peach! It’s got two strikes against it — not only does it have orange/yellow in it, it’s too light for me and washes me out. If a coral has enough pink in it (like MAC Elegant Accent), or red (like NARS Greta), then I can pull it off, although it’s a bit dramatic against my cool undertones. But peach is not only orange- or yellow-based, it’s just too light and falls into the category of lip colors that make me look sick/dead. I gave up on it long ago, sadly — tt’s such a beautiful color on most other people!
I really love dark browns and more unconventional colors, like blue or green, but they always feel too over the top for my everyday life in small, unfortunately conservative town, so I hardly ever wear them.
Warms browns look terrible on my fair skin! I love the look of UD’s 1993, but it is so unflattering on me!
That IS a pretty color!
Hmmm, I love most reds but seldom wear them bc they are often too bright or deep for my coloring. I have a few in my collection that I love, tried but can’t wear.
I so love bright, true red, (think Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger. It’s just so . . . . . . I don’t know, bold, stunning, feminine, sexual, almost predatory. And I. Look. Horrible. in it . . . . sob. But hey, ya can’t have it all!
Nude. I love how it looks on other women’s lips but on me I think it looks too frosted and not as natural.
I’ve purchased quite a few nudes, but when I go to wear them, I end up switching to or mixing them with one of my everyday favorites. Most often Bite Pastille or Colour Pop Contempo.
I’m infatuated with the look of opaque black lipstick, but I don’t own one nor do I see myself buying one in the near future because I don’t know of any place or occasion where I’d actually wear it…
I just get my fix looking at YouTube videos of makeup tutorials incorporating black lips! Lol
Peachy or Coral lipsticks because they make my teeth look yellowish, and cool toned plummy purple eyeshadows they make me look ill.
Red!! I’m not shy; I just can’t seem to find a good color for me. I have light skin with light golden undertones and my teeth are naturally a bit yellow. Any suggestions? TIA!!
Black. It’s just not appropriate for most of the things I do. When I want to be edgy, I get away with white or chalky light purple, but black is just a little too out there for someone who isn’t a young goth kid. Red just doesn’t work on me – I think I got one in Glossybox that wasn’t awful, but I Iost it. Otherwise, if I want to wear a color, I wear it! Pink, brown, nude, purple, mauve, orange, peach…I never wear coral, but I don’t want to.
Red – I feel like a floozy sometimes or that’s it inappropriate however I still wear it now if I could wear my black every day, I would but I think that might turn some heads in the office. (insert major eye roll)
And nudes. As I love nudes…without a liner I look like I have ashy lips and I hate using liners.
bright purple, but i feel that i am too old to be wearing such things!